Standing, walking, sitting, bending, and sleeping postures all have room for errors. Saying “sitting is bad for you” is not necessarily true! Any posture that is done INCORRECTLY is bad for you. And a posture done correctly is just fine! Here are the 5 things to watch out for in all of the main postures…
Frozen shoulder. Stiff, painful, and hard-to-reach-your-bra-strap kind of shoulder pain. In TCM, we call it “50-year-old shoulder.” Although I had it in my 20s. The good news is that it’s very much fix-able. What you DON’T want to do if you’re in pain is stop moving altogether. MOVE IT OR LOSE IT. What we want…
Years ago, when I was training martial arts hours a day, I started having debilitating knee pain. I had to use a handrail to go down stairs. I was in my early 20s, but my knees felt 85. Acupuncture helped with the pain instantly. But a week or so after the treatment, the pain would return. …
Ideally, when we sit down, that should be a time to rest, recover, and not have pain. Sitting should be resorative and not hurt. If you’re sitting properly, you’re using muscles designed to work in this situation, and letting the other muscles take a break. Some pointers for body positioning when you’re sitting: FEET: …
Back and hip pain, including sciatica and piriformis syndrome, are often debilitating, but in most cases, fixable. Many of these types of pain stem from a “pinched nerve” in your spine or hip area. Basically, something is causing pressure to build up in an area that shouldn’t. We need to start by understanding what’s going on with your…
I have to be 100% honest with you. I do some crazy stuff – hanging upside down from my knee; doing tango in heels for 3 hours; or carrying a 45-pound dog home because he refuses to stop lunging at the neighbor’s poodle – that aren’t necessarily healthy for me. Many of our daily activities can leave…
I trained in martial arts for 10 years. At one point in time, I did a black belt test that included a 15-minute horse stance. Looking back, I still can’t believe I did that. I mean, why? What’s the point? Kidding. It was a lesson in perseverance. And strength. You don’t have to be a…
A lot of what we do all day involves forward neck posture: driving; phones / computers; eating, cooking, and cleaning; chasing after kids and picking them up … No wonder we often end up with stiff necks. Ideally your ears are directly above your shoulders. This means your neck is straight, relative to the rest of your spine. If your neck…
You don’t realize how much you use your wrists and hands until they hurt. Then, boy, is it distracting. I hurt my wrist doing … I’m not sure how to explain it … it’s like you’re holding your body off the ground by bracing your arms in front of you on a vertical pole, lol. Plus, around…