SIMPLE STRENGTHENING

If I were to ask you what causes the pain between your shoulder blades, what would you say?

Would you tell me the cause was stress? Overwork? Old age? Arthritis? Or from your nerves or bones?

Would you be surprised if I told you that the cause was most likely…in most cases…muscles?

But not any old muscles.

Overstretched muscles cause most back pain, especially pain between the shoulder blades.

Pain between your shoulder blades and spine can be on both sides or just one side, depending on how you use your body. Some people only get pain on the dominant side, which means if they are right-handed, the right side of their back will hurt.

When our muscles are continually overstretched, like our back muscles are when we have “forward head” posture, they have to react. If they did not react, the muscles would tear and we would be unable to function.

So, instead of tearing, the muscles “splint” themselves.

They become taut and protect themselves from being damaged or ripping off the bone. (Although that can happen in extreme cases.)

When your muscles become taut (think of a rope being pulled from both ends that can’t relax because no one will let go) they become less able to function fully.

They also become crabby.

The overstretched muscles are working way too hard. They are not working the way they were designed to work. Muscles are supposed to Continue Reading »

If a doctor looked at an x-ray of any one of us, he or she would say, “Oh, you have arthritis.”
When the doctor can see bony changes in an x-ray, the assumption is that’s the reason for our hip pain as well as any other complaints we have.

Well, maybe.  Maybe not.

We all have changes in our bones and joints that show up on x-rays.  Do we all have pain?

No.

But when a doctor can see something that could be the cause of pain, they usually figure that it is the cause.

“Oh, you just have arthritis.  You will have to live with it.”

Well, maybe.  Maybe not.

Large powerful muscles pass over our hip joint.  These muscles allow us to move our leg.  The hip joint occurs where our thigh bones connect to our pelvic bones.

Those large muscles can get overstretched from crossed-leg positions, overstressed from pressure like sleeping on our sides or car seats pressing on them, or tight from overuse or overstretch.

Your plan is to get back into balance and out of pain.

There are four sides to your hip joint.  Front of your leg, back of your leg, inside of your thigh and outer side of your thigh.  The outside of your thigh–your hip joint–is likely where you feel your pain.

Here’s the plan of attack. Continue Reading »

Is it actually possible that exercise can help get rid of your migraine headaches?

Yes, in many ways.

Often the muscles on the tops of your shoulders, the front and the back of your neck, and your jaw get tight.

They get tight because we are out of balance, muscularly.  We can often blame this on our chairs, car seats, couches and work positions.

Sometimes we can blame it on the way we are built, when we stand a certain way to hide parts of our bodies.

All those things can add up to poor posture for us, and poor posture with our head forward definitely is a major cause of head pain and migraine headaches.

So where does exercise come in?

If we strengthen the muscles in back of our neck, shoulders, back, glutes (butt), and thighs, we can develop the good posture that we had when we were little.

When we are upright, strong and straight, with good posture, we have much less head pain.  There is less strain on our necks and heads, fewer tight muscles around our shoulders and less pain!

As a bonus, we will feel better all over.  Our whole body will Continue Reading »

Does your back hurt now more than it used to?

Do you have back pain between your shoulder blades?  Is the pain more on your dominant side?

Or, is it more lower back pain and/or your neck?

There are many possible causes for back pain and muscles are the usual culprit!  Honest!  Muscles!

That’s good news, because muscles can be fixed.

When your back muscles get overstretched, they will complain and cause back pain.

So, how do muscles get overstretched?

For your upper back it is usually from reaching forward, or working with hands in front of you, a great deal of time, especially with your dominant hand.  For example, most hairdressers use one hand more than the other, and the side they use most can get pain, unless…

They take the time to strengthen their back, and to do periodic stretches to lengthen the muscles which have become short in front of the arm and chest.  (The front muscles become short due to the arm being held in front of the body for so long.)

If you work with both hands in front (reaching or stretching) for long periods, your whole upper back can get overstretched and be uncomfortable.

So, how do the muscles in your low back become overstretched?

If you lose the nice Continue Reading »

After you have been in your exercise or movement program for a while, knowing how many repetitions of an exercise or movement you should do will become second nature to you.

You will feel good when your muscles are moving in the correct ways.

You will do the movements often, because it feels good.  You will be able to feel the benefits.  Your posture will be better.  You will have fewer headaches and backaches.  You will feel more powerful.

But, for starters, if moving is a new thing for you, do this:

Start with just one movement, or repetition.  It’s better to do one perfectly than a whole bunch poorly.

It’s better to understand the movement and to do it slowly and thoughtfully.  And, if you do only one rep, you won’t get sore and stop moving.

You can do “just one” three or four times during the course of the first day or two.

Do one in bed when you wake up.  Do one during the day, during the early evening, and then at bedtime.

By the third day, you can Continue Reading »

Shins?  Why on earth would you need to have strong shins muscles?  Here’s why.

1.  Strong shin muscles create balance between your strong calves and the front of your lower leg.

2.  They help prevent charley-horses, or cramps, in your calves.

3.   They help create balanced posture.  A balanced body has less pain.

4.   And, I can’t say for sure, but it might even help prevent shin splints (a painful condition from overuse.)

It is so easy to get strong shin muscles.

Sit, stand or lay down.  Lift your toes up.  Lift them closer to the front of your knee.

Imagine you are trying Continue Reading »

If our muscles get out of balance – some too tense or tight, and others too loose or flacid – it is easy to have muscle strain.

Here is an example.  You may recognize this pain that lots of us experience:  The one on your back, between your spine and your shoulder blade.  If you are right-handed, it will be on your right side.

It feels like a knot, and almost feels like it is burning.  Do you know that pain?

Here is what happened.  The muscles in the front of your body, chest and arm, and probably your neck, become shorter and tighter.  This occurs because most of the time we hold our heads our arms in front of our bodies.   That makes the muscles in front become tight.

Unless you work to strengthen your back muscles, your tighter, stronger front muscles will win the body war.  They will make your body shorter in front and these shortened muscles will ”pull” on the weaker muscles in your back.

Your back muscles are getting stretched because they are not as strong as your front muscles.  Your back muscles go into a type of contraction, or spasm, to keep from being damaged by further stretching.  The stretching strains the back muscles.

You feel the contraction as pain or burning.  Your body is complaining.  It says, “Please fix me!”

So, when an area is stretched for a long time, or overstretched, the result is muscle strain.

How can you fix this? Continue Reading »

There is a reason for your upper back pain.

Most of the time we hold our shoulders in a forward position.  Our head and shoulders are in front of our body during virtually all of our activities.

As a result, the muscles in our back get overstretched.  Then those muscles hurt and complain.  They don’t like being overstretched.

Strengthening your upper back will help prevent having pain in your shoulders.  Here’s a simple way to get a strong back.  And, the best part of it is, you can do it lying down!

So, get comfortable on your bed.  Lay on your back.

Gently press your shoulder blades into your bed.  Press them toward your spine.

Can you feel your shoulder blades (scapulae) moving?  If you’re not used to moving your blades, it may take some practice to get them to move and to feel them moving.   Rolling Continue Reading »

The first time I watched an exercise video that used small pumping movements I thought, “ha! That won’t do anything.”

I tried it and as I followed along, I thought, “ha! This isn’t doing anything.”

I was wrong.  So very, very wrong.

I was so sore the next day.  Those simple little pumping movements create a lot of muscle activity, quickly.

Since the muscles we most need to build are those in back of our body, those are the ones we’ll talk about.  These are the muscles that hold us upright, straight and strong.

Here’s how to use these simple little pumping movements.

To strengthen the back side of your upper arm:  Lift your elbow slightly so it is behind you.  Squeeze your shoulder blades a bit toward your spine.

Now, lift your elbow just a little bit more, then go back to your starting point. Lift, lift, lift, lift.  Each pumping movement is that quick.  You can do both arms at the same time.

To strengthen the backside of your thigh and gluteals (buttocks):

Lift Continue Reading »

Do you have neck pain?

There are many causes for neck pain, but here is a very common cause and a simple strengthening solution.

Often our heads get “stuck” in a forward position.  This happens because of the way we hold our head for long periods.  The muscles both in front and in back of our necks can cause distress for us.

The front/side neck muscles attach from collar bone at the “notch” to our skull behind our ears.  The back neck muscles attach to our skull.

When we are in this “forward head” position, the muscles in the back of our neck can get weak and overstretched.

Here is a simple tip to strengthen the muscles in the back of our neck.  When these muscles are strong, they help us hold our head upright.

1. Lie on your back.  Your bed is fine.  Use no pillow or the flattest pillow possible for your comfort (only if you absolutely need to.)
2. Rock your head slowly by Continue Reading »