I have a free, two-part lecture series coming up on Tuesday, November 12 (“Why does my back hurt, and what can I do about it?”), and Tuesday, November 19 (“Why does my shoulder hurt, and what can I do about it?”).

Many times at lectures like these, you’ll hear about medical diagnoses; the common practice is to put labels on your pain. Like, “I have a partial rotator cuff tear” or “I have a herniated disc.” But, where do you go from there? Having a diagnosis isn’t the whole story. The rest of the story about pain is that in all situations, the problems you’re having are connected to movement problems. It’s not about having a bad back or a bad shoulder… it’s about having bad movements.

So, at these lectures, we’ll be “myth-busting” if you will. Certainly, having a thorough work-up needs to happen. And once a comprehensive analysis occurs, we can move on to fixing the problem. Fixing the problem comes down to having a solid care plan. In our practice, we analyze the person’s history and make a detailed account of how the problem is affecting or limiting their life. We assess alignment and how they move. Because fixing underlying movement faults is the key to fixing their pain.

Alignment Matters

Think back to when you were a kid. It’s probable that someone hassled you about sitting or standing up straight. You know what? They were right! How we hold ourselves in alignment matters. The design of the body is built upon basic biomechanics. Basic principles govern the body’s systems. For example, if you’re going to build a house, there’s a certain way to do it. You wouldn’t put up crooked boards. The same goes for our body’s alignment. If we are aligned correctly, we move better. If our alignment is poor, it’s nearly impossible to have good movement. And if we don’t have good movement, we generate wear and tear that causes breaks or creates stresses time and time again. And those stresses lead to breakdown and eventually pain.

In our practice, we get to the root of the problem. We ask to hear about pain, what it feels like, how it impacts your life, and how it makes things difficult for you. And we give you a diagnosis. But getting better has everything to do with how you’re functioning. It’s about healing structural damage and re-programming movement. Alignment is the starting point of moving correctly.

Remember:
Good alignment + Good movement = Normal stress on the body
Bad alignment + Bad movement = Bad stresses on the body that lead to breakdown and create problems

Traditional Exercises Aren’t Usually Helpful In The Healing Process

Some of the ways we exercise—exercises that are a part of our workout experience, like bench presses and sit-ups—really take their root in concepts that are decades old. They stem from a body building culture. And the goals of a body builder (the things they have to do to build muscle) are not necessarily the things that are helpful to injured shoulders and backs. Therefore, we have to think differently about exercise.

For example, take a traditional sit-up. It may be the kind of thing that brings out abdominal muscles, but it’s also been shown to cause a higher degree of stress to lower part of spine. A newer model would suggest an exercise that is not repeatedly flexing the spine, but rather, holding the spine in a neutral position while the abdominal muscles are still being challenged.

So, What’s Next?

When it comes to pain, there’s one common denominator—weak posture. If the universal problem is related to alignment and movement, then the universal solution is strengthening body alignment. There are three basic exercises that do this, and they look a lot different than traditional exercise. And those exercises, we’ll cover in an upcoming post.

In the meantime, hear more about this subject at one of these upcoming lectures. (You can sign up for free by following the links below.)

“Why does my back hurt, and what can I do about it?”
Tuesday, November 12

“Why does my shoulder hurt, and what can I do about?”
Tuesday, November 19

Move well!

Dr. Scott