Postural Tip of the Week: You put your left knee in, you put your left knee out...

We're not doing the hokey pokey today during our postural tip of the week...we wanted to talk about your leg/knee position when you are sitting.  Too often, we see people coming in with their left knee constantly rolling out.  What do we mean?

Have you ever found yourself sitting on your left foot, with your knee rotated out?  How about when you are driving...do you find your left knee hanging out against the door instead of pulled in?  Do you usually cross your legs with your left leg on top, therefore rotating it out more than the other side?  Then this tip applies to you!

Don't allow that knee to roll out...keep your left inner thigh muscle turned on and hold that knee in...your hip alignment will thank you!

Postural Tip of the Week: A is for Active Abs!

This week, we want to talk about your abs.  Often, we find that people's left abdominal wall is much less active than the right.  Look in the mirror.  Is your right shoulder lower?  This may be due to increased abdominal tension on that side.  Instead of turning down the abdominal tone on the right, we want to increase the activity on the left to match what is happening on the right side!  (I mean, really, did you expect a bunch of PTs to tell you you don't need abs?!)

When standing (you get a bonus if your weight is over your left leg!), reach down slightly with your left arm.  Think about allowing your left ribcage to move toward your left hip bone.  When in this position, you should feel your left abs/obliques turning on.  Now, this usually won't feel like you've done 1,000 crunches, but you should feel an awareness that the left abdominals are "on".  Hold in this position.

Postural Tip of the Week: Zip it up!

For our postural tip of the week, we have a quick way to remember which way your pelvis should go.  When shifted over your left leg, your zipper should line up with your left big toe (your pelvis is turning to the left!).  Feel the outside of your left hip working and hold this position!

Postural Tip of the Week: Put your right foot forward!

Today's little postural gem is all about putting your right foot forward...literally!  When standing, think about allowing your right foot/leg to be slightly ahead of your left.  We aren't talking a big difference here - maybe about 1/2 of the length of your foot.  Now, shift your weight onto your left heel. Make sure you haven't rotated your left toes out! 

By bringing your right foot forward, this should have caused the right side of your pelvis to come forward, causing you to really stand on your left hip. It should also serve as a reminder to shift back over your left heel.  When in this position, you should feel your left outside hip working to hold you up!

Postural Tip of the Week: Lead with your right leg!

This week's postural tip is pretty simple.  When taking a step forward when walking, attempt to take that first step with your right leg (and therefore, swing your left arm forward).

Doing this should help get your pelvis rotating to the left while our trunk goes to the right, a position we've found to be difficult for many of our clients.

Good luck!

Fascial Release Series: High Five!

The best part about the course we took recently was the number of techniques and tips that we were immediately able to begin applying with our clients.  Here are the top 5 things that our staff took away from the class!

1. Less is more.  Fascia is right under the skin; sometimes, we tend to push harder or more hoping for a good result. Often, by waiting and gently going with the tissue, you get much better results.
2. Go with the flow.  When we are evaluating, we look for the directions the fascia goes easily (position/direction of ease) as well as the directions where it does not move as easily.  While it is tempting to go directly after the areas where it does not move easily, you will often get a better response by first going with the tissue, and after the tissue relaxes further, then attempting to go another way.
3. Use your levers.  We learned a number of ways to enhance/speed up the process of fascial release.  One that has been particularly helpful is looking at the arms and legs and how changes in position cause changes in tension in the area.  If the tension changes with certain movements, you can use these movements to "enhance" your release, either by having the patient move into these positions or using the aid of another therapist.
4. Breathe, Just Breathe (not the Faith Hill song):  Breathing plays an integral role in fascial release.  Breathing deeply/correctly during a release can help to enhance the results.  Learning proper breathing patterns can prevent tension from returning.  We tend to emphasize good breathing patterns in our clinic, but now we have another reason to really focus on it!  (So don't look too confused when we hand you a balloon when you come to physical therapy!)
5. It may get worse before it gets better:  We may be treating areas that your body has been protecting or holding tension in for a long time.  For this reason, sometimes clients will experience an increase in achiness or heaviness for a few sessions before feeling better.  Don't be discouraged or alarmed...we are just finally treating the root cause of your problem and it WILL improve!

Fascial Release Series: What is fascia/fascial release?

What is fascia?

Have you ever handled a raw chicken breast?  You know that thin, white layer that surrounds the muscle and fat on the breast?  That's fascia!

Fascia is a tough, thin tissue that spreads throughout the body.  It is continuous throughout the entire body, wrapping around muscles, bones, joints, and organs from head to toe.

Getting back to the idea of the Total Body Lesion, imagine you hurt your hip during a soccer game in high school.  Although the pain went away and the muscle healed after a few days, there was now increased tension of the fascia around that hip.  Ten years later, you threw out your shoulder during a beer league softball game, and again, it healed fairly quickly, but changed the tension of the fascia.  Now, three weeks ago you missed a step on the way down the stairs (you klutz!), your back goes into spasm and you have this nagging pain in your left low back that will NOT go away.  When we evaluate you, we may see that you have excess tension by your hip and shoulder, and start treating there.  Why?  We just learned that fascia is all interconnected, therefore, the pull in the direction of those previous injuries may have led to the inability for your body to fully recover from the last injury.  We ARE treating your back, just indirectly (which - BONUS - also tends to be less painful!).

Next up - High Five!:  Our staff's favorite tips/tricks learned in class that will benefit our clients today!