- Be thankful for the pain. Pain is a good thing. No, I'm not crazy, hear me out. Pain is a signal from the body, one of the many ways our bodies talk to us. Pain is the body's loudest voice saying "Stop what you're doing right now and start listening to me! Stop ignoring all the other messages I've sent you and start paying attention." The body only talks to us when it has something important to say. Ignoring pain (the no pain no gain mentality) or doing something to cover it up or block it (pain medication, nerve blocks, injections) is like smashing the smoke alarm when it wakes you up at night and going back to sleep rather than jumping up out of bed and getting out of your house as fast as you can and calling the fire department to come put the fire out.
- Be thankful for your body's ability to heal itself. No drug, surgery, massage, manipulation, supplement, or treatment can heal your injuries. Only you can - your body. And your body always has the ability to heal itself, if you allow it to, by restoring proper joint alignment and function.
- Be thankful for personal responsibility. Without it you can never get better. Nothing and no-one outside yourself can heal your body as stated above. Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing, because once you commit 100% to restoring your posture and function you are guaranteed results! Egoscue has a 94% success rate when people commit 100% and take full responsibility for their health.
Yes, you read the title of this blog article correctly. As miserable as chronic pain can be physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and in every other way, I believe there are some very important things you can be thankful for when you're in chronic pain. When you stop fighting chronic pain and make peace with it, listen to it, and use it for the reason it's there, everything gets better. If you are in chronic pain, as painful as it can be, stop for a minute and be thankful that your body is talking to you, your body has the ability to heal itself, and you are in charge of that process.
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What does it mean to be fit? Healthy? Well? Can you be one without the other?
The fitness industry and our culture teach us that fitness is having six-pack-abs, defined triceps, and a good tan.
Fitness by this definition in no way means that being "fit" also means you are healthy. A person can be a very fit marathon runner (Jim Fixx, Alberto Salazar, Micah True), cyclist (Scott Ellis, Leonard Zinn), or fitness pro (Bob Harper) and still be unhealthy and suffer a heart attack.
Health is defined as the absence of disease or being free of injury and illness. Being healthy again doesn't mean one is "well". Plenty of healthy people are not well.
Wellness is:
I would further define wellness as being free from limitations, thriving, and enjoying peace of mind. Listen to Pete Egoscue, founder of the Egoscue Method and Posture Alignment Therapy, and Paul Tudor Jones, billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist, discuss Egoscue's simple solution to chronic pain at the J.P. Morgan Robin Hood Investors Conference. If you suffer from chronic pain or injuries and would like to restore your posture as Pete Egoscue describes and live a pain free life contact me for a free posture evaluation. Your free posture evaluation can be done in my Portland, Oregon clinic or via Skype or FaceTime from anywhere in the world.
The Downward Dog is one of the oldest, most known, and most practiced yoga poses and for good reason. The Downward Dog when done correctly has many positive effects on posture and function. The Downward Dog addresses two of the most common imbalances people have: hip disparities and sitting induced chronic flexion.
Restoring and maintaining good postural alignment is vital if you want to live a pain free and active life. Doing a menu daily is the best way correct posture imbalances and eliminate pain and physical limitations. Once you're pain free, doing a daily menu will make sure you stay that way by maintaining your improved postural alignment. If you haven't read the other three blog posts related to this (how the body works as a unit and how foot and leg posture influence each other, how spine and shoulder posture influence each other), you can read them here and here and here. In this blog post, I am going to continue the discussion of how the body works as a unit and specifically how the hip, pelvis, and spine influence each other. You will be able to understand and feel this relationship with 3 simple experiments... If you know me or are a regular reader of my blog you have heard me say many times "the body works as a unit" or "the foot bones connected to the leg bone". I am a big believer that the body is a unit (which is a fact) and that you must treat the body as a unit. Every week I talk to new clients who explain they've been to multiple doctors, surgeons, sports medicine specialists, physical therapists, chiropractors, body workers, and other therapists and none of these experts have been able to help eliminate their pain. The amazing thing to me is that most of these clients have no idea what is causing their pain or what they can do to become pain free even after talking to and working with many different experts. How can this be?
Osteoarthritis is commonly believed, by doctors and the general population, to be a disease of aging and obesity. Knee osteoarthritis (OA) can be found in about 1/3 of all adults over 60 years old in the United States. The prevalence of osteoarthritis has doubled in just the last 50 years. This is how most doctors have thought about OA up until today:
There have been studies however that are starting to disprove this theory. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences throws the theories of aging and obesity causing knee OA out the window.
One very important key to health is variety. Variety of movement. Variety of activities. Variety of exercise. Variety of stimulus. It is often said, humans are creatures of habit. Why? Because doing many, if not most, of our daily activities unconsciously saves us time and mental energy. Evolutionarily this saving of time and energy allowed us to invent tools, control fire, and eventually invent cars, computers, the internet, and the new iPhone X. Habit has great benefits, but also some downsides. Being creatures of habit means as we do the same things each day, we tend to move the same each day. We get out of bed the same way, brush our teeth the same way, our movements in the shower are the same every day, we park in the same place each day, walk the same route daily, do the same exercises at the gym, etc. This pattern of habit creates many imbalances in our body that can lead to injury and pain. Variety breaks this cycle and saves us from injury and pain.
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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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