OK, so you don’t have to move like this to heal tendonitis. In fact, this move would probably give you a problem in your elbow! However, to heal injury or pain in your wrist or elbow from repetitive small movements all day such as sitting at your desk, it is essential to get more movement in your body. The human body was not made to sit for very long hours with intense mental concentration and without getting up. The design of the joints and bones is to move with a wide range of motion and move frequently. Problems in your limbs such as Carpal Tunnel and Tennis Elbow, often come from over using many muscles in your arms and under use of your back muscles. It can also come from not getting full range of motion in your joints.
When you don’t give each joint a full range of motion, it can get very tense or very loose and floppy. Either of these conditions can produce pain. What you need to do to avoid further injury and damage of your joints is get more fluid movement as well as strengthen them.
Clicking a mouse for extremely long hours can make your hand very tight and decrease the strength in the wrist joint. With tennis elbow, it is common to have extremely tense back muscles in the shoulders and shoulder blades, while having less strength in other areas of your back. An imbalance in the muscles along with overuse of the elbow joint can create inflammation and pain.
One solution is to get more movement from your back muscles all the way to your fingertips. You can stretch, reach and move fluidly, to build fluidity and strength in all the joints of your arm and shoulder. Start with this exercise:
While standing or sitting, do each of these side bends at least 6 times each, several times per day:
1. Reach one arm high over your head and side bend to the opposite side.
2. Do the same exercise, while reaching with your elbow.
3. Same side bend and reach with your palm, pushing your palm and fingers open.
You can also try a variation of this reaching up over your head, out to the side and down toward the floor. Breathe deeply while working each joint. Gently reach if you have pain in any joint. Remember to do what is right for your body.
Be aware that your body has specific needs. You may require different movement exercises to help you specific situation. I’m Michell Brown and I’m a specialist in Joint Health. I assist you to stay youthful and vital in your body as you age and to heal old injury. I do this through bodywork and movement, coaching you how to move efficiently in your body. Deep rotation of all the joints in your body without force, can heal deep-seated injury and will expand the range of motion and vitality in your system. You can do the sports and activities you love to do without the aches and pains, while feeling and getting younger in your body.
I’m taking a 30 day blog challenge to post 30 times in the next month. I will be writing about Joint Health and Getting Younger As You Get Older. I invite you to join me for this blog experience and submit your comments and questions!
For further information on how to heal old injury, contact me at info@consciousworkouts.com. www.consciousworkouts.com..
Sitting at your desk, in front of your computer or in meetings for long hours, can be a back-breaking activity. When you sit all day, you tend to slouch in your posture which compresses the vertebrae in your back and your joints. This compression can lead to disk deterioration and a decrease in your range of motion. It can also make you stiff and can even cause injury in your low back, hips and spine.
Your body is designed to move frequently. If you have a job where you have to sit for many hours you need to give your body some movement during the day to prevent injury and major problems to your spinal disks, joints and posture. When you sit for hours, it can be tempting to slump, slouch and decrease your breath. All of these can contribute to major problems in your body’s natural alignment and your vitality.
Here are four exercises you can do to counter the aging effects of sitting and poor posture.
1. Get up and move your hips . Move your hips in circles and from side to side. This movement in your joints assists you in increasing your range of motion and can prevent problems in your joints due to limiting your range of motion all day.
2. Stretch in your chair or standing, at least twice an hour. Extend your arms above your head with hands clasped. Move both your arms in circles at least 10 times each way. This moves your shoulder joints and your upper back, which tend to “freeze up” during intense mental concentration and can get your breath going again if it has become more shallow.
3. Move and stretch your hands and your feet often. Roll your ankle and wrist joints to keep more circulation coming into your limbs.
4. Frequently stretch one arm over your head toward the ceiling and the the opposite shoulder. Repeat on the other side, at least 3 times each way. Breathe deeply as you stretch.
Many low back and hip problems are worsened from sitting all day. Get up and move at least once an hour in your hips and shoulders to keep circulation flowing in your system so that you can avoid contracting in your range of motion and keep your energy flowing.
For further help and ideas, connect me at www.fluidjointhealth.wordpress.com or info@consciousworkouts.com.
Would you like to be active without knee pain? Your knees are key to moving your whole body easily. When you have knee pain, it can be like you are carrying around an extra 100 pounds of excess weight. You just don’t move as well and it can be a struggle to do the fun sports and activities that you like. Here are a few reasons why many people struggle with knee problems: (1) Overuse of the knee joint from certain activities (2) Pounding too much weight into your knees and not using enough of the other joints (3) Repeated injury without taking care of the knees (4) Inflammation from injury (5) Poor body alignment.
Too much stress and strain on the knee joint creates pain. If you are always pounding your weight into your knees, you can cause pain. Poor form in your exercise or bad habits in the way you walk can also give you pain. You can learn to balance your weight and put less strain on your knees. More fluid exercise is helpful to counter the intense workouts or movements that may damage your knees. Becoming more relaxed and open in your hip joints also helps you to avoid injury in your knees.
I worked with an active middle aged client, who plays golf and tennis each, two-three times per week. After playing several rounds of golf, his knees really hurt. His goal was to not have the pain in his knees after he finished his golf game. What made a major difference in his joint pain was to relax around his hip joints and work on not putting so much weight in his knees as he played the sports activities that he loved. Learning how to move differently enabled him to have pain free knees and a better golf game. Because we were working with all the joints in his body, he received other benefits. His posture improved, his super-tight shoulders relaxed, he felt more youthful and had more energy as well as being more mentally alert on the golf course.
More freedom in your knees and hip joints keeps your body youthful. When your hips and knees aren’t moving well, your body compensates and can build up other restrictions in your shoulders, spine, neck and other joints. Factors like poor posture, injury, poor alignment and limited range of motion in your joints can also create pain in your knees and hips. You can change this through getting more fluid joint movement. Bad knees can get better and injury can be avoided in your knees. I teach you how to reduce pain and stiffness in your knees, so that you can do the activities you like to do without the pain and injury. For more information about how to take care of your knees and move in your knees without pain, contact me at info@consciousworkouts.com. Michell Brown, www.consciousworkouts.com.
What motivates you to take care of yourself? I spoke to a business women’s group about “Doing the activities you love to do without the aches and pains. “ One of their biggest challenges was taking the time to do an activity whether it was general exercise, hiking, running, golf, etc. The business women there were having a challenge of taking care of themselves while taking care of everyone else in their families. This is common among many busy people. How do you fit yourself in while working, managing the household, relating to family, running the kids around and being in relationship with your partner?
One of the participants of the business women’s meeting was a financial planner. We discussed the importance of “Paying Yourself First”, which is a popular financial planning motto. “Taking care of yourself” fits right into that philosophy. You are paying yourself first by becoming healthier, relaxed, more energetic, more responsive to others and happier with being more in shape. You are also modeling to the rest of your family and others around you, how to take care of yourself and be in charge of your own health.
In my last Joint Health class, one of the participants really “got” how important is was to take care of herself. Instead of going home after work, eating and sitting, she came to movement class. She took on the task of getting more in touch with her body. In class she got to hone in on places in her knees and hips that had been bothering her and causing distress in her joints. Fluid movement, breath and body awareness really helped her make the shift from pain to stability in her joints. The next day, she told me that she slept amazingly well and felt incredibly better. She was really happy that she took the action to take care of herself and show up.
In taking care of yourself, you can be more in charge of your health and wellness. When you feel more in charge, you get to move to your next level of activity, confidence and getting done what you want to get done. The time you spend will be saved many times over, in moving forward in your life. Then, there is more time to do the fun things that you want to do!
How many times per day do you take a really deep breath? While I was setting up this blog and getting it to look a certain way, I wasn’t taking very deep breaths. By the end of the day, my nervous system was in hyper mode and I couldn’t go to sleep, from staring at the computer, breathing shallowly and being intensely obsessed about my blog! My “Cost” of not breathing deeply was anxiety and poor sleep. When I take deeper breaths, while working in my office and don’t have the obsession to “get it right” but instead “trust” that it will come out O.K., my breath gets deeper. Then, I’m more at ease, I relax my shoulders, and more good ideas come to me.
I recently had a client who was troubled that she couldn’t take a deep breath all day. Because she does private sessions with me and knows what deep breathing feels like in her body, she was aware that the deep, relaxed breathing wasn’t happening for her. In my group movement class she found a place in her breastbone that wasn’t moving well. She spent time relaxing that place, moving fluidly through it and relaxing through her chest and ribs. When she moved the area, a cracking-like sound occurred and she was able to get a much deeper breath through her whole body. The “holding on” in her upper body released and more oxygen, blood flow and circulation moved through her chest. She felt more relaxed, energized and alert. The intense fatigue that she felt when she came into class was gone.
The “Value” of more breath in your body is that your tissues expand, your organs receive increased capacity to function better and more circulation moves through your system. Your tissues around the joints, can become more soft, pliable and responsive. Deep breath can help you open your joints more and create more space around them, which makes it easier to move. When you can get a larger range of motion and all your joints lengthen and expand, your posture can improve instead of compress. More breath can relax you, help you feel alert and can help you move emotion through your system, such as irritation and frustration. The value of deep breath is that it’s calming and it gives you more vitality and energy in all your cells.
At the end of the day, through some gentle movement and deeper breaths, I was able to fall asleep and sleep well for the rest of the evening. Today, while writing this blog, I am breathing deeply and relaxing my shoulders. The way to better health, relaxation and deeper breath is to practice. Whenever you get the sense that your breath is shallow, expand your capacity and breathe! Join me in getting that deep breath that is relaxing, renewing and revitalizing! AAaaaaaaaah!
I teach Joint Health. How to build a responsive, resilient, fluid body through specific movement of your joints. You can learn to increase circulation, energy, vitality and fluidity by learning to move fluidly in your joints.
Athletes & Fitness Enthusiasts
If you are an athlete or if you like to exercise, Joint Health will enable you to do more with more ease in your body. Joint Health is building foundational strength in your bones and joints. You can increase your capacity for more breath and fluidity in your body. This helps you to avoid injury or heal quickly if injury occurs. This foundational strength gives you more capacity to be relaxed inside, while building a strong, healthy and balanced body. You can learn to increase circulation to the areas of your body where you are prone to injury. The tissues around your bones will expand as you expand your joint movement and you can move in a bigger variety of ways in your body, with greater fluidity. As you increase your capacity for resiliency, you get more vitality, energy and responsiveness in your body and mind. Increase your game through Joint Health.
50 & Over
If you are over 50 and you want to get younger as you get older, Joint Health can get you more Vitality, Energy & Youthfulness. As you age, your joints can compress and the space between the joints can become more rigid. By expanding the fluidity of your joints, you can get more space between every joint in your body. This space and variety of movement can give you more fluidity. The benefits are to:
- Get Vitality
- Expand Breath Capacity
- Relax
- Increase Bone Density
- Improve Balance
- Boost Energy
- Move Easier
- Increase Circulation
Getting Younger As You Get Older
The feeling of getting older can occur from a lack of circulation and feeling in different parts of your body. When you have physical “dams” inside your system, blood doesn’t flow well, energy lags, posture compresses and you can feel dull in your mind. How you can reinvigorate yourself to feel younger is by learning to feel inside your body. What you can’t feel is really hard to heal! The more you can feel where circulation isn’t flowing, and where you have gripping patterns in your tissues and around your joints, the more you can make changes. Through Joint Health you can change your circulation patterns, feel more in your body, free up your gripping patterns and release deep seated tension. The “dams” can begin to flow, by getting more fluid moving, more breath expanding and more mental alertness occurring. Your body can shift to feeling younger as vitality and life force are created.
This Blog will focus on how to improve the health of your joints and you overall health and vitality. See my website at www.consciousworkouts.com
