It’s the biggest fear people have about knee pain.
“Will my pain ever go away?”
Here’s my take on this issue after helping people with it for 7 years. [Read more…]
The 3 Steps to Fix Rounded Shoulders & Computer Posture Through Exercise
One question that has been coming up every now and then in reader emails is what you can do to fix rounded shoulders and computer posture.
Like many of us today, I work on the computer a lot and I’ve had my share of health issues as a result. Neck pain, aching wrists, rounded shoulders, poor posture, and stiff hips. Here are the exercises and techniques I use to keep my shoulders healthy.
Psoas Stretch
Strong and flexible hip flexors will go a long way in ensuring athletic records and long-term (knee) health. Since people move less and less these days, hips get tighter and as a consequence the number of psoas stretches performed around the globe is probably at an all-time high in the present.
In this post we will explore the most effective ways to stretch your psoas, the reasons why you would want to do a psoas stretch and under which circumstances you should not stretch.
[Read more…]
Cycling Knee Pain
Cycling knee pain can be dealt with in many ways - Picture by Nicki Varkevisser
There’s no denying that the bicycle is an insanely useful invention, yes, even called “most popular vehicle in world” and I whole-heartedly agree, but like with everything else, bicycling has its flaws. This article deals with cycling knee pain, its causes and solutions.
Knee Pain and Bicycling
Basic postural problems at the hip: anterior pelvic tilt
A healthy hip is very important for efficient movement, since most of the power athletes display is generated at the hip. Jumping, sprinting or deadlifting: without a strong hip you won’t excel at these activities. If we look at posture the hip is just as important, since many times wrong posture can be traced back to adaptations at the hip. It is therefore only logical to start looking for postural problems at the hip, because many other postural issues will improve automatically, as soon as you “fix” the hip.
The central nervous system, muscle length and the lie of stretching
There are over 200 bones and more than 600 muscles in the human body. Some muscles can be voluntarily controlled; others are used without us contributing much. When it comes to movement however, we have to learn everything from scratch. So when we were born, we already had the hardware to move around, but were missing parts of the software. That basically means the central nervous system needed to learn how to control muscle contractions and how to coordinate them to create controlled movement. This stuff is stored for later recall, since it would be a pain in the ass to have to learn everything again the next morning.
Now think about this for a moment here: the CNS learns how to control and coordinate hundreds of muscles at the same time! The amount of computing power, bandwidth and storage capacity needed for that is unparalleled even by the most sophisticated computer. However, there’s a small caveat. The CNS will adapt your body to whatever you do for longer periods of time.
Limitations of stretching in fixing movement
For most people stretching is the ultimate solution. You can fix tightness and thereby prevent injuries and pain, right? Well, sort of. Tightness in a muscle is just a result of previous behavior. Dr. Perry Nickelston points out that it is usually “a by-product of inefficient movement patterns where muscles unnecessarily have to compensate or work overtime to help you achieve the objective.”.