Thoughtful Thursday…advanced bodywork, targeting muscles to reduce and prevent pain...
Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. This GreenNote Fitness newsletter mindfully gathers and distills useful information that is supportive to our journey. It is my mission to educate, inspire, and propel you into action that moves you towards your goals and life of purpose. Take control of your journey today.
The most advanced bodywork that exists - I want to try this
Mobility is your ability to move your body and limbs freely and painlessly through your desired movement. I’ve become increasingly interested in mobility work to help my clients as well as myself. How many of us have experienced or continue to experience pain in the body? Right. So I’ve been researching to find answers. During this search, I came across this interview with Garry Lineham, the founder of The Human Garage based in Venice Beach, California. The Human Garage pursues “the Power of Alignment, balancing both body and mind to maximize the innate capacities present in each of our bodies to heal…We take clients through an unwinding process with a hands-on release therapy we created and designed to realign the body from the inside out…Unlike traditional modalities for treating pain, we believe in finding and treating the origin of discomfort to avoid chasing symptoms of pain and dysfunction.” Whew! Sign me up! No, seriously, after listening to that interview, I knew it was something that I wanted to experience for my own healing as well as to be able to share it with the GreenNote Fitness community. There is a waitlist which I signed up for so will keep you posted.
Made for walking?
During that interview with the founder of The Human Garage, Garry said something interesting about walking and squatting. “We were designed to do two things as human beings; squat and walk. We don’t walk very much in LA.…If you go to New York (where they walk all the time), they have 40% less back pain, neck pain, knee surgeries, foot surgeries…they walk three and a half miles per day…Squatting perfectly stretches the hips…the hips are our center of motion, when we squat, we perfectly balance stretch the hips…it forces diaphragmatic breathing…60% of our lymphnodes are right underneath the diaphragm…99% of the population does not diaphragmaticly breathe without intention..squatting relaxes our shoulders, neck, and jaw…" As Gary states, we are made for walking…and squatting. What he said about New Yorkers having 40% less back pain, neck pain, knee and foot surgeries gave me pause. This was a gentle reminder to go for long walks when I can which is typically on the weekends. Can also get in more walking by parking far away from entrances, opting to walk up escalators or take the stairs instead. Every morning I squat during part of my morning routine and will look to do this more. Clients, you will know why I may be squatting during our sessions! As I alluded to earlier, I am needing some mobility work due to an injury to one of my hips and lower back. Part of that work has been to work or “turn on” the gluteal muscles a.k.a. butt muscles. Having strong glutes helps you to generate more power in just about every movement. It helps to stabilize the pelvis and trunk and having strong glutes will help prevent excessive movement in your low back and knees. All of this translates into reducing injury. What to do?
Activate gluteal muscles to reduce pain - 7 Way Hips
When it comes to importance of strengthening muscles, in particular the gluteus medius is one to improve. Ryan Flaherty knows this well. He is Senior Director of Performance for Nike and has trained many top athletes including Russell Wilson, Serena Williams and many others. Ryan states that strengthening of these glute muscles is needed by most people as it’s causing them issues they don’t even know about, especially when it comes to lower back issues. An exercise that I have been doing to address this very issue is the 7 Way Hips which you can see Ryan demonstrate here. I’ve also shared it with some of my clients. We can attest that it is more difficult than it looks. The video demonstrates doing 15 repetitions of each move. You can start with for example, five or 10 and work up to 15 repetitions. After doing these exercises, I can immediately feel the blood flow in the glutes and my lower back and hip are (knock on wood) feeling much better. One final thought is a quote by Dr. Peter Attia that I thought was appropriate for this newsletter: How you move defines how you live. Here’s to moving well. Did you miss last week’s newsletter on my experience with cryotherapy…? You wouldn’t happen to know just one person that would benefit from this information? Please forward it to them.
