Guest Post - Andrea O'Connor- PostureYoga

Ping. I felt it in my right low back just after I moved into a deep backbend. What was that?

At 3 am the next morning, I swung out of bed with unexpected difficulty and found my legs wouldn't  bear my weight.  Managing to stay somewhat upright using the walls for support, I made it to the bathroom floor to breathe and stretch.

That was the beginning of my journey with the torn spinal disk in my low back that changed my life. 

Is this fair? I thought. For the past twelve years, I’ve dedicated myself to the health of bones, muscles and mind through yoga and Gyrotonics.  Yet, in the last nine months, a key yoga teaching has become clear to me in a new way. Life doesn’t operate on the basis of equality, or offer any guarantees or even clarity about right and wrong.  Peace and joy, I learned AGAIN, come from giving up the struggle for “what’s fair” to deal with what is. 

There is a happy ending! Katy and Cindy from Essex PT helped me deal with the excessive right side bending, weak left abs, and other imbalances to transform my experience of breathing and moving. I'm so grateful for their amazing skill, expertise, and healing kindness. As a result of this injury and their care, I'm developing PostureYoga for me and my students! 

This yoga, based on the Postural Restoration approach, helps the body relax through breathing, releases muscle tension, and the spine, hips and shoulders work better. Ahh, the delight! 

Come check out the PostureYoga Flow class on Sunday at the Essex Physical Therapy Marketplace location from 9-10 am. 

Contact andrea@workingwellvt.com if you are interested in the PostureYoga for a Healthy Back classes or the Destress PostureYoga series, coming in October.

Andrea O'Connor

WorkingWell Inc.

www.workingwellvt.com

Barefoot Running - The Craze

The popular book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall published in 2011 has been instrumental in having most runners think about trying the “new” style of running and dream of being one of the “super-runners” from the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico. While we are far removed from the high desert regions of Mexico, runners around the world and in our community would enjoy reading this stimulating book. The book is a good read and I would recommend reading the book for the interesting details of these runners and the excitement of running in an Ultra marathon. That being said, the new “craze” of the barefoot  running gives rise to frequent questions that are posed in the clinic, as well as, “What about these shoes that are supposed to make your feet stronger?”  

In the clinic, we as physical therapists can offer numerous suggestions based on what an individual’s evaluation reveals to us.  The postural patterns (muscle weakness and tightness) that your body may have developed running, with or without minimalist shoes, will be evident upon your PT evaluation.  Our treatment approach will be tailored to your specific problem(s) which may include exercises or a new suggestion of footwear. There are reasons for the footwear suggestions that we as PTs promote because of the body’s amazing ability to compensate in recruiting the wrong muscles for walking and running. 

At Essex PT, we like to promote heel control, as well as a “hip strategy vs. an ankle strategy.” Minimalist shoes are unsupportive at the heel, arch and forefoot thus resulting in a foot that hits the ground with no control and subsequently having more muscle groups involved in the walk/run cycle at the ankle vs. the hip. Those of you who have experienced our PT evaluations and treatment plans know that we promote a lot of buttocks/hamstring recruitment on both the left and right hips and left inner thigh recruitment. Thus we are promoting a “hip strategy” approach to correcting faulty postural patterns. Since the minimalist shoes do not fit into the “heel control” shoes, more often than not we as PTs would not recommend these types of shoes to address your body’s postural problems.  We may also gently point out how these shoes could be potentially keeping your body in an undesirable postural pattern. Overall, it is about how your body responds to your treatment plan and the tools (exercises and footwear) you use to correct the body’s dominant postural pattern.

When it comes to making changes in your running style having an assessment of your running gait would be beneficial. Before you make a major change in footwear there are some key things to keep in mind:

• There have been no studies published to date that can show that barefoot running can make the foot muscles stronger or improves your running biomechanics.  
• It has been shown that running barefoot is “different” in regards to the biomechanics of running.  Promoting a more upright posture and thus recruitment of your back muscles.
• There is no evidence that barefoot running reduces injuries other than the blogs and pro barefoot running sites.
• Should you decide to make the transition to barefoot running, several studies do support the need to slowly transition to shoes that have a lower heel height and to prevent metatarsal bone injury.
• Other than the famous Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikala winning the 1960 Olympics in barefeet, when was the last time you saw an elite runner competing in a Marathon without wearing shoes? 

Happy Running!

Jim Cummings, PT