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Kids today are less fit than their parents were at the same age. Why? Kids today just don't move as much on a daily basis. We walk less and drive more. We play outside less and play video games more. We exercise more and play less. Movement is supposed to be fun! That's why let's call this play and not exercise. Encourage your kids to play along with this video and then create their own moves. The goal is to get moving by having fun.
Related videos/articles: The difference between play and sports training in kids The kidding around workout Pete Egoscue on infants and alignment National walk to school day The magic of motion: bear crawls!
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This video from Sonima.com and created and narrated by Pete Egoscue, in just 7 minutes will give you a quick cardio workout while improving hip function and range of motion, creating thoracic extension, and energizing you for the rest of the day. All you need for the workout is a jump rope and a bench or chair. Hip function is the key to maintaining hamstring flexibility, improving athletic performance, and preventing back pain. The thoracic extension this workout creates counteracts the daily slouching over laptops and cell phones that most of us do. Maintaining good thoracic posture and mobility can prevent "text neck", forward head posture, neck and shoulder pain, headaches, breathing problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and back pain. Live, play, be...pain free!
Related videos/articles: Why you should never pull your stomach in during exercise Partner workout Is training your "core" really helping you? 10 design perfections in the human body Oregon Exercise Therapy YouTube page Cats & Dogs is a simple exercise that has been around for thousands of years, but it is still very relevant and effective at creating change in postural alignment, movement patterns, and overall health. Watch Brian Bradley from Egoscue explain how to do Cats & Dogs in the video below: Question: What does Cats & Dogs do? Answer: The movement of Cats & Dogs is spinal flexion and extension. The Cat position involves pelvic posterior tilting, spinal flexion, and scapular abduction or protraction. The Dog position involves pelvic anterior tilting, spinal extension, and scapular adduction or retraction. Q: What's the purpose of Cats & Dogs? A: Its essence is to remind the body that it can move through both flexion and extension and to teach both sides of the body to work together and move symmetrically. Many people spend the majority of their lives in spinal flexion and scapular abduction and Cats & Dogs will help reset the body back into a more neutral position. Many of us also have imbalances left to right in our bodies, whether it's torso/hip rotation or shoulder/hip elevation, and Cats & Dogs will help balance the body back out. Q: When should I do Cats & Dogs? A: Anytime! Cats & Dogs are a great exercise to do in the morning or before exercise because it will prepare your body for movement by creating more symmetry and balance in the body. Cats & Dogs are also wonderfully effective to do after exercise or at the end of the day to reset your body. Also anytime you have done something that is unilateral, Cats & Dogs are effective that balancing the body again. (Unilateral activities include: tennis, golf, bowling, baseball, twisting stretches, using a computer mouse, painting, or writing.) Physical performance is a product of good posture (joint alignment), muscle strength and stability, joint range of motion, efficient cardiovascular function, and cooperation between those components. Traditional strength training can increase muscle strength but can decrease joint range of motion and have negative effects on posture. Yoga can bring improvements in joint range of motion but cause decreases in muscle strength and stability. Swimming or cycling can improve cardiovascular fitness but while causing compromised muscle stability (swimming) and joint range of motion (cycling).
This Strong and Lean Workout designed and narrated by Pete Egoscue brings improvements in physical performance by bringing together all the components of joint alignment and range of motion, muscle strength and stability, and efficient cardiovascular function. These simple movements bring immediate and tremendous benefits which you'll be able to see and feel. Try this 14 minutes of fun! Related videos/articles: East-West Breathing How posture affects lung capacity Straighten before you strengthen Cardio-core workout "You weren't just born to run, you were born to run pain free." - Matt Whitehead
That's the famous line I started telling people after the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall came out which told the story of Barefoot Ted, Caballo Blanco, Scott Jurek, Jenn Shelton, Ann Trason, and their experience running with the Tarahumara Native Mexican tribe in the Mexican Copper Canyons. That book discussed barefoot running, ultra marathons, and how everyone is born to run. I want you to understand that you are born to run without injuries, without pain, without strain, and without stress. Your body is designed perfectly. Running is supposed to be fun! Running is supposed to feel good! Running is supposed to be easy! All children experience the joy of running but many people quickly lose this because we lose our design posture. Many children lose good posture by the time they are 7, 8, or 9 years old because they are sitting at school, sitting in cars, sitting at home watching TV and playing video games, specializing in sports, and slouching over iPads, iPods, and iPhones. Many people can remember running as a child being fun and easy, but by the time you were a teenager, young adult, or in your 40s running became painful, hard, and labored. You just thought you weren't born to run, or the pounding had caught up with you, or you were just getting old. While these are statements that running and fitness magazines, friends and neighbors, healthcare practitioners, and orthopedic doctors will agree with, I believe them to all be myths and untrue. We were all born to run. Anthropologists and human evolutionary biologists have shown that humans evolved to run and that running is what helped the human species survive and thrive. Research has shown that the pounding of running is actually a good thing as it strengthens our bones, muscles, and cartilage making it more resilient. Our bodies do not have an internal clock that can tell the difference between 40 and 50. Our bodies do not know how old we are. The key to running pain free and having running feel easy, fun, and good is maintaining good body posture and alignment. When our body posture is compromised running is heavy, hard, and hurts. When our body posture is vertically aligned running is easy, light, fun, and pain free. This warm-up and cool-down routine is a good way to keep running feeling good. If you currently have pain or are recovering from injury, contact me today for a free posture evaluation and consultation and I'll help get your body aligned and ready to run pain free again! Related videos/articles: 5 simple things runners should know about knees How shoulder posture affects running performance Warm-up for tennis Exercise vs play: fun is the key The feel good workout I'm calling this Pete Egoscue designed and narrated workout the Ultimate Core Strength Workout. Most "core" workouts only target the abdominal muscles and often while putting the body into spinal flexion. The true "core" of the body is the entire torso and all the muscles that attach to the pelvis, spine, ribs, and shoulder blades. This workout targets all of the truck muscles and teaches them to work together with the arm and leg muscles to stabilize the body in both static and dynamic whole body movements. You'll quickly feel the benefits of this well rounded workout: improved posture, easier and deeper breathing, increased energy, and over time improved hip, shoulder, and torso strength (real core strength).
If you'd like more workouts like this or workouts personalized to your body and goals, contact me today for a free consultation. Related videos/articles: Is training your "core" really helping you? Cardio core workout Straighten before you strengthen How shoulder posture affects running performance Most people understand that chronic slouching can cause back pain and good posture is important to long term back health, but did you know slouching can also decrease lung capacity dramatically? Thoracic kyphosis, or the classic upper back slouching, can cause dramatic decreases in lung capacity and function. Below are some examples of thoracic kyphosis: Thoracic kyphosis is the excessive rounding of the thoracic spine compared to optimal position as seen below: Thoracic kyphosis (or excessive thoracic flexion) is very closely linked with several other posture imbalances that play off each other including: forward head posture, cervical flexion, rounded shoulders, scapular abduction and winging, internal humeral rotation, and depressed ribs. Images 1, 2, and 3 above show varying degrees of forward head posture, cervical flexion, rounded shoulders, scapular abduction and winging, and internal humeral rotation. Images 1 and 2 show depressed ribs as does the thoracic kyphosis drawing above (notice the difference in rib position in the two drawings). The lungs are positioned inside the rib cage and normal or optimal thoracic spine, rib, and scapula position are needed for normal breathing and full lung capacity. Here is how the NIH describes breathing: "When you breathe in, or inhale, your diaphragm contracts (tightens) and moves downward. This increases the space in your chest cavity, into which your lungs expand. The intercostal muscles between your ribs also help enlarge the chest cavity. They contract to pull your rib cage both upward and outward when you inhale. As your lungs expand, air is sucked in through your nose or mouth. The air travels down your windpipe and into your lungs. After passing through your bronchial tubes, the air finally reaches and enters the alveoli (air sacs). When you breathe out, or exhale, your diaphragm relaxes and moves upward into the chest cavity. The intercostal muscles between the ribs also relax to reduce the space in the chest cavity. As the space in the chest cavity gets smaller, air rich in carbon dioxide is forced out of your lungs and windpipe, and then out of your nose or mouth. When someone has thoracic kyphosis and depressed ribs the thoracic cavity is decreased in size and the rib cage cannot expand to its full size. The more thoracic flexion or kyphosis someone has the less lung capacity they will have. Rene Cailliet M.D., the famous medical author and former director of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at USC, says lung capacity can be decreased by as much as 30% in these individuals. Lung capacity is something that is important for professional and top level athletes where the difference between winning and losing is often less than 1%. But lung capacity is also important for all active individuals who need their full lung capacity to enjoy running, biking, skiing, hiking, gardening, golfing, and playing sports. Lung capacity is also very important to people who have lung diseases like COPD, asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, pulmonary edema, and bronchitis where their lung function is already decreased and their life depends on getting enough oxygen to stay alive and enjoy life. Decreased lung capacity caused by the poor posture of thoracic kyphosis puts in increased stress on the heart and can cause heart disease, such as cor pulmonale. Cor pulmonale is the abnormal enlargement of the right side of the heart as a result of a disease of the lungs. People with severe thoracic kyphosis have even been know to have died from cor pulmonale when left untreated. If you believe you have some thoracic kyphosis and are ready to learn some exercises that will help restore thoracic extension and improve your posture and lung capacity, contact me today and I'd be happy to offer you a free posture evaluation on Zoom.
Oregon Exercise Therapy has an ever expanding Spreadshirt store that features official OET merchandise like t-shirts, coffee mugs, iPhone cases, and sweatshirts. Here is a sample of some of the great offerings: Support your active lifestyle with some fun active wear that reminds you how you got pain free and how to stay that way.
Learn more about how to live, play, and be pain free: Egoscue and low back pain How to fix chronic knee pain Golf pain free with this warm-up and cool-down What is postural alignment therapy? Golf is a game of skill, technique, focus, confidence, balance, flexibility, strength, and power. Getting and keeping your body in postural balance allows you to use your talent and play to your full potential. This golf specific warm-up and cool-down will allow your body to perform better. Your body will feel the difference and your score will show the difference. Playing 9, 18, or 36 holes never felt so good! Enjoy.
Related videos/articles: Tennis warm-up and cool-down 10-minute after-work workout How shoulder posture affects running performance Egoscue and low back pain Cycling is one of my favorite sports and I've spent countless hours mountain biking and road cycling throughout my life. One of the things that has kept me pain free and feeling good both on and off the bike is doing posture exercises before and after cycling. This video made by Sonima and narrated by Pete Egoscue will help give you the hip extension, knee extension, and spinal extension that is missing in cycling while undoing the tightness in your hip flexors, hamstrings, calves, and anterior torso that lead to neck, shoulder, and back pain.
Comment below about how these exercises felt, what changes you noticed, and if you have any questions about how to keep cycling pain free. Related videos/articles: How shoulder posture affects running performance How to build and maintain bone density The power of the Tower Warm-up and cool-down for tennis |
About Matt WhiteheadI'm an Egoscue Institute® certified Postural Alignment Specialist (PAS) and Advanced Exercise Therapist (AET), certified personal trainer, PatchFitness performer, ultra trail runner, mountain biker, dad, music lover, environmentalist, and wanna-be slam dunk champion. I will be providing you with the latest posture exercises to help you live, play, and be pain free. Archives
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I really just wanted to express my gratitude for what you do and your great help. And, great help it was!! When one is in constant great pain for as long as I was and so desperate for help...words cannot express what I want to say....how can I thank you enough? You helped change my life. |
I feel soooo limber and free in my hip movements and relaxed in my low back. Outstanding and I'm very impressed with the pdf's and the videos, great support to the client. Wonderful job, keep up the great job. – Mike |
It is amazing! I've been in pain for 5 years and worked with other therapists and no one has been able to help me. Working with you I am 95% pain free! It feels so good to not have any pain and be able to walk and do things I haven't been able to do for years. Thank you so much! - Joni |