Your hip flexors are vitally important to aligned posture and efficient movement. Your two primary hip flexors are the Psoas and Iliacus muscles. As you can see in this Wikipedia illustration to the right, the Psoas muscle attaches to the spine, then passes in front of the pelvis and hip joint, tr...

Body awareness is the first step towards a pain free body.

One of the initial things a client often experiences while working with me is enhanced postural awareness. Prior to our session, they rarely thought about how they held their body. After our time together, my clients become aware of how the...

Ankle Taping: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Ben Franklin said these famous words in 1736 in reference to fire prevention. You can apply the same philosophy, however, to sports injuries. For several reasons--beyond the obvious--we want to avoid any initial injuries that can lead...

“Pain is part of the body's defense system, producing a reflexive retraction from the painful stimulus, and tendencies to protect the affected body part while it heals, and avoid that harmful situation in the future.”

This is the evolutionary and behavioral role of pain as described on Wikipedia.co...

Road to Recovery Healing is not a neat and tidy process with well-defined steps from pain to wellness. Instead, it is an individual journey that is unique for each person. The source of chronic pain and the strategies needed for recovery can be simple or complex. Some people get better quickly, whil...

In my last blog, Prevent Osteoporosis with Aligned Posture, I proposed that aligned posture or the lack of it is a risk factor for osteoporosis. When your skeleton is not stacked vertically against gravity, your bones are not being stimulated to grow. As a result, your bone density diminishes.

The ...

I'm worried about osteoporosis, as are many of my clients. Osteoporosis is a thinning of the bones, which increases the likelihood of fractures and can lead to disability and death. The diagnosis of osteopenia also denotes decreased bone mass and is a precursor to osteoporosis. Similar to high blo...

Balloon Letting go is hard. In my experience, it is much more difficult to coach someone to postpone participation in an event than to continue ahead with strenuous training. I've also struggled with this personally. Consider this . . .

July 15, 2011 - It is the day before cross-country NORBA natio...

As I neared the top of the initial 1.5 mile climb on the Caldera 10 km run course, I found the aid station. I slowed to take a cup of Gatorade. And that's when she passed me. Oh Crap! I had no idea another woman was so close! But I had to hydrate. The next section of the run consisted of steep up...

The diaphragm has a dual role in the body: respiration and posture. When these actions occur simultaneously, we improve our core stability. This is particularly evident in the lumbar spine. My last blog, My Low Back Hurts Because I Can’t Breathe, described the diaphragm’s role in breath. Now, this b...

Did you know that respiration (breathing) and back pain are intimately linked? News to me! A 2006 study found that "the presence of respiratory disease is a stronger predictor for lower back pain than other established risk factors." And "clinical observation supports the notion that patients with p...