"Is it a miracle or the human spirit that raises us beyond our expectations."

"I knew I had to forgive in that moment because if I carry around that resentment, it would eat me alive."

In a world full of anger and hate, this story on Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist was a breath of fresh air. It's a great example of how letting go of anger and truly forgiving can help your body to heal faster. As the doctor in the story said, " I think forgiving was the key to his recovery."

What do you need to let go of today to help you move and live a better life?

Pain management

If you browse thru any magazine or even Facebook ads these days you will inevitably find an article about the over prescription of opioid medications for pain management. I have worked with people who have used them for years and still complain of unmanageable pain.

I frequently get questions regarding tension headaches. Chronic headaches can be really debilitating and stop us from really living life. These headaches may be common in relation to neck pain and stiffness, but exercise has been shown to relieve pain and stiffness Doing some gentle range of motion, learning to exhale and get your shoulders to relax can help to decrease the tension and pain.

Recent pain science is showing that education and mobility may actually be more effective at managing pain than medication alone. In this Ted Talk, Lorimer Mosely explains more clearly about why we feel pain. 

Did you know:

• Pain is a normal signal from the brain that lets us know something is wrong, but that once tissues heal (6-8 weeks) that signal should go away.
• How your brain processes pain effects how you experience that pain.
• Past experiences can influence how our brain perceives pain.
• Your body was designed to move in 3 planes of motion and the more we limit that motion, the more limited we get so when we try to move outside that motion our brain may perceive a threat and therefore signal pain and stop motion.
• People who believe they will get better actually have less chronic pain.

This stands to reason that if we can interrupt the signal from the brain we may be able to manage our pain a bit easier and therefore not need as much pain medication. 

Here are some ways to quiet your nervous system down: 

• Aerobic exercise...ideally 30 minutes per day but this can be broken into 10 minute chunks and can include anything that gets your heart rate elevated.
• Sleeping at least 6 hours/night. Yes, if pain limits sleep it can actually make the pain worse. Finding positions of comfort can help this.
• Manual therapy and progressive exercise 
• Yoga and meditation
• Positive Affirmations
• Balancing your activities and taking one task at a time, such as with doing laundry. If you have 3 loads of laundry to do, you may take 3 days to do it vs trying to get it all done at once.This may take you longer over all, but when our brain feels less threatened by laundry the signal will then go down
• Be patient with yourself and respect the healing process.
• Reconnect with your normal movement patterns and allow yourself to move through a variety of motions. Over time, your brain will recognize that motion is no longer a threat

As a physical therapist, I do not prescribe medication. My goal is to help you learn to manage your pain through movement, manual techniques and education. Pain happens. It's normal. If you are experiencing pain trying PT may help. If your MD recommends medication, also talk with them about the other options listed as well as working with a physical therapist or other manual therapy provider to your liking. Find a way to quiet your brain and lessen your pain and then get off that medication and get on with the fun in your life.

Are you ok? You look stiff today

Did you ever notice that when Tom Brady is on fire the announcers say "Wow! He is so amazing still. Can you believe he's 40?" and when he isn't connecting (and his star receiver's are out) they say "Well, you know, he needs to be cautious because ..he IS 40".

I had a quick visit to my MD office today for a Ppd check. The first thing the administrative assistant asked me was “Are you okay, Laura? You look stiff today.” My reply was "actually I am kinda stiff today.. and yes I’m okay."

I then saw a patient who was concerned over ongoing morning stiffness one year after a total knee replacement. After reassessing the ROM, strength, swelling and recent change in activity we concluded that this was normal stiffness. The question after that was do I have to do mobility work forever?

As I get older I notice that my neck, back,shoulders and hips all have their moments of stiffness. This is particularly worse in the morning. If I’m consistent with doing my mobility work I can move easier and am less stiff by the time I make the coffee. If I'm not, I walk into the doctor's office 2 hours later looking stiff.

In the case of my patient, doing a routine of easy movement helps make the first steps to the bathroom more bearable.

Sadly, being sore and stiff in the morning is normal as we get older. It is part of the normal aging process for our vertebral discs to lose height. It is normal for the water in those discs to be reabsorbed through the night and to be disbursed through the body as we move throughout the day. It is normal for joints to be stiff from being in one position for a long period, especially if we've had surgery.

I am not one who believes that our every day activities need to stop as we age. I think issues occur because we stop moving for a period and things stiffen up. Then we decide we want to pick up where we left off, we jump back to where we were and we get hurt.

I have found that doing some easy moving of the major joints in all 3 planes of motion really helps to decrease the morning stiffness quicker. If I stretch after I do some heavy work, I'm not quite as sore later. If I build up my strength gradually, and keep at it consistently, I have less tweaks through the day.

We DO have to keep up our exercises, in addition to the yard work/vacuuming/power washing/any fun sports activity that isn't housework...etc. When we take a break for a while, we need to start over and progress gradually. We DO have to put the work in to be able to continue to do the fun (and not so fun housework) in order to keep doing.

As for Tom Brady...sometimes he is on, sometimes he is not. I know for sure he is consistent with his work ethic.  I don't think being 40 is slowing him down one bit. 

So you want to lift that heavy object...

We recently cut down a 50 year old tree at my camp. We all worked like busy little worker bees to get the debris cleaned up. The guys were able to chunk the big old trunk into manageable pieces but they are still quite heavy

I hear all the time people saying they "can't lift" something because they are afraid they will hurt their back. I also read and hear people give advice about lifting with their legs and not their back. While this is true, when I see people demonstrate how they lift, the mechanics are not quite right.

We are supposed to move. Our backs are supposed to bend. If we are strong enough we should be able to lift a heavy object without injuring ourselves...and yes, your back will bend a little.

Actually, it's more of a hip hinge than a 'back bend' but I tend to see people try to squat in fear of their back moving. Don't get me wrong, I think the squat pattern is an important one in life too and working to re-obtain the full ass to grass mobility we had as a toddler is great.  However, it isn't the most efficient way, from a basic physics standpoint, to lift something heavy. (Check out this Girls Gone Strong blog for ways to improve your squat).

Learning to hinge your hips, such as in a dead lifting pattern, can help you to maintain form and protect your back while lifting something heavy. In this video, Dr. Kathy Dooley demonstrates how to do a hip hinge and a way to practice it without weight. (PS..that kettle bell is 48 kg...or about 106 lbs.)

When in doubt, if you haven't been training, you haven't moved this way in a LONG time, and you can't push the object by yourself, grab a friend and get some help. Moving heavy stuff is always more fun when you have a workout partner 😃