What is a Dowager’s Hump?

I recently taught a workshop where I had one student who was diagnosed with having Dowager’s Hump.  She came to my Transform Your Form workshop to hopefully get some answers to possibly slow down or even reverse what was happening to her body.  It is truly unfortunate that her doctor told her that there was nothing that could be done about it when in actuality, there are many possibilities available to her in starting to correct the hyperkyphosis that has been create din her upper back.

So, what exactly is a Dowager’s Hump?  Doing my research, I saw that the term originally came from what was used to describe a distinguished elderly women. It may be no surprise that many people who do have Dowager’s humps are mostly women, but it does occur in men as well.  I would not think that many women would find themselves to be very distinguished with this hump and many women tend to begin to avoid social situations and find embarrassment due to this excessive curvature in their back.

This hump can be caused by various factors, some genetic while others are due to osteoporosis and musculoskeletal issues.  If you have seen the classic picture of an image of a man sitting in front of a computer with his head far forward of the rest of his boy, you can definitely point him out as being a good candidate for obtaining a Dowager’s hump in the future.  So, why does this occur and how come it is so prevalent?

Well, as mentioned above, it is primarily due to our culture of sitting and staring straight ahead into a screen of some sort. This is also seen in driving as well. The weight of the head is at least 12 lbs when it is seated and aligned correctly on top of our neck.  When we are jutting our head forward, it causes an excessive amount of strain on  the muscles along the upper back, such as the trapezius and scalenes, even the sternocleidomastoid. The head gets pulled forward, dragged down and is much heavier. The muscles along the upper back become overstretched and weak, the muscles along the front of the chest and neck are overly shortened and weak and when we then try to lift our head up because it has been dragged so far forward and down, the muscles in the neck fatigue from having to hold up the weight of the head. Over time, this may be the cause for a Dowager’s hump de to musculoskeletal imbalances. It can also be caused due to osteopenia or osteoporosis. In those cases, a slight fracture occurs on the anterior side of the vertebrae causing that side to become crushed leading to the forward leaning you see in those with Dowager’s hump.

It is amazing, but I have already seen several people, both those who I know and random people on the street, with the beginnings of a Dowager’s hump and these are middle-aged folks too!  But there is something you can do about it.  Rather then live the rest of your life straining to see what is in front of you, how about correcting what is causing this imbalance, especially if it is caused by musculoskeletal issues.

Today in my yoga class, I taught a sequence using the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy Balls to help erase some of the tension that resides in the muscles causing this condition. I am currently lacking in providing a video to complement this blog to show you how you can access these muscles with the Therapy balls, but hope to post in the next blog.  They primarily will work on the rhomboids and the muscles along the shoulders, head and neck.  In addition, there are many exercises to incorporate int your everyday life that can be able to help turn around some of the muscle imbalances, again, hope to provide in my next post.

In the meantime, you can watch this great video by Erik Dalton who gives a great explanation about Dowager’s hump and also includes some massage points that you can have your massage therapist work on for you.  Until next time!

To Tuck or Untuck, That is the Question

About a month ago, I received an e-mail from a woman who had a question related to her incontinence.  She had given birth to her child and since then was suffering from a little bit of incontinence. She had seen a physical therapist who had recommended doing Kegels to help with her incontinence issues. One of the things that she mentioned to me was that even after doing Kegels she did not feel any amount of relief and did not feel her pelvic floor muscles releasing or going back down. Obviously the Kegels were not providing any relief and she wanted to know what else she could do. I had asked her what she does for a living most of the day and what some of her activities consisted of.  She stated that she works as a secretary so she spends quite a few hours sitting at her desk. Our conversation was mostly through e-mail, so I had mentioned that doing too much sitting was probably on the issues and her incontinence from childbirth was just an underlying issue. I told her that I could help her by addressing some of the issues she was having and provide some whole body alignment exercises she could work on to help with her incontinence.

I waited a week…then I never heard from her again. I wondered why she would reach out to me, asking for help and obviously seemed like she wanted to treat this issue, but was unwilling to take the necessary steps to correct them. I even offered her a free consultation so if she didn’t want to commit to anything long-term, she could at least have a few new tools to help her. Was she maybe looking for a quick fix? Did she think that her issue would be resolved from just doing a few Kegels a few times a day and didn’t have the time to commit more exercises to her already busy day? Yes, in order to wholistically address her incontinence, she would need to address tight muscles in her legs, lack of mobility in her hips and learn how to relax her pelvic floor muscles.

Female pelvis and its contents, seen from above and in front. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This current culture of sitting is for sure increasing the amount of pelvic floor issues where many women may be suffering either from incontinence or even prolapse and men lower back pain and even pelvic floor and prostate issues as well.  But why do we continue to sit? And when we do sit, wouldn’t it help a little bit to at least learn how to sit correctly where you are sitting on your ischial tuberosity and not on your sacrum? I know many people, like my husband, who feel that just sitting on ergo chairs would do the trick and help create more support. We should not be relying on our chair, but maybe more so on our muscles and bones, our resilient structural system.

My teacher, Katy Bowman, does such a great job demystifying the pelvic floor. She recently posted a blog article on too tight pelvic floor which coincides greatly with this post.  You can view the blog here. Be sure to also check out the video in her posting on tucking and untucking of the pelvis and see if you are doing that right now while sitting and reading this blog.

Related articles

• The Bathroom Key: A Strong Pelvic Floor (naturalaspossiblemom.com)
• Finding and Activating the Pelvic Floor (coreconnexxions.wordpress.com)
• Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and Chronic Groin, Low Back and Lower Limb Pain. By Elizabeth Kais, M.Ed., CSCS, CHEK (gotcherback.wordpress.com)

10 Tell Tale Signs You Are In Chronic Pain

There are more people in our history than ever before who are currently suffering from chronic pain and some don’t even know it. Chronic pain is a very complex issue and I felt that it would be helpful to list some tell-tale signs to help you determine if you are in chronic pain.  These are in no way indicative of every single person and many of these signs are based on research I have done on the subject as well as from some of my own personal experience.

1. The pain that once came and went is now consistently and incessantly always there

2. Nothing you do…whether OTC (over-the-counter) pain medication or rest seems to make it go away

3. You have now resorted to prescription pain medication so you can function in your day-to-day life

4. The pain has been around for so long that your body has built up a tolerance to the pain that is now just nagging and annoying, but still very much there

5. When you visit your doctor, they may not be able to specifically pinpoint where the pain is coming from even if tissues have healed

6. All of the pain may just be in your head

7. The greater the amount of stress you carry, the more likely the chronic pain will persist

8. It is not always the result of an injury, this could have been building up for years!

9. It taunts you even in your sleep

10. You may be even suffering from depression or a low quality of life due to chronic pain

It is helpful to evaluate these signs and determine if you are a victim of chronic pain.  If you are or if you know someone who is suffering from chronic pain, there are several things that can be done, but they require discipline, commitment and sometimes even a lifestyle change to make the positive changes you seek.

It may be helpful to watch this short video on chronic pain which does a great job providing five ways you can alleviate chronic pain out of your life.

If you are in the local area of Oakland or Berkeley, you are welcome to take part in a workshop I am offering twice this month called Transform Your Form which will combine the elements of Yoga Tune Up® and Restorative Exercise™ to help implement lasting changes in your form for the better.  I will be planning on rolling out a series of Transform Your Form therapeutic series workshops in the coming year, so stay tuned! Here is the link to get more information and I hope the info above is a helpful guide for you or your loved ones in helping them find their way out of chronic pain.

Related articles

• Chronic Knee Pain Treatments (answers.com)
• Neck Pain Treatment Options (answers.com)
• The Secret to Eliminating Chronic Pain Forever? [Biology] (io9.com)
• Four Steps to Erase Chronic Pain without Toxic Addictive Medications (prweb.com)
• Chronic pain has a price (kevinmd.com)
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND someone with chronic pain. UPDATE: A reader emails: “I can’t thank you enough… (pjmedia.com)

Celebrate the Women in Your Life

This is a short post today, but I really wanted to share two things with you because today is International Women’s Day.  There was a quote or something I read awhile back that said something to this effect, that women are the backbone of our society and that is men who bring about war and women who help to bring about peace.

I definitely have a soft spot when it comes to the plight of women and girls. Being a women myself, I find it important to stand up for the women who came before me (my mom) and the ones who will come after me (my sisters and step-daughters) and fight for the injustice that is still so ever-present in our society in the overall treatment of women.

I like to say that I a low-key activist, I don’t go and stand and picket out on the sidelines, that just isn’t me. Rather, I do what I can whether that is trying to donate a little money or read up and educate myself on certain causes and spread that information around, that is my little own form of activism.  Yet, I have talked about transformation lately and maybe it is time for me to step it up…

Here are two things you can do today to help celebrate International Women’s Day:

Consider giving a free trial loan to a woman in need.  Kiva is a great organization that supports women by providing micro loans in order to help alleviate poverty. Many of these women come from war ravaged areas of the world and maybe also the sole provider for the family. They also have developed small, local businesses so they can provide food, schooling and shelter for their family.  Think of this, the more you give, the more you will get in return.

Or, you can view this film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.  Again, it is a powerful story of war ravaged Liberia and the women who have come together, both Muslins and Christians, to help bring peace back to their country.  You can view the trailers here or consider purchasing the DVD.  Let the story inspire you in any way to commit to peace and support women like the ones in Liberia.

Lastly, you can also call, write or talk to the women and girls in your life and just let them know how much you appreciate them.  This can be done in words or through a small gesture because it is women who make the world go round.

Aligning The Parents

I really love my parents, so much so that I want to make sure that as they get older, they continue to enjoy the life and freedom they currently have.  I just came back last night from visiting my little sister and parents in New York.  Living out on the West Coast and having the opportunity to see them once or twice ever year, it shocks me at how much older they are getting.  The periods of time that I do not see them, it is like time going fast forward; they get a little grayer, a little shorter and move a little slower.

Over the last six years or so, especially since my mom’s back surgery in 2007, I have been much more diligent in imparting some knowledge, doing some bodywork or sharing some exercises with my mom and dad. Knowing just how much my mom suffered before her surgery and some of the repercussions afterwards, I am determined not to see her in pain again.

However, they both face a huge stumbling block…for them it is work too hard and too much. They are always working and unfortunately it may not slow down for them for a few more years.  The fact that they are both constantly working, means that my advice on spending some time walking or doing some of the stretching exercises gets put off until the weekend, when they actually have time and are not so tired.  So, all that I can do is just to continue to encourage and support them and hope that the little they do is much better than doing nothing at all.

My mom has been great; whenever she can, she does some self massage with the Yoga Tune Up® Therapy balls and tries to wear the Happy Toe Socks so she can get more space in her toes as well as walking  a few miles when she can. Compared to when we first started implementing some of these things, she was unable to kneel on the ground or even put weight on her knees because her quads were so tight. She can know easily go down onto the floor with much more ease.  My dad on the other hand has been needing some work.  He has been great about getting some physical movement since he has high blood pressure and he will go to the gym and do the treadmill and lift some weights, but he has completely bypassed stretching.  I know the last time I visited home, I told him that implementing some stretching into his routine was crucial, especially as he got older, but as he would say, it went in one ear and out the other.  I have provided a side profile pic of my dad below.  I wish that I had also taken a frontal view as you would be able to also see how much tension is residing in his hips that in a way, it almost looks like he has scoliosis.

The clothes he is wearing are somewhat baggy, but hopefully you can see what is going on.  Both of his feet are turned out, there is a huge amount of hyper-flexion in his hips which in turn is putting a lot of pressure on his back causing his upper torso to thrust forward and his chin to draw up slightly. I spoke with him about his walking stride and walking with both of his feet pointing forward and even as he attempted to do that, his left was still turned out slightly.  So, I of course gave him his first set of exercises to work on, calf stretch, double calf stretch and top of the foot stretch.  I truly think that by him being able to embody the stretches and feel how they affected his feet, calves, hamstrings and hips, he could already see the benefits.

In addition, we also addressed his left hip, applying any kind of pressure, I was able to feel the amount of tension present compared to the right hip.  When we took a frontal look at his alignment, we could both see that his left hip was slightly higher than the other which caused his torso to push slightly to the right and then his head to tilt slightly to the left.  I do not think he really ever took a good look at himself before and saw what we saw that until I pointed it out.  He would notice the amount of pain when he woke up in the morning, but never attributed to the tension in his hips as well as his legs; my dad would have probably said it was because of old age.

I whipped out the Yoga Tune Up® massage therapy balls and was able to show him some massage points he could work on.  He had the “balls to the wall”, as in he did the self massage standing and up against the wall as opposed to lying on the ground which may have been too much for him. My dad does a lot of sitting for work and as long as I can remember, he was always driving at least an hour or more driving back and forth to work. As he drove me to the airport, I noticed how obviously the right leg was stretched out to reach the gas and brakes, but the left foot was close in to the car seat. All of these postural habits have over time increased the amount of hyper-flexion in his hip.  When he did the self massage on his gluteus medius, he found instant pain as well as relief.

I spoke with my dad this morning to let him know that I got back home safely and he told me that he woke up this morning and did not feel any pain that he had been used to feeling for so long.  He is now a believer. I think he was amazed that the things I showed him worked and he stated that he would incorporate the work with the YTU massage therapy balls and the calf stretch during his breaks at work.

I am happy that I was able to empower him and show how he could provide some relief for his body. My work with him is not yet over. My intentions are to continue to slowly provide both him and my mom with more information about how full body movement, stretching, and some practice of meditation to ease their muscular tension will have a huge impact on their high blood pressure, but also to ease their way gracefully into aging.

Sex, Death, Meditation and Trauma: All Tools for Transformation

I am currently diving into many books, one of them being, Healing Trauma by Peter Levine which offers a 12 step process for learning how to deal with trauma as well as recover and even transform from it.  What he wrote that struck a chord with me was that sex, death, meditation and trauma all play a part in our continuing transformation.  I like how, in a way, there is almost a distinct method or way of allowing for transformation to happen in your life in one of those four aspects.  Maybe for one person, it would not involve any of these, but I have a sense that for the majority out there, these four play a big role.

So, in this blog, let’s talk about sex!.  No, death or depressing talk here, at least not today.  I really hope to get some comments from this blog, because I would love to know how other women feel about this subject and how maybe sex has or has not been a transformative power in their lives.

Obviously, much of what I have been doing recently is linking my current issue with uterine fibroids with any physical or emotional pattern that I have been avoiding, messing up on or could improve upon.  I could definitely say that my view of sex, sensuality, what is sexy, how to be sexy and not be a slut have all been skewed from a very young age.  I won’t go into too much details, but I had my first encounter of what sex was at a young age when I discovered my dad’s Penthouse and Playboy magazines that were hiding in a drawer in our apartment at the time.  I believe that also coming from a somewhat conservative and overly protective family, we did not talk about sex much except for the talk of the birds and the bees.  I never had a romanticized mother to daughter conversation about puberty and my cycles and what they would mean for me as I got older and became a woman.  I also remember this very clearly in my mind that as a little girl, maybe 11 or 12, I distinctly remember thinking to myself that I would either become a nun or a Playboy bunny.  Not sure how that came about, but those were some of the thoughts running in my head at the time.

Getting older and into middle school and high school, I had a very low self-esteem of myself and confidence.  Maybe it started then, of not feeling girly or feminine enough.  If you look at pictures of me from those days, I had really short hair, like a boy; I had started puberty and went from being stick thin and eating whatever I wanted, to getting curves and even a bit of a belly as well as acne! Now, I didn’t lack in the smarts or even a little healthy athletic competition, I was always ready to prove myself to the boys.  However, my sense of being a girl, of being pretty or attractive was lacking.

I never kissed a boy until I got into college and also did not lose my virginity until then.  When I graduated from college and made my way into the Navy, I felt for the very first time that I was being noticed as a woman, as someone who was sexy and enticing and appealing.  I never had that attention before and all I can say is that it was very addicting. Yet, I still struggled with feeling feminine enough or sexy enough, even to this day.

These are some of the words/characteristics that I found while looking up the second chakra: opening, release, vulnerability, sensuality, procreation, creativity, finances, relationships, low back pain, vaginal infections, assertiveness, comfort with sexuality, inherited generational discomfort with sex from mother. These are some of the  characteristics taken from Christiane Northrup’s website and the Mommy Mystic Blog.

For those not familiar with what the second chakra is, it is derived from the 7 chakra system where whorls or vortexes of energy are found running vertically along the center of the body starting from the genital region running all the way up to the top of the head.  All of these energy centers have some correlation with our emotional or psychological state.  For example, the first chakra, muladhara, the root chakra deals with the basic needs in your life, security, shelter, food, etc. The second chakra, svadisthana, is located right in the sacral region, where the reproductive organs are located and I firmly believe that issues with any of the above will manifest physical problems, such as chronic vaginitis (me!), back pain (me!) or fibroids (me again!).

So coming back full circle to this moment and what I have learned/realized and my past, I realize I have some work to do in this area as it definitely fuels a lot of wanting growth in the other areas of my life, like my relationships, my self-confidence as a person, a teacher, a wife and even future mother.  Yes, sex, and not in the most crudest of terms, is and can be a method of transformation.  Maybe in the way of discovering your first orgasm, masturbating, feeling comfortable undressing in front of your partner or even touching yourself during sex!  Even writing this stuff and thinking about it makes me blush Why does it have to conjure up almost shameful feelings?

My question, is why have I been so afraid of my own woman-ness and why have I not owned my sexuality?  Why are we as a sex constantly comparing and even degrading our own bodies so that we can in some lifetime look like the young girl on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Victoria’s Secret?  Are those ideals even worth it and why do we as a society allow it?  Are we willing to spend the rest of our lives trying to attain this ideal when we could just own what we have right now and enjoy it? Is it worth doing this to ourselves and passing those same ideas on to the future generation?

So, I see these questions as great pathways for me to explore and they probably would never have erupted and come about  if I did not have my recent tragedy occur.  There is a lot of healing that needs to occur in my second chakra and lots of opening and release…you can take that it either literally or figuratively

Yogi, Heal Thyself

Reading Christiane Northrup’s book, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, the older version has the introduction title named, “Physician, Heal Thyself”, and she stated how she knew what to do to heal herself, but was not taking her own advice, the very same she would give to her patients.  It made me wonder just how much of my own medicine I give out in my yoga classes or amongst my family and friends and do not take myself.  Bad yogi

As I go now into my third week from the date of when I lost my first baby, I feel that I have healed somewhat and have also developed a clearer understanding of what I need to do and focus on to truly heal myself before I even think of bringing another baby into this world.

Last week, I had an appointment with my gynecologist and we discussed what would be some conservative options that I could take with regards to ridding myself of fibroids so that I can still retain my fertility in the future.  I came home pretty down and spoke to my mom and then I broke down.  I cried and asked why this was all happening to me and stating how truly unfair this was.  I feel that I have always had a pretty good life with no major upheavals or disturbances and all of a sudden, I have losing a baby and fibroids becoming an issue.  Many things came to mind during the day, but the one thing that stuck was again the “blocked energy” I mentioned in my last blog, that it was physically expressing itself as my fibroids.  What have I been blocking for most of my life?  Hmmmmm, let’s see, maybe my emotions, my feelings, my desire to be liked and accepted and not wanting to disappoint. Well, there’s a start!  That was the way I was raised and I have taken those some ideas and ways of being into my relationship with my husband, with his daughters and even with people who I encounter.  And I mean, mostly emotions that involve me being upset or unhappy.  I remember being told many times in my life that I always seemed happy and I always had a smile on my face, but how many times had I just been hiding all of that in?

Another thought that came to me was all of the work that I have been doing for my body.  I guess I was thinking this way because I have been experiencing a lot of muscular pain due to my already tight psoas pressing on my fibroid or my fibroid pressing onto my psoas.  Either way, it has been pretty uncomfortable  I have been practicing yoga for close to 11 years and feel that I have a pretty solid practice, but always room for improvement. As I say this, it has truly just been the physical aspect of yoga, not the full encompassing aspect of yoga.  Yet, despite my practice, I still deal with some chronic areas of pain for me, mostly, my psoas and mid back area.  If you don’t remember, you can read my previous blogs where I talked about the incredible, indelible psoas.

What came to mind for me is that no matter how long I “do” yoga and practice my Restorative Exercise, it won’t matter and I won’t see results if I don’t allow my emotional well-being to be affected and changed as well. I mean yogis talk about how women’s hips are one of our tightest areas, but yet it is also where we hold and store all of our emotions and one of them is freed up, it is easier for the other to let go.  If I am constantly holding, holding, holding everything in (what my husband did or said to me the night before, how his daughters are annoying me, how I would like to be making more money teaching, but I am afraid to say  or do anything) it won’t matter how many times I release my psoas and do those poses or exercises, I will still have a stuck and unfree psoas and a troubled mind.  In some weird way, I feel that I am now just understanding what yoga truly is. Duh! In the easiest sense, opening up my heart will allow my body to open more fully.

So, a big lesson has been learned and I will be continuing down that path to healing as I discover new lessons along the way.  It is unfortunate that I had to have a tragedy lead me to this awakening, but I guess that is how it goes sometimes.  I can’t say that it has been easy; being more open, speaking up even when it may be uncomfortable or allowing myself to be vulnerable.  However, they are all new sensations I am willing to endure in order for me to heal myself, the yogi.  I would not want to continue to have these patterns make their way into my future child and have him or her deal with some of the painful things I have been experiencing.

My first test is with regards to being vulnerable and open and I will be posting more about that later.  All in all, my spirits are up and I truly look forward to the future and have hope that I will have another child. I can definitely say that I am ready to jump back into teaching again.  Hope to see you in a yoga class soon!

My Absence and Transformation

Hello dear readers…I guess I have some explaining to do since I have been pretty incommunicado for a while.  I think in my last post I mentioned that I was pregnant, the last two months presented some challenges to my pregnancy and unfortunately I lost my child at 20 weeks.  It has been a very devastating, challenging and emotionally intense time for me…

As I slowly recover from my loss, being able to put my feelings into words or to express them in some manner is seeming to be more important as the days go by.  I definitely don’t cry as much as I initially did, but all of my emotions on what happened are still very much raw and one that I know needs to come out and not fester inside of me.

In a way, this feels like a cruel joke, feeling like I am beginning 2012 with so many new things coming into my life, most specifically my new baby and then having that one big dream and hope robbed from me.  I definitely was in a state earlier after my loss where I was blaming myself for not being better prepared, for allowing a certain condition I knew little about (I will explain below) to stay in my body, hating it and not truly addressing it and just being in absolute despair.  However, on my good days and especially when the sun is out and warming my heart, I feel hope for the future and I am able to stop reminiscing about the past.  I came across a quote from a fellow yogini, Chani Nicholas, who wrote, “You are not what you have lost, you are what you are becoming.”  This just spoke to me thousandfold, especially after spending some time reading a bit of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Christiane Northrup.

I guess I should mention some things that my body was and is currently dealing with.  First, I found out that I was slightly anemic during my pregnancy.  I am not sure if this was something that was present even before I conceived, but then it brings up for me that I wasn’t prepared in that I was not taking pre-natal vitamins beforehand.  I know, I can’t change the past and I shouldn’t blame myself, but that was one strike against me.  I would say the second was that even though I was over the moon about being pregnant, I still continued to push my body and maybe into limits that were just not appropriate for me.  I remember during my pregnancy having read of a women who was 9 months pregnant and had gone into labor just after she finished running a marathon.  I figured, well if she can do that, then I can continue doing what I was doing, teaching yoga all over the East Bay and carrying on with my normal life.  I have no regrets for having taught and have some of the most wonderful students out there, but I think realizing that my body may just be much more sensitive than say, the pregnant marathon lady, I could have stepped it down a bit.  Strike two. 

Lastly, last January, during a routine pelvic exam, I found out that I had fibroids.  I was a little scared and went in for an ultrasound to see the sizes of them.  Again, no worries, I was a healthy young lady and not having any symptoms that warranted any concern.  I was told that as long as I was not suffering from any symptoms, such as heavy bleeding, cramping and such, not to worry and take a “wait and see” approach. I did not look into the fibroids issue any further or seek information as to whether it would have any adverse impact on my pregnancy.  Not until I went in for my first pre-natal appt. with my doctor did I begin to get concerned since she mentioned that I had the uterus of a 5 month pregnant women and I was only 9 weeks pregnant  I then had an episode of degenerating fibroids in December and then I got really scared. I felt like I was going into pre-term labor and was in so much pain.  I realized that maybe my body needed to slow down a bit and I became a lot gentler with myself. My last episode, just last week, apparently was the one that caused an end to my sweet son’s short short life. Strike three.

As I read Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom sections on uterine fibroids, I was struck by what uterine fibroids meant and what wisdom there was by having them.  They manifested and were created in my body because of blocked energy, of not being able to truly express myself creatively and because I was not allowing my “secret self” to come out.  I was floored when I read all of those things, all things, issues that I had mentioned to my husband either in passing or had been ruminating in my brain for some time with not a clear answer to how I was going to address it.

This is my time to transform, to remove that blocked energy, to find my creative spirit and to allow my secret self to unfold.  I am ready to do the work to heal my body and my spirit and rid myself of fibroids and hopefully share my experience with you as well.  I know that this isn’t relevent specifically to yoga or alignment, but I do feel and have witnessed how my emotional blockages have turned into real physical, physiological manifestations.  I want to be better prepared the next time I conceive and I want to know that my spirit is freer and lighter for the better.

I hope that being a part of my healing journey is one that intrigues, inspires and conjures up what is causing you to be blocked or stuck in your own life. On my good days, I look with anticipation when I am pregnant again and can carry my little one in my arms and tell him or her my story. Thank you to all of you for your e-mails, flowers, visits and prayers  for me and my family.  It is truly amazing that when something truly painful happens to know that I am truly and absolutely loved and cared for by both my friends and family…thank you. Here’s hoping to many more good days.

Shifting Your Paradigm and Changing Your Behavior

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday and are beginning to look forward to 2012!

I look forward to 2012 and will be posting much more in the new year as I have been recently dealing with some health challenges around my pregnancy.  If you didn’t know, I am currently 16 weeks pregnant and due in June and learning so much more about my body than I ever thought I would as it changes and adapts to my growing fetus!  Why didn’t I learn most of this stuff in school?

Today I listened to a great podcast by one of my teachers, Katy Bowman, about interneurons and inertia and how they both have an effect and impact on why we don’t change our behaviors. Here is the link if you are interested in listening, it is located at the bottom of the page.  It will be interesting as we come to the close of 2011 and for many of us (except me ) make New Year’s Resolutions wishing and hoping to make new changes in the new year never really ever stick to it.

I can say that I do and will make learning more about my body, the very intimate intricacies of it, much more present in my life.  As I begin my slow path towards a Physical Therapy degree in the next several years, it will be great to see how much more my body, my mind and my behaviors change.  Stay tuned….

I wish everyone a wonderful and happy holidays and much love, family and best wishes in the New Year!

The Incredible, Indelible Psoas: 5 Key Exercises

Since my last blog posting, I have had some direct and personal experience with some back pain.  I threw my back out a week and a half ago.  As I taught my class and completed the last pose of the class, a forward bend, my back began to go into spasms and I experienced pain that I never encountered before.  I can now sympathize with those who have had back pain and intimately know how it feels to not be able to find a comfortable spot when lying down or sitting.  This lasted for about two days and during that time I was very reluctant in doing any type of stretches and just wanted to give some time for the area that was causing me pain to heal.  It was interesting that as I lay in bed and tried to get a sense for where the real source of my pain was coming from, since it felt so concentrated in my back, I noted that my right psoas as well as my right SI joint feeling out of whack.

These two areas have been problem areas for me for several years, but never caused me this much pain before.  My body is currently going through some significant changes and I feel that because of that, they both have decided to tell me to wake, listen and take care of this otherwise it will be much worse; so I am definitely taking heed and listening.  As I mentioned in the previous posting as the psoas being “the great pretender”, this felt very much to be the case. So, since then, my focus has been on releasing my psoas and getting some better alignment in my SI joint as my current situation my exacerbate it.

I have included 5 keys exercises that I have been doing and practicing to help heal myself and they all tie into helping to release the psoas.  These are definitely not the only ones, there are many more and they don’t necessarily have to be “key” exercises in your practice, but I have found them to be immensely helpful in my ongoing recovery.

#1 – The first is a very nice and deep psoas as well as quad stretch.  The lovely model, Katt, is demonstrating this stretch during the Rehab Your Knee workshop last month.  As mentioned in the knee edition, the tightness or weakness in the psoas play a part in the optimal length of the quad which then play a part in tightness along the tendon connecting the patella to the quads.

#2 – Tightness in the gluts and external rotators will wreak havoc on the lower back as well as your psoas.  If you are like me, who is still a recovering butt tucker and rib thruster, then you may have some really tight gluts. Hopefully, you can see what I am doing above…if not, here is a close-up…

I have a Yoga Tune Up® massage therapy ball under me which applies a pleasantly intense amount of pressure to relieve and release those tight muscles.  Stripping and cross fibering those muscles is a great way to deeply affect the musculature in the hips and can help make hip opening exercises much easier to get into.

#3 – Lengthening the psoas is definitely key and here is a version of a crescent pose that can be done either over a BOSU ball or a big pyhsio/exercise ball of that is available.  Bringing the top leg behind you will help to create the release that is needed and then extending the arm overhead creates even more length.

#4 – The pose above is one of my favorites, but only if you do it correctly can you really get the benefits.  Even though this a side bend, opening up the side body to include the torso, the obliques as well as the diaphragm allows me to take in such deep breaths.  It feels so freeing and I am also able to take in so much more breath after doing this pose.  It is also important to remember that the diaphragm sits right on top and next to the psoas.  Even though the breath has not been covered much, being able to take deep breaths do depend on how much tension there is not just in the psoas, but also the diaphragm.  Below is a right and wrong way for doing this pose…make sure that the back of your ribcage is pressing up against the wall.

The right way

The wrong way

#5 – Taking the cue from Katy Bowman, I am doing this psoas release by hanging on a branch from a tree and taking advantage of what the outdoors has to offer me.  This is still a difficult one for me.  It is not so much the upper body strength, but allowing my psoas to relax; if you can see my hips are still a bit in flexion.  Ideally, I would want my hips lined up up with my knees.  So, I will be practicing this one often now that I have found something that I can hang off of.

So, those are my 5 key exercises for releasing your psoas.  Give them a try and let me know how you do!