You Don't Need More Strength To Reduce Pain!

Weak muscles are often blamed for causing pain and injury. These outdated pearls of wisdom are still being preached:

• If you have lower back pain, you need to strengthen your core muscles and glutes
• If you injure your shoulder, you need to work on your rotator cuff muscles
• If your knees hurt, you need to make your quads stronger

The good news is.....If you're able to stand upright in gravity, your core is working just fine!!!!

As far as your body is concerned, standing and walking are normal human activities with low muscular demand.

There's likely to be imbalances in your posture and movement that are leading to stiffness, pain and injury, but simply making your muscles stronger won't address these balance issues. All you'll do is strengthen the imbalances.

The Truth About Posture, and Why You Don't Need More Strength

There's no big body of evidence supporting the theory that there's 1 ideal posture and anything else that doesn't measure up is bad.

Making certain muscles stronger won't automatically correct imbalances, make pain go away, or stop your joints from hurting.

What keeps posture, standing and walking undemanding on the body is balance.

• Are both your feet level and balanced underneath you?
• Is your pelvis balanced and centred on your hip joints so it doesn't drag the spine forwards, backwards or over to 1 side?
• Is the rest of your body stacked efficiently above your feet?

If the answer to any of these 3 questions is "No", your joints become more heavily loaded, placing extra stress and strain on the surrounding muscles.

This can give the impression of the muscles being weak, but the truth is simply that they're not able to work effectively as Nature designed because of these imbalances.

The fewer imbalances you have, the less hard your muscles have to work to maintain posture and move your body.

Here's an illustration of how knee pain can start when the knee isn't stacked over it's foot, and the direction of the knee and foot don't match.  When the knee isn't being adequately supported by the foot below, the muscles, tendons and ligaments come under more strain,, resulting in pain, stiffness and a sense of weakness or instability.

You might get advised to make your quads stronger to support and realign the knee, when the real issue is the imbalance between the knee and foot.

Try this simple exercise to develop awareness of how centred and balanced your body is, and where any imbalances lie so you can restore ease back to the joints and muscles.

Standing Body Scan

• Stand as you usually would - try to avoid correcting your posture or adopting what you think is a "good" posture.
• Close your eyes and slowly scan your body from feet to head and back to feet. Keep repeating this scan.
• As you scan, do you notice if any particular part of your body feels heavier?
• Does your weight seem to be held in 1 joint, so that joint feels heavier or more loaded?
• Can you feel if any muscles seem to be more tense than others?

You may need to repeat this body scan a few times to feel where your imbalances are.

We get very used to our usual posture and way of carrying our body, so compensations can seem normal and fly under our radar at first.

Often, it's only when I adjust a client with 1 or 2 small shifts that they're suddenly able to feel a sense of lightness in their joints and relaxation in their muscles, sometimes for the first time in years.

Takeaway

Are you up for a simple challenge?

1. Do the Standing Body Scan once a day for 5 days. 
2. Note down if you feel any heaviness in your body or in one joint, and where.
3. Note if you feel any muscles holding more tension than others, and where.

Doing the scan daily for 5 days will help you see past your posture habits and feel any imbalances in your body.

WAYS TO WORK WITH ME

1) Unlock Your Body breakthrough session

This is a powerful 1:1 session designed to help you find the root drivers behind a persistent pain or injury. You'll leave with a deeper understanding of what's triggering pain in your body, and a clear action plan to get lasting relief. 

I also have very limited availability for 3 and 6 month 1:1 coaching programmes.

Apply HERE  and I'll be in touch to arrange an initial complementary consultation to discuss which option will be a good fit for you.

2) Mindful Movement for Lower Back and Sciatic Pain Relief Workshop

Next date: Sunday 20th October, 1.15pm to 2.45pm (7x spaces available). **Bookings opening soon**

Angmering Village Hall  (The Kings Suite)

A friendly and inclusive small group workshop where you'll discover the common causes of lower back and sciatic pain, why you're not getting the results you desire even if you've tried the usual treatments, and how to find lasting relief.

The session will be a blend of informal group discussion and a mindful movement session, where you'll practice gentle exercises that effectively release muscle tension and show you new ways to move without pain.

After the workshop, you'll have lifetime access to a simple home programme to relieve lower back and sciatic pain in just 10 minutes a day. 

Keep an eye on your inbox to reserve your place when bookings open.

Other ways you can find help with managing pain or an injury are:

• Book into a Stretch or Pilates class with me - these are a good introduction to the movement explorations of The Befriend Your Body (BYB) Method  for pain relief and relaxation.
• Get your copy of my free E-guide "How to Get Relief From Back Pain and Muscle Tension in just 10 mins a Day". This introduces the 3x universal stress responses that can keep you stuck in pain, and explains the 4x pillars of The BYB Method. There's also 2x 10 mins video tutorials showing you how to release muscle tension from the front and back of your body in the comfort of your without expensive equipment. Download for instant access HERE
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

You can connect with me through any of these channels:

• Email at norma@unicornhealthandfitness.com
• Follow me on Facebook and DM me on Messenger https://www.facebook.com/norma.pearsonfitness
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.