This Egoscue designed workout is designed to restore total mobility to your body. Total mobility means full joint range of motion along with strength, stability, balance, and coordination required to do everything we are designed to do as humans: run, jump, climb, swim, throw, lift, carry, dance, and play. These 18 minutes of posture exercises will help restore your posture, realign your joints, and improve your movement efficiency while burning calories. Do it today and comment below on what exercises were challenging for you. 

Contact us for more workouts designed for your goals and individual fitness level. 

Related articles:
Why you should never pull your stomach in during exercise
How to fix neck and shoulder pain with Egoscue
Why runners don't get knee arthritis
Tennis elbow - why tennis isn't to blame

There was recently an article in the New York Times Magazine about running phenom Mary Cain that talked about how talented and dedicated she is to running and breaking records and how her coach Alberto Salazar is trying to carefully guide her to her full potential without injuring her. 

If you've seen the times Mary Cain has run, you quickly realize that she has the potential to set not only every middle to long distance American record but maybe even challenge the world records. Alberto Salazar says she has...

But there is something about Mary that might hold her back from setting more records and could end her career prematurely...her posture. 

The Runner's World article, when talking about the girls lined up at the starting line of the 2001 high school national championships 4x800 meter relay, said this:

"Slumped shoulders" is the key word, and while it might have started with the "impatient awkwardness" of being 15, Mary still has the same slumped shoulders today as a much more confident almost 19 year old. The article says when Alberto Salazar first started working with Mary he noticed her upper body:

That "chicken wing", which Mary Cain has on both sides with the left more pronounced, is a result of the thoracic flexion and forward shoulders which do not allow proper front to back arm swing because the shoulder joint is out of position. Her coach can drill her over and over about swinging her arms straight forward and back, but it just won't happen until her upper body posture is improved. 

The posture of having thoracic flexion, rounded shoulders, and forward head is very common among runners of all ages and talents and again was clearly shown in a recent Runner's World article titled "The Runners Body". Notice the very rounded forward shoulders, winged scapula, thoracic flexion, and forward head. All very detrimental to both good upper body running mechanics and efficeint breathing. 

People often think that this body posture is prevalent in distance runners because they do not do any upper body strength training. While many runners do not spend as much time working on their upper body as they do their legs, many do lift weights including Mary Cain and her Oregon Project teammates as the Runner's World article states:

The reason why lifting weights has not corrected the poor posture is because weight lifting will almost always strengthen a persons' imbalances. Lifting weights tends to strengthen the already strong muscles and the weak muscles get even weaker. This can be seen with athletes of all sports and "sports specific" training will always lead to more imbalances by further strengthening the primary muscles used for the particular sport.

Lebron James's normal posture is one with his feet turned out, knees rotated outward, shoulders and head rounded forward, and he has hip and shoulder imbalances. 

Michael Phelps has one of the worst postures in swimming: posterior pelvis, excessively flexed thoracic spine, collapsed chest, and his shoulders and head are rounded forward. 

​Tiger Woods has had strong hip and shoulder imbalances for years leading to his injuries. He is usually seen standing on one leg or the other, rarely squarely on both feet and hips. 

Peyton Manning's dropped left shoulder causes his head and neck to shift to the right. That along with his rounded shoulders and forward head have lead to his neck issues. 

Throughout all sports and athletes we see some very common posture imbalances: rounded kyphotic thoracic spines, rounded shoulders, forward heads, turned out feet, and hip and shoulder asymmetries. Our modern lifestyles involve a lot of forward flexion (sitting, computer use, texting, video games, driving, watching TV) and very little extension and this is a recipe for thoracic kyphosis, rounded shoulders, and forward head posture. Everyone tends to favor one side of their body and without enough balanced motion to restore function to both sides of our bodies, we tend to get a dominate hip and shoulder. This will show up in one hip and shoulder being lower or more forward than the other. 

Weight training and playing sports will only strengthen these tendencies and imbalances eventually leading to injury. The above athletes have had to deal with the following injuries:

• Tiger Woods: knee, achilles tendon, lower back
  
• Michael Phelps: back
• Lebron James: lower back, knee, elbow
• Felix Hernandez: back, elbow
• Peyton Manning: knee, neck

All these athletes, including Mary Cain, can correct their postural imbalances with specific posture exercises that restore balance, function, and symmetry to their bodies. Improved posture will lead to more efficient movement, improved biomechanics, increased performance, and decreased chance of injury. 

I do believe Mary Cain has the ability to break every American middle and long distance record and set a world record some day, but she has to stay injury free and rise to her potential, and that's all riding on her shoulders. 

Related articles:
Why runner's don't get knee arthritis
Is training your "core" really helping you?
How to fix chronic knee pain
Why Lebron James cramped up

For years people have been trying to redesign workspaces to help alleviate pain associated with sitting for long hours at a desk. In spite of new chairs, desks, shoes, and keyboards, most 9-to-5 workers will suffer from back pain, carpal tunnel, stress, and/or headaches as a result of their workspace fatigue. In this video, join alignment expert Pete Egoscue in some simple stretches and techniques to avoid pain at the office. - Pete Egoscue


Contact us for personalized exercise and stretching routines for both home and office. If you own a business and are looking for ways to lower injury rates and reduce workers compensation claims, contact us to learn how we have many options available to help you. 

Related articles:
Dangers of epidural injections for pain relief
Forward head posture
Cause of back pain never found in 85% of patients. Really?! Why?

This routine of posture exercises and stretches are designed for Clackamas County employees for their LifeBalance Wellness Challenge. Doing these stretches daily at home will help restore postural alignment, improve energy, decrease stress, prevent or reverse repetitive stress injuries, and eliminate back, neck, knee, and hip pain. Do these stretches in conjunction with your daily at work pain free stretching routine.

This routine of posture exercises and stretches are designed for Clackamas County employees for their LifeBalance Wellness Challenge. Doing these stretches daily will help restore postural alignment, improve energy, decrease stress, prevent or reverse repetitive stress injuries, and lower workplace workers compensation costs. 

Contact Matt at Oregon Exercise Therapy for personalized stretching or exercise routines to eliminate pain. 

Find your Daily at home pain free stretching routine here.