My goal is to provide you with additional details about each of these five exercises that you may not find in any of my previous videos or from other books or resources on the Internet.

The five exercises are:

1. Static Back
2. Static Wall
3. Sitting Floor
4. Air Bench
5. Standing at Wall

1. Static Back

The Static Back exercise relaxes the muscles of the lower back and opens the thoracic spine.

Purpose:

Static Back places the shoulders in the same plane as the hips and allows the muscles of the low back to release gradually and passively using your own body weight and gravity. Static Back also engages the hip flexors and encourages thoracic extension. In other words, your upper back will begin to open up against the flat surface of the floor.

By simply allowing the head to rest in line with the shoulders and hips, the muscles of the neck and jaw will also begin to release here in Static Back. Static Back will also begin to neutralize rotation in the pelvis and torso. Avoid chewing gum and texting during Static Back.

Instructions: 

1. Lie on your back with your legs up over a block or chair. Keep your knees and hips at 90 degrees. Place your arms at your sides at either 45 degrees to your body with your palms up or in line with your shoulders with your palms up.
2. Take deep full breaths and just relax.
3. Stay here until you feel your low back and hips settle evenly into the floor. This may take 5 minutes or even longer.

If you have been in Static Back for ten minutes and your low back and hips are still not even on the floor, try the other exercises included in this article first before returning to Static Back. Sometimes different areas of the body need to be activated or released before the body is ready to ‘let go’ and settle into a neutral position.

Modification: 

If you notice that your head does not easily or comfortably come down to the floor, or if your chin is tilted up and back, then place a folded towel under your head to prop your head up. Elevating your head will place your head and neck in a neutral position and allow the neck and thoracic spine to release. You will gradually be able to lower your head all the way to the floor.

If your neck is in an awkward position (left), place a towel behind your head.

Additional Info:

Keeping your arms somewhere between 45 degrees and shoulder height places the shoulder joints into a neutral position. The scapula should lie flat on the floor, and the shoulders should not be rotated up off the floor. Find the arm position that allows for the most neutral shoulder position. If the shoulders remain rotated off the floor, then stay here in Static Back for 10 minutes and observe as gravity and your own body weight coax your shoulders closer to the floor.

Do not retract your shoulders and actively try to force these changes to happen. Static Back is intended to be a passive release that leads to changes in muscle length and tension and improved skeletal alignment. Having your palms up allows the shoulder joint to open up and settle back towards the floor. If your palms were to be down during Static Back, your shoulder joint would be in an internally rotated position, which is what we are trying to correct here.

If you have an excessively rounded thoracic back and protracted or internally rotated shoulders, you may want to begin Static Back with your palms down as a way to get into positon, and gradually work towards having your palms facing up.

If your knees and feet fall apart while you are in Static Back, you will not get the full benefit of the exercise. To troubleshoot this problem, check your body positioning. This problem is likely to happen if your legs are too low. Try adding a pillow or a folded blanket to the surface that your legs are resting on. Once you relax, your knees and feet can fall apart slightly, but they should remain pretty close to hip-width distance apart.

2. Static Wall

The Static Wall exercise targets thoracic extension and counters the negative effects of sitting all day.

Purpose:

Static Wall promotes thoracic extension. In other words, this exercise encourages your upper back to open up against the flat surface of the floor. This is a more aggressive form of thoracic extension work than Static Back, since the legs are straight and the feet are flexed. This means the entire posterior chain has to lengthen.

This exercise engages the anterior posture muscles of the lower leg (shins and thighs), which typically stop functioning properly when you spend a lot of time sitting. For this reason, it is critical that you keep your thighs tight by contracting your quads and that you keep your feet pulled back, which will contract the muscles of the shin. 

Instructions: 

1. Start by getting on the floor with your hips as close as possible to a wall.
2. Place your back on the floor and bring your legs up the wall with your butt as close to the wall as possible.
3. Lie on your back with your legs pointed straight up and against the wall, upper body relaxed with arms out to sides at about 45 degrees, and palms facing up. Your feet should be hip-width apart, which is about one and a half fist widths apart. If your hips lift off the floor, then scoot your butt back until you are able to place your hips flat on the floor. As you become more functional, your hips will sit closer to the wall and be flat on the floor at the same time.
4. Hold for 2-4 minutes.

In this position, tighten your thighs and pull all of your toes down and back evenly towards your face. Your feet must be pointed straight (parallel) for your hips to properly do the needed work to stabilize your spine. Be sure to keep your toes pulled back and thighs tight.

Modifications: 

If your tailbone does not rest flat on the floor when you are in Static Wall, scoot back until your tailbone is flat. If you are so tight that you simply cannot pull your toes back and keep your tailbone flat even after scooting back 6-12 inches, then you will need to do some more spine and pelvic extension work before you return to this exercise. Begin with Static Extension Position and Upper Spinal Floor Twist, which are both explained in my video titled Hamstrings 101: Start By Stretching Your Back. These will encourage extension of the spine and pelvis and subsequent gentle lengthening of the hamstrings.

Additional Info:

The most commonly made mistake in Static Wall is improper foot and ankle positioning. In order to get the full benefit of Static Wall, your feet must be pulled back evenly and must be pointing straight out from the wall. Improper foot and ankle positioning in Static Wall (shown on the left) is characterized by feet that turn out and pinky toes that are higher than the big toes.

Make sure your feet are the correct width, and parallel.

To find the correct foot/ankle position for Static Wall, first get into position on the floor with your legs up the wall. Spread your heels one and a half fist widths apart (any wider than this will be wider than hip-width and thus too wide). Pull your feet back, and pull down from the pinky side of your foot. Keep that outer edge of your foot pulled back. Then internally rotate your legs until your feet point straight back from the wall.

Simply getting into the proper foot/ankle position for Static Wall can be a herculean effort for many, but taking the time to nail this position will make or break this exercise. It is better to perform Static Wall with the correct positioning for a shorter period of time than to do it incorrectly for a longer period of time.

3. Sitting Floor

The Sitting Floor exercise helps strengthen the muscles that hold you up straight.

Purpose: 

This exercise strengthens the muscles of the upper back and shoulders that hold you upright. It also engages the anterior posture muscles of the legs (shins and thighs) which typically stop functioning properly when you spend a lot of time sitting. For this reason, it is critical that you keep your thighs tight (contract your quads) and feet pulled back (which will contract shin muscles).

For an added challenge, see if you can get your heels to pop off the floor by fully extending the knees and tightening the quads.

Instructions: 

1. Sit against a wall with your legs straight out in front of you. Your buttocks and upper back should be against the wall the entire time.
2. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and down and hold. Tighten the thighs and flex the feet back so that your toes are pointing back toward you. The key points here are to keep your shoulder blades pulled together, your thighs tight, and your feet flexed back.
3. Hold for 1 – 3 minutes.

Modification: 

If you are not able to sit your hips all the way back to the wall, start with the Static Back and Static Wall exercises included in this article before you progress to Sitting Floor.

Additional Info:

Many people are so internally rotated in the shoulders and rounded forward in the thoracic spine that they cannot get a good scapular retraction here in Sitting Floor without cheating. If you find that you have to lift your sternum and arch your low back excessively in order to pull your shoulder blades together, you are cheating.

Arching your back to achieve scapular retraction is cheating.

Instead, first drop your sternum and rib cage to place your low back flat against the wall. Then gently pull your shoulder blades down and together, but without lifting your rib cage. It is okay to have a small arch in the lower back, but not at the expense of creating a ‘false’ thoracic extension by lifting the rib cage. Finally, tuck your chin and breathe up into your chest for the duration of the exercise.

Warning: Trying to do a good Sitting Floor is like trying to rub your belly, pat your head, chew gum, walk, and carry on a conversation all at the same time. Have patience with yourself and focus on constantly scanning your body to ensure that you are hitting all the points (feet pulled back, thighs tight, rib cage neutral, shoulders back and down, chin tucked). Don’t forget to breathe!

4. Air Bench

You may have done something similar in grade school, but the right tweaks make the Air Bench a great corrective exercise.

Purpose: 

One of the primary purposes of Air Bench is to eliminate or reduce rotation in the pelvis. In order to achieve this result, your feet, knees and hips MUST all be even. Check to see if one knee juts out in front of the other. If so, then that means your pelvis is rotated while you are in Air Bench, which will negate the benefits of the exercise. Push your pelvis back into the wall equally on both sides until your knees are in the same plane, then begin your timer.

Air Bench will also ‘re-set’ your pelvis and low back. For this to happen, your low back must be flat against the wall for the duration of the exercise. This will allow your low back muscles to relax.

Do not worry about keeping your shoulders and head back at first. In fact, feel free to slouch in order to get your low back and hips even against the wall. Once you can maintain this position for 1 minute with your low back flat, then start working on bringing your shoulders and head back to meet the wall while maintaining a flat spine.

There is a lot more to Air Bench than the wall sit exercise from grade school where the goal was to try and hold that position for as long as humanly possible. Air Bench, when done a particular way, can have a huge positive impact on posture and muscle function. Here’s the scoop:

Instructions: 

1. Stand with your back against a wall with feet and knees hip-width apart and feet pointed straight. You should have one and a half fist widths between your ankles and knees.
2. Walk your feet away from the wall while sliding your body down at the same time. You will be “seated” in an invisible chair, with your knees bent to 105 degrees. Your hips should be just slightly higher than your knees; your ankles should be slightly ahead of your knees. Your low back should be completely flat against the wall. Your arms can hang down to your sides, or rest gently on your lap.
3. Hold for 30 seconds to start, then work up to 2 minutes.

Keep the weight in your heels, and do not press forward on your toes. In order to avoid slipping, be sure to do this exercise wearing shoes or standing on a non-slip surface, such as a yoga mat.

Modifications: 

If Air Bench hurts your knees, try bringing your hips up higher and make sure that your ankles are out in front of your knees. Also make sure that your ankles, knees, and hips are aligned. Once you get into position, you should begin to feel the work happening evenly in both quads. If the knee pain persists, then try Static Back, Static Wall, and Sitting Floor first. Return to Air Bench when you feel you are ready.

Additional Info:

The most common mistake I see with Air Bench is improperly aligned ankles, knees, and hips.

The knees are well outside the hips, rolling the ankles out. Align all 3 joints for correct form.

5. Standing at Wall

It’s just standing, right? But when you add a wall, it forces an alignment you don’t otherwise achieve.

Purpose: 

This exercise promotes proper vertical alignment of the 8 major load bearing joints, the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. At the same time, posture muscles from the feet all the way up to the neck are getting a workout. Try to wiggle your toes from time to time and make sure that you breathe.

Instructions: 

1. If possible, do this exercise barefoot. Stand against a wall with your feet pointed straight ahead and hip-width apart. This means you should have a fist and a half width between your heels, and your feet should be slightly turned in.
2. Stand with your heels, hips, and shoulders touching the wall. Your head should be in a comfortable position so that your eyes are looking straight ahead to the horizon. In many instances, when people try to put their head against the wall they end up looking up at the ceiling because their neck is under stress. In this exercise your head will go back to the wall eventually as the upper back changes position.
3. Relax your stomach and your arms and allow your body to adjust to this new position. Remember to keep your feet pointed straight ahead and your stomach relaxed throughout the exercise.
4. Hold for 2-3 minutes.

Modification:

If you are not able to stand with your heels touching the wall, try starting with your heels 2-3 inches away from the wall.

Additional Info:

For an added challenge, bring the backs of your hands to the wall with your fingers spread wide and your arms at 45 degrees to your body for the duration of this exercise. This will work the muscles of your upper back and shoulders.

Now Do It Every Day

I recommend working these exercises into your daily routine. The forces of gravity are constant, and we just don’t move enough in our day-to-day lives to maintain the full functionality of our bodies. If done correctly, these exercises will help to restore proper joint alignment.

More from Maryann’s Banish Pain Series

• Banish Pain Permanently: Correct Your Alignment
• Banish Pain Permanently: 3 Self-Assessment Tools
• Banish Pain Permanently: Where You Think It Is, It Ain’t
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

All other photos courtesy of Maryann Berry.

The post Banish Pain Permanently: Basic Drills to Repair Your Posture appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

People come to me to help them deal with pain all the time. They usually want to reduce the cause of their pain to one specific event or a specific muscle that is tight or weak. However, there’s a little more to it than that.

Starting at around age four, we shift from moving constantly to sitting in school for the majority of the day. As we progress through grade levels and the academic demand becomes greater, we sit more and more. Once we graduate, our jobs often involve sitting at a computer. By the time we are in pain, there is much more going on than just one tight muscle here or there. The entire body is compromised and not functioning properly.

Unfortunately, the majority of today’s pain-relief efforts and models focus on the pain itself and only address the area of the symptom. These models are not effective in most scenarios of addressing chronic pain.

In this article, through the use of a case study, I will show you an example of ignoring the site of the pain, and instead addressing the root cause. But first, we must review some basic principles of physics. I will discuss the relationship between physics and pain, as well as how to get physics to start working in your favor instead of against you.

The Enemy Called “Compensation”

We can always depend on the force of gravity. Gravity falls perpendicular to the surface of the earth, and any and all structures must react directly in opposition to that force in order to hold position and move effectively.

 If the base of one of the poles were to come loose, the entire structure would become unstable.

This Rogue rack at my gym is a perfect example of a structure that is build to resist gravity. As you can see, its stability relies on the vertical and horizontal alignment of the adjoining intersections of screws and bolts. The poles intersect with the floor at 90-degree angles. If the base of one of the poles were to come loose and move a few inches, the entire structure would become unstable, and you most likely would hesitate before jumping up to practice some kipping pull ups.

Just like the Rogue rack, the human body needs to resist gravity in order to stand upright and move. The problem with our bodies is that when we do not apply a reaction to the force of gravity in a constant and equal way, then our bodies, just like any structure, are forced to adjust. This is otherwise known as compensation.

The human body has eight major load bearing joints:

• Shoulders
• Hips
• Knees
• Ankles

These joints are designed to stack horizontally and align vertically in relationship to each other. Just like the Rogue rack, each joint forms a 90-degree angle when properly aligned.

When the musculature of the human body is asked to move constantly in all three planes of movement (transverse, frontal, and sagittal) the structural integrity of the 90-degree angles and joint alignment is maintained. Muscles begin to change length and tension when movement is intermittent or scarce. The skeletal alignment begins to lose its integrity and stability due to compensation, and eventually pain sets in.

When the musculature of the human body is asked to move constantly in all three planes of movement, structural integrity is maintained.

A Study in Common Compensations

Enter Joe. Joe’s initial posture pictures provide us with examples of common compensations. When Joe came to see me he had recently committed to an aggressive weight-loss program that involved high-intensity physical activity, but he was limited in the activities he could perform due to knee and back pain.

When I assessed Joe, I asked him which activities aggravated his knee the most. He proceeded to replicate his knee pain by getting into the bottom of a lunge. He was not able to push himself up out of this position, due to pain and weakness in his left knee.

Front view (left); back view (center); right side view (right).

Let’s put the back and knee symptoms aside and have a look at Joe’s posture. Some of the misalignments that we can see in Joe’s photos are the following:

• In the right side view, Joe’s ear lobe is significantly forward of his shoulder joint. The ear lobe is supposed to stack directly over his shoulder.
• In the back view, Joe’s right shoulder sits higher than his left. The inferior borders of the scapula are supposed to be level.
• In the front view, Joe’s knees cave in, which is also known as valgus knees. The hip, knee, and ankle joints are supposed to stack in a straight line.

Instead of focusing on Joe’s areas of pain and giving him exercises to address those areas, I focused on moving Joe’s body into a better position by restoring the vertical and horizontal lines and 90-degree angles at his load-bearing joints. I accomplished this by having Joe perform the following exercises:

• Static Back
• Static Back Knee Pillow Squeezes
• Assisted Hip Lift
• Supine Foot Circles and Point Flexes
• Hip Crossover Stretch – Palms Down
• Static Wall

These exercises achieve better positioning by restoring optimal angles at load-bearing joints.

After performing the exercises listed above, which took about an hour, I re-took Joe’s photos and we re-tested the lunge. Joe was able to easily perform multiple repetitions of the lunge with significantly less pain or weakness.

Note: Keep in mind that these are not “knee pain exercises” and they are not necessarily the exercises you should do if you have knee pain. Remember, I am fixing Joe’s knee by fixing his posture, not by focusing on his knee specifically. If I were to place Joe next to ten other people with knee pain, they would all have different posture, and thus need different exercises to correct their posture.

Small Changes, Big Results

Here are Joe’s after photos:

Front view (left); back view (center); right side view (right).

The areas that showed the most noticeable improvements were Joe’s head position from the side and his shoulder position from the back. A more subtle, but still important, change was the improvement in the alignment of Joe’s lower legs.

Joe now needs to continue to perform these exercises on a daily basis in order to stabilize the results. I will meet with him for a follow-up visit next week, and we will revise his exercises based on the changes in his posture.

Get Physics on Your Team

Now, the question is, how do you get physics to start working in your favor and not against you?

• First, correct your alignment. Trying to train harder and be more active on top of skeletal misalignments will only perpetuate compensations.
• Once postural balance is restored, the name of the game is to stay active and move as much as possible in as many different ways as you can. Think back to when you were a kid. Run, jump, crawl, hop onto things, jump over things, and get down on the ground and get back up again.

Thank you for taking the time to read the article. Next time, I will outline five fundamental postural exercises, how they work, and how to do them properly.

More Like This:

• Banish Pain Permanently: 3 Self-Assessment Tools
• Banish Pain Permanently: Correct Your Alignment
• Understanding the Brain is the Key to Being Pain Free
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos 1, 3, and 4 courtesy of Maryann Berry.

Photo 2 courtesy of Egoscue.

Headline image courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

The post Banish Pain Permanently: Where You Think It Is, It Ain’t appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In the twelve years I have worked in the fitness industry, I have observed a lack of effectiveness in the techniques used by most athletes to combat chronic pain. Today I am on a mission to set some things straight with regard to what it takes to address pain issues effectively.

My training and background in pain relief is simple. I healed myself after being in a wheelchair for almost a year. After visiting over twenty health care practitioners, undergoing arthroscopic surgery to my hip, and still not getting better, I finally realized my problem was nothing other than a simple alignment issue. Once my alignment was corrected, my pain was gone. It was that simple. It was that mind-blowingly simple.

This perspective allows me to see the bigger picture of posture when working with myself and my clients. I don’t get caught up in the complicated details of the symptoms, which is a mistake I see many fitness and medical practitioners make today.

The Pain Stops Here

This real-life training was reinforced when I completed a course at Egoscue University in San Diego, California, after which I earned the title Posture Alignment Specialist. I attribute 100 percent of the techniques I practice to Pete Egoscue and his therapy technique, which literally saved my life.

In terms of formal education, I have a psychology degree and multiple fitness certifications. This is the foundation upon which I have built my knowledge base. But I do not attribute my practical understanding of how to rid the body of pain and improve physical function to any of this training or education.

By no means am I a physical therapist, chiropractor, or even a doctor. Yet, my clients have gone through all forms of chiropractic care, practiced mobility techniques on themselves, and even gone to sports medicine doctors and physical therapists before coming to see me without getting better. Many people come to me with resignation and maybe a glimmer of hope that this will be their last stop. Most of the time, it is.

Now Is the Time

My intention with every video that I create and every article I write is to spread the wealth, and to teach others the simple, easy-to-apply methodologies and practices that have gotten me out of severe pain. The better you can understand these simple principles, the more power you have in combating chronic pain with your clients and yourself.

This video demonstrates how to assess where the body is misaligned, and how different parts of the body work together. The main takeaway points are:

• Even if you don’t have pain, now is the time to diagnose your posture. You most likely have misalignments that can be problematic later on and can quickly be corrected.
• Posture can improve easily and quickly, as we see with immediate shifts in Lindsay’s balance and alignment after performing one simple exercise.

Physics and Pain

Stay tuned for the third installment of this series, where I will further explicate the relationship between physics and pain and show you how to get physics to work in your favor instead of against you.

More Like This: 

• Banish Pain Permanently: 3 Self Assessment Tools
• 3 Simple Exercises to Combat Slumped Shoulders
• How You’re Sabotaging Your Posture and Your Time in the Gym
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post Banish Pain Permanently: Correct Your Alignment appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Mobility, self-care, and physical therapy techniques are growing in popularity. These methods include foam rolling, corrective stretching, lacrosse ball mobilization, barbell mobilization, and physical therapy-based mobilization exercises and drills. These trends promote a proactive approach that allow athletes to heal themselves after injuries, instead of running to the doctor to get a prescription or surgical fix.

While some people see results from these techniques, the majority of people – including practitioners – are still mystified by the true underlying cause of their pain and how to fix it for good.

Unfortunately, this has led to a low standard for the results people see from pain relief techniques. Most people have settled for living with a certain level of dysfunction, pain, and limitation without knowing it’s possible to get better.

3 Empowering Self-Assessment Drills

In the video, I’ll show you three simple self-assessment techniques. Whether you have pain or not, perform these assessments to determine if your alignment is off. It most likely is, but you are unlikely to do anything about it unless you can feel it yourself.

You can use this video to get the bigger picture of the methodology behind my video tutorials on posture and alignment on Breaking Muscle. Going through the motions or doing any exercises doesn’t work well. You must understand the role you play as your own practitioner.

The 2 Missing Pieces of Pain Relief

Most people are able to get temporary relief, but continue to have the same problem later on down the road. Or their pain improves, but then they experience pain in another part of their body. This is because the following two points are missing from the mobility movement that is sweeping the fitness industry today.

#1: Look Past the Pain Point

Most mobility techniques focus on working the area where the pain is located, or nearby areas. This approach misses the bigger picture of overall joint relationships. In other words, a person with elbow pain is most likely going to focus on mobilization techniques for the surrounding structures, and maybe even go as far as addressing the mobility and function of the shoulder.

This person will likely continue to have elbow pain because the real source of the problem is a hip or shoulder dysfunction. In many cases, the entire unit of the pelvic girdle and shoulder girdle needs to be addressed for the elbow pain to subside completely.

The human body works as a unit. Taking a segmented approach will only yield limited results. Unless you have fallen off your bike and broken your arm or incurred some other acute injury, it does not make sense to treat the site of the pain.

#2: Move More

Lack of movement is the underlying source of chronic pain. Most people know this, but don’t put theory into practice by combating the lack of movement that is the crux of chronic pain.

I see fitness and health practitioners who blame pain issues on shoes, bad form at the gym, or high-impact workout programs such as CrossFit. These factors all need to be taken into account when assessing the cause of pain. But none of these things would be a problem if people moved more and still had the full joint range of motion that results from a lifestyle based on moving in order to survive. The degree to which physical functionality is devolving and leading to injuries is widely overlooked.

Many active individuals would say they get plenty of movement, but even active people who work out frequently grew up sitting at school, driving cars and riding in subways to get from point A to point B, and working at a computer. In modern society, we do not move in order to survive. Instead, we click a mouse.

Don’t Settle for Less

My next three videos provide simple perspectives on how to incorporate these ideas into your own pain-relief programs. You will learn how to cope with your own chronic pain issues more effectively and stop settling with limitation and dysfunction.

More Like This:

• Cure Low Back Pain: Contract and Press for Hip Alignment
• Cell Phone Ergonomics: How to Avoid the Cell Phone Slump
• How to Unlock Your Athletic Potential Through Good Posture
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Banish Pain Permanently: 3 Self-Assessment Tools appeared first on Breaking Muscle.