It would be another seven years before he got his first clients, and another 11 before he opened his first clinic in San Diego. Today, he has 30 clinics across the world, millions of clients (including an impressive roster of professional athletes) functioning pain-free, and six best-selling books to his credit, with a seventh due out this week, a revised and updated version of his first, Pain Free.

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But it was 50 years ago that he figured out why, despite a year of medical treatment for wounds incurred in Vietnam, he was still in pain and, with that knowledge, began developing the Egoscue Method by which he has helped so many, including himself, become pain-free.

As he writes in this latest book, indeed in all of his books, “Humans are designed as symmetrical bipeds.” Which means we should be symmetrical from side to side, that is, one shoulder or hip should not be higher than the other. We should also be aligned vertically, which is to say that in profile, there should be a straight line from our ears to our ankle bones that runs through the center of our shoulders, hips, and knees.

That is not the case with most of us, and it wasn’t the case with Egoscue 50 years ago. We have eight load-bearing joints—shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles—and he realized that when one of those joints is out of position, some other part of the body has to compensate to enable us to function, which led him to a major discovery that too many medical professionals today still ignore: The source of the pain is rarely the source of the problem.

Related: The At-Home Workout That Will Help You Live Pain-Free

For an event like a car accident or broken bone, yes, the source and site of the pain are the same, but for the chronic musculoskeletal pain that more than 50 percent of all Americans suffer from, the source and site are different and are the result of one part of the body compensating for what another part can no longer do. For instance, if you have back pain, it’s probably because your hip is out of alignment. And yet, most remedies for back pain treat the back, perhaps alleviating the symptom of pain but never addressing the actual source, and therefore never fixing the original problem.

That’s what Egoscue spent years figuring out how exactly to do. Knowing that “bones do what muscles tell them to do,” he experimented with an array of stretches and exercises designed to get our muscles to move our joints back into their proper position. Egoscue had learned that when our hips are where they’re supposed to be, our back stops hurting. Or when our ankles are functioning the way they’re designed to, our knees stop hurting. Or when our shoulder can move as it was intended, we no longer get tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome. It took time for him to learn how muscles move joints, but eventually he learned enough to develop the Egoscue Method, his revolutionary program to return our postures to their original design and thereby relieve ourselves of chronic pain.

Egoscue explores all of this anatomical and physiological information in his expansive new Pain Free, the revised and updated edition of his 1999 best-seller. The book is written in such engagingly accessible prose that one needn’t be a PhD in either field to readily grasp what he’s saying. But much of this information has been available since he wrote his first book decades ago. Why the revision?

“When I wrote my other six books,” he says, “we had a stronger tradition of self-reliance in our country. But we’ve lost a lot of that. We’re more isolated as individuals now than we’ve ever been before, and since the advent of social media, we’ve become more reliant upon the opinion of others in everything, including our pain. We’ve succumbed to this idea that somebody else knows more about our bodies than we do. That’s just not true. But we have to convince people now in ways we’ve never had to before that they really do have the capacity to relieve themselves of their pain.”

That gentle convincing explains, in part, the warmer tone in this updated version: less clinical, more consoling and encouraging.

But he also wrote this revision because, as a society, we are in a different place than we were when he first devised the Egoscue Method—and that place isn’t good. “Many Americans now are physically weak, and by weak, I mean they have lost the ability to remain upright,” Egoscue says. “It’s astonishing to me how many people cannot stand on one foot and, sadly, don’t even know they’re supposed to be able to. We have lost postural stability. Forty years ago, we could treat clients by focusing on strength because they were still stable. Now, we have to stabilize them first before we can strengthen them.” The culprit here is our sedentary lives.

Related: The Simplest Change You Can Make for Better Health

As Egoscue points out in the book, “In the 1920s, manual workers outnumbered knowledge workers by a ratio of 2:1. By 1980, that ratio was reversed.” All that sitting impacts our postures and leads to pain.

“Evolution didn’t stop once we got upright,” Egoscue explains. “It continues, and our evolving, or de-evolving, depends upon the stimulus of our environment.” Right now, for too many, that stimulus doesn’t involve movement. Sadly, that affects more than just our bodies, a mind-body relationship that Egoscue also explores in this book. “We know that exercise improves our endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health,” he writes, “but movement is also directly connected to feelings of hope, happiness, connection, and confidence.”

The book also contains testimonials from beneficiaries of the Egoscue Method, some famous, some not, including a wonderful foreword from NFL Hall-of-Famer John Lynch, who gives a share of the credit for his success to Egoscue. “Quite simply,” Lynch writes, “Egoscue is the most brilliant person I have ever encountered when it comes to the human body and unleashing its vast potential.” When Lynch was hired as general manager for the San Francisco 49ers, he immediately incorporated the Egoscue Method into the team’s fitness regimen.

And of course, the book incorporates menus of E-cises (Egoscue exercises) to address the issues in your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders that are causing pain elsewhere in your body or reducing its ability to function at its full potential. The menus come with pictures and detailed explanations to make sure you’re doing the E-cises correctly.

Egoscue is notoriously reluctant to discuss himself, but when asked to reflect on his accomplishments these past 50 years, he said that his favorite fact is that he’s created competition. “You can imagine the ridicule and scorn I endured when I started talking about posture as a source of most of our pain. But now that thinking permeates the healthcare world, and we have competitors, and I think that’s wonderful. We’re figuring it all out together, and in the end, that can only benefit us all.”

True enough. But it all started with Egoscue 50 years ago, and this newest edition of Pain Free (available on Amazon) is the ideal commemoration of how far we’ve come in our understanding of the relationship between our posture and our pain.

The post Pain-Free Reading: The (Updated) New Book from Pete Egoscue! appeared first on Sonima.

What was the innocent, yet detrimental act? Putting on shoes.

“Optimum foot development occurs in the barefoot environment,” wrote Lynn T. Staheli, MD, in the article “Shoes for Children: A Review” published in Pediatrics. This was back in 1991, long before tales of Tarahumara runners and research from Harvard’s professor of human evolutionary biology, Daniel Lieberman, PhD, helped spur the barefoot running movement.

Staheli, who also wrote several books on pediatric orthopedics (including the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal problems in kids) explained in the paper that “stiff and compressive footwear may cause deformity, weakness, and loss of mobility,” and that “shoe selection for children should be based on the barefoot model.”

You probably didn’t grown up wearing Vibram’s so-called “toe shoes,” especially considering that those kicks weren’t available until 2005. It’s also unlikely that you spent much time digging your toes in sand or grass either. That’s not your parents’ fault. Most pathways are not exactly foot-friendly, especially urban sidewalks covered in all kinds of debris (broken glass, sharp sticks and pebbles, animal feces, etc.). While it’s true, your soles need the protection, wearing shoes too often—even before you could walk—can affect you adversely in unexpected ways.

“We’re interrupting the development without allowing our children to develop the way nature intended them to – through crawling,” explains Sonima alignment expert Pete Egoscue. “People think that the sooner their kids walk, the smarter they are, but nothing could be further from the truth. The arches of the foot need all of that crawling. And then we put them in these little hard shoes that disrupt them even further.”

Related: The Crazy Thing That Can Happen to Your Feet

“When parents put these clunky shoes on kids at a young age, they are impeding foot and ankle activation. The kids rely on the crutch of a pair of shoes rather than the muscles around their feet, ankles and toes, which need to be developed,” agrees Joel Seedman, a Ph.D. in kinesiology and athlete trainer based near Atlanta, Georgia. “It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes you can make for a kid. And it’s going to affect them the rest of their lives.”

Seedman sees the results firsthand in the clients he coaches, and says the issues are far-reaching. “It’s going to affect their movement patterns, their posture, and how injury-prone they are. It’s also going to mess with their coordination and reaction time. Foot and ankle strength plays a huge role in your movement patterns.”

The effects aren’t just neuromuscular. “Take the lymphatic system,” Egoscue says. “It’s everywhere in your body. It’s just as pervasive as the circulatory system. And like the circulatory system, it has to pump against gravity. It drains upward, just like the veins. The structures act like little elevators to return waste back up your legs. They can’t do it without help. And what helps? Muscular contraction.”

The robust muscle action that takes place when your bare foot touches the ground helps the lymph nodes drain to their interlinking vessels. Egoscue says that’s just one example of how what’s going on with your feet impacts the rest of your body. Some others? “Balance, digestion, absorption, elimination and bowel movements—everything, really. The body is a unit,” Egoscue says.

One of the more worrisome effects of wearing shoes too often is a condition known as “toe crowding.” People with it appear to have very little space between their toes—or in some cases, the toes overlap. While this can be the result of a structural deformity, muscle weakness is also a main culprit. “It’s actually a common sign of aging,” Seedman says. “But we’re starting to see it in populations as young as 10 years old now.”

Shocking as this sounds, it also makes sense when you take a closer look at the shoes most people wear. By and large, shoes are tapered, coming to a point near the toes. “Most shoes constrict the toes together,” Seedman says, which, he adds, is the opposite of how the foot is supposed to work. “We need those toes to splay. Having that room in the toe-box is critical.”

Seedman’s advice? “Throughout the day, I tell athletes to work on lifting and spreading their toes—especially the big toe. You want to lift it medially or out.”

Try lifting and spreading your toes as Seedman describes, and hold the position for 30 seconds to a minute. The exercise will help you develop the toe flexors—the little muscles that help you lift the toes toward the shins. The strength of these muscles is a surprisingly good indicator of your overall health, recent studies show. Perform that movement as often as you’d like throughout the day.

Also, consider implementing this simple rule from Egoscue to improve the performance of your feet and ankles: “When you’re indoors, no shoes and no socks,” he says. “That’s where you start.” If doing this daily is not an option, try “Barefoot Saturday” or spending one day (any) a week without shoes. It’s a practice that Kelly Starrett, a physical therapist best known for his work with CrossFit, and other movement experts have also encouraged.

Let’s be clear that this does not mean you should never wear shoes. Shoes protect the feet from wear and tear. There are many instances where you absolutely should be wearing shoes. In fact, your ability to continue to operate in society probably requires you to wear shoes most of the time, lest you think your boss would be cool with you roaming the office halls with your pedicured toes al fresco.

If you’re looking to add minimalist footwear to your shoe collection, ease into it, especially if you’ve only worn traditional shoes til now. “Once you’re comfortable walking around the house without shoes, buy a straight-lasted shoe,” Egoscue recommends. A straight-lasted shoe is one that does not have an elevated heel. “Most athletic shoes lift your heel above your toes, which puts your foot at a mechanical advantage for running faster,” he says. “Shoes that keep your heels level with your toes are sometimes called ‘zero-drop’ shoes. Then work your way toward barefoot-style shoes.”

The post The Case for Going Barefoot More Often appeared first on Sonima.

Once an athlete pulls a hamstring, he or she can be knocked out of commission for anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on the severity of the damage. That is why many athletes go to great lengths to avoid this injury, incorporating a detailed and protracted regimen of stretching. Unfortunately, no amount of stretching will prevent this problem for one simple reason: The crux of the matter lies in the hips, not the hamstrings.

I’ve said it thousands of times, but it bears repeating: barring recent trauma, such as a car accident, the source of the pain is never the source of the problem. Hamstring pulls are really the result of a dysfunctional posture and an imbalanced body. To prevent this injury, athletes must bring proper alignment to their postures so that their bodies can work as a unit.

First, let’s cover some anatomical specifics. What is commonly referred to as the hamstring is actually three muscle groups: 1) the semitendinosus muscle and tendon, 2) the semimembranosus muscle and tendon, and 3) the biceps femoris, short and long. Those muscles run from the pelvis to the knee and are attached by the tendon to the bone. When people pull their hamstrings, it’s often in one of the muscles, however, the more severe strains that take longer to heal occur in the tendon. Regardless of whether the pull is in a muscle or a tendon, the underlying problem is the inability of the tendons and muscles of the hamstring to work in a synchronized fashion.

Related: Taking the First Steps Toward Pain-Free Living

When we break into a sprint, the muscle spindles in our hamstrings contract. In a properly aligned, fully functioning body that contraction is flawless. The tendons at the knee and hip work simultaneously to allow that muscle to correctly engage. However, if the hamstring tendons at the hip don’t work in synchronicity with those at the knee, the body, in its wisdom, puts an immediate halt to the contraction in that hamstring muscle. While the body instinctively commands that muscle to stop, the rest of you doesn’t get the memo so you continue to full-on sprint. In that split second, you may experience a pulled hamstring. (Note: I am speaking here about the most overwhelmingly common cause of hamstring pulls.)

So, you can see, the problem is not the hamstring, but rather the inability of the tendons at the hip to work in concert with the tendons at the knee and in accordance with the muscle. Pain is the body’s way of communicating to you that something is wrong. A common misconception is that you can stretch that muscle back into alignment. But the truth is, stretching or isolating it by intensely strengthening the muscles around it will not remedy the underlying issue. Yes, the hamstring will eventually feel better, but that’s the result of time allowing the body to heal itself.

Moving the hip back to the appropriate position is what will best prevent hamstring pulls. No one is more aware of this than Elliot Williams, the director of Functional Performance for the San Francisco 49ers. Elliot was recently hired by my old friend, John Lynch, the new General Manager for the 49ers. I have worked with John on his posture and fitness since he was a teenager, and because he is such a staunch supporter of postural alignment, he immediately brought on Elliot, an Egoscue Method-trained therapist, to work with the NFL team on their alignment, too. Given the prevalence of hamstring injuries among athletes, Elliot spends a great deal of time working to counter their occurrence.

“When it comes to hamstrings,” Elliot says, “the actual compensation is almost always upper-body driven. That is, if the hip isn’t in its proper place and working as it was intended, it’s something in the upper body that gives me that clue.” For instance, if a player is in the weight room, and he does a series of squats, Elliot looks at the position of his arms when he is finished.

“If those arms are spread wide and distant from their sides, as if he’d just worked his trap muscles, then I know there’s a big problem with the hips. Squats are a hip-driven exercise. But if that hip-driven exercise caused his arms to move out as if he’d just done a back-driven exercise, that means the back did actually do too much work, and that’s because the hips couldn’t. The back was compensating for a hip that’s so dysfunctional, it’s in danger of not being able to work properly for a sprint.”

The upper body is always a dead-giveaway if there’s a misalignment that could hurt the hamstrings, Elliot continues. For example, when a player sprints, his arms will move freely back and forth if the hip is properly aligned. But when the player’s hands don’t move very far from the body mid-sprint, then that’s a sign the shoulders aren’t enabling the arms to swing. In this case, the shoulders are working too hard to compensate for a hip not doing its job to allow the body to run. Sometimes, the compensation will be so extreme that the hands actually chug sideways, crossing perpendicular across the center line of the spine. That’s another sign of someone who is about to pop his hamstring.

Elliott also pays attention to the legs. “If I see someone’s stride has noticeably shortened, that’s a sign of a compromised hip.”

The bottom line: The body is a unit, and all of its many elements work in complete concert. You cannot isolate any one part from the rest. Too many people are pulling their hamstrings these days, and it’s causing untold hours of pain as well as disappointment on multiple levels. When a professional baseball player pulls his hamstring, the team loses his services for any number of weeks, perhaps diminishing the team’s chances of winning and certainly reducing the return on the owner’s investment. And when amateur athletes pull their hamstrings, they lose their ability to play that game of tennis or golf over the weekend, take that jog with their dog, or go for that moderately difficult hike with their kids.

Hamstring pulls can be prevented by aligning the body so that it is balanced and the hips are functional. Full postural alignment with a trained therapist is always best, but if that’s not immediately accessible to you, try this 15-minute exercise sequence to realign your hips so that they can help your hamstrings out when needed.

The post Why Hips Are Hurting Hamstrings appeared first on Sonima.

Abductor hallucis is the phrase you’re looking for. You were just about to say that, right? You can group it in with a larger formation of muscles known as the plantar intrinsics, a not-particularly-well-understood group that both begin and end within the confines of the foot.

Only recently, researchers have been able to take a detailed look at what, exactly, these muscles do. Among those leading the charge is Luke A. Kelly, PhD, a biomechanics research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. His work over the past five years has shown that the plantar intrinsics play a crucial role in maintaining balance, especially when you are standing on one leg.

Why is this important? One of the biggest risks you’ll face during your life is falling. In fact, falls are the number one cause of injuries and death among older Americans. Whether you’re a senior or a millennial (or somewhere in between), those tiny-but-crucial muscles in your foot that keep you upright are getting weaker by the moment. A recent study released in March 2017 examined toe flexor (part of the plantar intrinsics) strength in more than 1,400 men and found it was a good indicator of one’s body composition and metabolic health. It also showed that an age-related decline in strength developed earlier in the toe flexors than it did the grip (another effective predictor of a long, healthy life), and that strength dropped more sharply.

All of which is to say that the little muscles in your feet are a bigger deal than you think, and not just because weak plantar intrinsics have been linked to bunions, plantar fasciitis, and shin splints (although all of this is true). The strength of your feet and toes is reflective of your strength overall.

Related: An Active Alignment Sequence for Feet and Femurs to Improve Posture

“The body is a unit,” says Sonima’s pain and anatomy advisor Pete Egoscue. “No matter what our brilliant minds do to treat a specific symptom, the entire body is impacted. The body treats itself globally.” Which means you can strengthen your feet, and it will improve posture and balance throughout your entire body. It also means that some of the exercises you’ll use to improve your foot strength involve more than just those two things you’re standing on.

Here are five foot-strengthening exercises—including four from Egoscue’s book Pain Free—that help counteract the dysfunctional loading of our feet, restore them to their proper alignment, and strengthen the muscles helping to keep you upright.

1. Foot Circles and Point Flexes

Lie flat on your back. Bend one knee toward your chest while leaving the other leg flat on the floor, toes pointing straight up at the ceiling. Interlace your fingers behind your elevated knee, then circle the foot of your bent leg in a clockwise direction. Do 30 rotations, then do the same number counterclockwise. Switch legs and repeat.

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 2. Supine Calf/Hamstring Stretch

Stay on your back but this time bend one knee so that your foot can rest flat against the floor. Lift your opposite leg and wrap a strap or stretch band around the ball of your foot. Use the strap to help guide the leg toward your face until it forms about a 45-degree angle with your body (or until you feel a stretch sensation in your calf – you don’t want to push it like crazy here). Hold the stretch for 30 to 45 seconds. Then repeat with the other leg lifted.

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The Hamstring Stretch is the same as the calf stretch for the most part. The main difference is that the strap should wrap around your arch (mid-foot), rather then the ball of your foot. Lift your leg until it forms about a 90-degree angle with your torso or until you feel sensation in your hamstrings (again: don’t try to be a hero here). Keep both sides of your butt pressed flat against the floor and hold for 30 seconds.

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3. Static Extension

Kneel on a block or chair with your hands on the floor, directly under your shoulders. Relax your head and back toward the floor and let your shoulder blades come toward one another. Your back should be arched with your belly toward the floor. Keeping your elbows locked, slide your hips forward six to eight inches so that they are in front of, and not aligned overtop of, your knees. Hold the stretch for one to two minutes.

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 4. Wall Sit (or “Air Bench”)

Stand with your back against a wall. Press the small of your back against the wall as you walk your feet forward and slide down into a sitting position. Stop when both your knees and your hips are bent 90 degrees. If the sensation on your knees is too intense, lift your body up to relieve the pressure. Hold for one to three minutes.

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5. Janda’s “Shortfoot”

This exercise dates back to one of the forefathers of biomechanics, Vladimir Janda. A 2016 study showed it effectively activated the plantar intrinsic muscles. To do the exercise, stand with one foot about two foot-lengths in front of the other, then raise and lower the toes of the forward foot 20 to 30 times. Switch legs and repeat.

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The post The Crazy Thing That Can Happen to Your Feet appeared first on Sonima.

All those men in that grainy, vintage footage mimicking playground-like maneuvers among the trees were members of the Polish National Weightlifting Team. Though their “workout” might not have looked like much other than fun, they were building strength, according to Egoscue.

To understand how Egoscue defines strength, first a quick anatomy lesson. The body has four pairs of load-bearing joints—the shoulders, the hips, the knees, the ankles. When the body is in alignment, those joints vertically line up. In other words, if you were to draw a line straight up from your right ankle, it would intersect with your right knee, right hip and right shoulder.

When a body is in alignment, it is balanced horizontally, too, which means that one’s shoulders, hips and knees would be precisely parallel. Feet should also never pronate (rest on the inside of the foot) or supinate (rest on the outside). While everyone is born with perfect alignment, we all get out of whack over time, and it’s not the result of anything specific we did. In fact, it’s likely something we didn’t do or didn’t do enough: Be active. A sedentary lifestyle causes joints to slowly move out of proper positioning, which can lead to pain, affecting the back, neck, head, and other areas.

Another issue that arises from misalignment is weakness. Even the fittest athletes are weak when they are misaligned. A guy who can bench press 400 pounds, for example, might not be able to side squat under a low branch. Think of it like a game of Jenga. When the blocks stack up seamlessly, you can build a pretty high and sturdy structure. However, when a few blocks are slightly out of place (picture some edges sticking out), stability is compromised, which means it won’t be long before that tower comes crashing down.

The same rules apply to your body. When you’re aligned, your joints can operate more freely, communicating with each other and working together as a unit to lift or support more weight. You have a full range of motion with your load-bearing joints, regardless whether you’re upright or in another position. Which brings us back to how Egoscue defines strength: The ability for ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders to talk to each other in a balanced way, regardless of the position.

If you want to get your body back into alignment, Egoscue’s Patch Fitness can help. The core eight principles behind its exercises recruit muscles to move joints back to their intended position for optimal function. Depending on your posture, it can take days, weeks, months and, in rare cases, years to realign the body through Patch Fitness. But, little by little, if done regularly, these key movements can help shift your joints back into place where they have full range of motion again.

Related: Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness

Much of modern weight training has abandoned the concept of full range of motion. It focuses on isolated muscles—which is a misnomer because no single part of the body can be divorced from the rest—in an attempt to promote a specific strength that is measurable. But that strength is incomplete as it tends to measure a specialized type of strength, such as how much you can bench press.

This myopic approach to fitness isn’t limited to just weightlifting. Running, for instance, is a great form of exercise, but if all you’re doing is logging miles, you’re promoting a tightness in the hips that will eventually affect the knees and lower back. Cycling is also great, but if you’re only pedaling, you’re reducing the range of motion in your shoulders and hips, which may eventually stiffen your spine, causing neck pain, headaches, elbow and wrist pain—all the result of the body no longer being allowed to work as a unit. Of course, some athletic trainers have learned this, and are still learning it, which is why there is more and more cross-training among our athletes. But many people in the fitness world still fail to comprehend the importance of the body as a single unit that needs to be aligned.

Changing load positions—compelling the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles to move across every plane of possibility—encourages full function of our bodies, which, in turn, enables for greater strength in every position. The fact that our training has gotten away from this basic truth has made people weaker, even the strongest among us.

The post A Holistic Approach to Strength Training appeared first on Sonima.

“The whole challenge with the fitness industry is the belief that the harder you go, the more fit you’ll get,” says Sonima pain and anatomy advisor Pete Egoscue. “That’s just not true.”

The “push-it” mindset turns good movements into strange contortions that are anything but beneficial. So is the case with Bird Dog, an exercise where you start on all fours then lift an arm and alternate leg off the floor.

When you perform the move correctly, it helps your posture, strengthens deep back muscles, and teaches your load-bearing joints (ankles, knees, hips and shoulders) to work together. But many people try to “go farther” with this underestimated exercise and wind up putting unnecessary stress on their spine.

“This is an advanced exercise that is often done poorly by beginners,” elite performance coach Michael Boyle writes in his 2016 book, New Functional Training for Sports.

You can perform the move like a pro—and spare your back a lot of stress—by learning what good form for Bird Dog means. The first step is to understand what the exercise is really meant to do.

Why Add Bird Dog to Your Workout?

A proper Bird Dog strengthens important back muscles called extensors—longissimus, iliocostalis, and multifidus. Together, they stiffen and stabilize the spine, helping it to carry weight. A good Bird Dog does all of this while placing while a minimal amount of load on the spine itself, according to Stuart McGill, Ph.D., head of the spine biomechanics laboratory at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

To train these muscles properly, your goal is to hold the spine rigid in a neutral position as you move your arms and legs. What’s a “neutral” position? Perhaps that’s best understood by explaining what it’s not. Neutral is not rounded, as if you were hunched over at a computer. A rounded back is said to be in flexion.

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On the opposite end of the spectrum, neutral is not belly-dipping-toward-the-floor. This position—also incorrect—is called extension.

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The Big Mistake People Make When They Bird Dog

When you understand what “neutral spine” means, and that maintaining that position is the goal when you Bird Dog, you can immediately see the problem with this common “go further” form fault.

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People—often strong folks who have a good range of motion—turn the Bird Dog into a sort-of All-Fours Half-Superman, lifting their hand as high as they can reach and kicking their heel toward the sky (see above). This causes several problems.

• A Superman-type move can apply almost three times as much compression to the spine compared to a proper Bird Dog, according to McGill’s research.
• This greater degree of force is being applied to a spine that’s in a hyperextended position. That means that the discs between vertebrae are being pinched on one side and are bulging on another.
• Hyperextension can also be damaging to the interspinous ligament, an important tissue primarily located in your lower back.

The combination of these factors is why McGill, in his book Low Back Disorders, concluded about the Superman: “This exercise should not be done in any form.”

How Bird Dog the Right Way

Start by positioning your hands directly underneath your shoulders and your knees beneath your hips.

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Beginners may want to start by lifting just one arm or leg at a time. As you do, be careful not to round at the upper back when moving the arm, or hike up the hip on the side of your elevated leg. Keep the hips level.

The next level is to perform what we more commonly know as Bird Dog, where your arm and leg move at the same time.

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Push back through your heel. Think “heel to the wall.” The foot should be dorsiflexed, which means “toes pulled toward your shin.” Also, and this is key, your heel should not be held higher than your butt. “If the heel stays level with the butt, the back cannot extend,” Boyle explains.

Notice your knee of the lifted leg. Is it bent? If so, try and straighten it out. “A lot of people don’t bring their leg into full extension behind them,” Egoscue says. “They keep the knee bent, when they should be focusing on extending it.”

Your raised arm should be horizontal but no farther. McGill suggests making a fist with your elevated hand to get more muscle engagement from the move.

In a well-executed bird dog, your ankle, knee, hip and shoulder will form a line. Hold that position for 5 to 8 seconds, then lower and repeat. Perform all of your reps with one arm and leg, then switch to the others. Keep the motion controlled throughout.

“Slow down,” Egoscue says. “And don’t hold your breath. It doesn’t matter when you inhale or exhale, just make sure that you’re breathing.”

The post How to Bird Dog Like You Mean It appeared first on Sonima.

“He showed us everything,” Pete recalls. “I mean, the kitchens, the banquet facilities, even the laundry rooms.” But there was one place that Manuel conspicuously ignored—a big circular building that he didn’t acknowledge as they walked past it toward the outskirts of the grounds then again as they returned to his own office for cool refreshments. Before the tour ended, however, Troi asked delicately, “Manuel, what is this building? Why aren’t we going in?”

“Oh, that’s just a fitness building. Would you like to see it?” he said nonchalantly.

Both obsessed with fitness, Pete and Troi were excited to take a look, so Manuel invited them in. It was a gorgeous, state-of-the art facility. One long stretch of the circular wall was a bank of windows that overlooked the Pacific Ocean and some majestic palisades. In front of those windows was a line of treadmills, all vacant. In fact, the entire gym, beautiful as it was, was a ghost town. Pete asked why, and Manuel explained that it wasn’t peak season, so there weren’t many Americans at the resort.

“They’re the only ones who use this facility,” Manuel confirmed. Then he shook his head, confused and disapproving. “We have incredible places for people to jog and walk. We have pools and beaches and so many ways to have fun and exercise. We just don’t understand why anyone who wants to exercise would choose a treadmill over any of those other options, but Americans always do.” He paused then before he added, “When they’re on the treadmill, they never look like they’re having any fun.”

“Somewhere in the not so distant past, fitness got off on the wrong track,” Pete says in hindsight. How? Accidentally. “It wasn’t malicious,” he says. “It was just an unintended consequence.” Which is partly why he created Patch Fitness back in the 1980’s. Patch Fitness is many things: It’s a great workout for any part of the body. It’s an efficient exercise plan for any busy person. It helps realign the body, improve metabolism and boost energy. It’s a workout that burns calories, enhances cardiovascular capability, and tightens the physique everywhere. But just as important as all of that (and numerous other benefits not mentioned), Patch Fitness is fun. And that’s no accident.

Related: Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness

There’s a human compulsion to measure outcomes and effects, and in the age of endless data at our fingertips, there’s an epidemic of measuring just about everything we do, all under the auspice of charting progress. Today you may be able to do only 15 pushups, but after a month of working out, you can do 25 push-ups, and that’s progress. And that’s good, right?

“Not necessarily,” Pete says. “At no point are we measuring the joy.” In order to accommodate this focus on measurable progress, much of the fun gets squeezed out of the fitness in America, and the problem with that is that the less fun something is, the less likely people are to do it.

That’s why the fitness of the Patch emphasizes the enjoyment aspect. “Every sport ever invented is the combination of spontaneity and fun. Native Americans didn’t invent lacrosse because it seemed like a great way to stay in shape. Volleyball, tennis, football, soccer—you name it, they weren’t invented from a studied effort to stay in shape. They were invented spontaneously as a way to have fun,” Pete explains.

The Patch abides by similar principles—spontaneity and fun. “When was the last time you got down on the ground and crawled around? The last time you stepped up on a chair or hopped on a bench or squatted to get under a split rail fence? You don’t think of any of that as exercise, but it is,” Pete says. That philosophy is a primary impetus behind the Patch.

Whether you’re a professional athlete or a potato fresh off of the couch, when you bear crawl under a bench or jump over that same bench, you are doing it at your level. “You’re not focused on how many reps you’re doing or how fast you’re moving. There’s no digital readout of how many calories you’re burning or steps you’re taking, all of which removes you from the present enjoyment of an activity,” Pete says. “You’re just doing it to the best of your ability in the same way you used to just swing from a jungle gym when you were a kid or jump over a fence on the way to school. That focus on measurement is about fear. It’s about making you feel inadequate if you don’t do enough reps. If you’re exercising from a position of fear, you can achieve a sense of accomplishment at the end of a workout, but you won’t have any fun.”

Again that matters because a fun workout keeps you coming back. “It’s very unpleasant for people to try to get fit doing something they don’t love doing. If you don’t love running, but every day you’re way to fitness is a run, then at some point you’re just going to stop running.”

This fun factor also has an impact on the actual physical performance. “Over the years, I’ve worked with every kind of person, from hundreds of pro athletes to regular people who wouldn’t remotely refer to themselves as athletes,” he says. What Pete has noticed among all of his clients is that when they’re having fun with their workouts, their performance actually improves. Furthermore, the recovery time from that performance decreases. Even the pro athletes, when engaged in conditioning they don’t enjoy, tire more easily and think they are not in good shape.

“They’re constantly paranoid about what they’re doing because they intuitively sense they should be doing more,” he says. “They’re right, but not in the way they think. What they should be doing more of is trusting themselves, trusting their instincts, and migrating toward fitness that they find more fun.” When they do that, they get in better shape.

To date, there have been no studies measuring how much the enjoyment of exercise impacts the body as opposed to conditioning that’s less exhilarating, but relying on his 40 years of observation, Pete knows it to be true. Joy matters. Which is what Manuel at the resort in Baja intuitively knew and what Pete unfailingly remembers every time he puts together another Patch Fitness routine.

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post The Most Important Element Missing From Your Workout appeared first on Sonima.

The question came as a bit of a revelation to Egoscue. Instinctively, he knew he could improve their conditioning. Years of experience studying all of the body’s joints and muscles and how they’re interconnected had long prepared him to create the exact fitness plan they needed. Yet, it hadn’t occurred to him to devise an exercise program using his extensive knowledge of the anatomy until right then. Without much hesitation, he responded, “I think I could. Follow me.”

They walked about three-quarters of a mile from Egoscue’s first clinic in San Diego (he now has 26 clinics worldwide) to a horse show park, an outdoor space where equestrian and dressage riders practiced hurdling over both permanent and temporary obstacles with their horses. A former Marine, Egoscue was well-versed in how obstacle-course training can make you fit and strong. So to him, this place was perfect for what he had in mind, especially since it was set outside (nothing like fresh air and mother nature to inspire you to move).

Related: 25 Beautiful Places in the World to Find Peace of Mind

“It was very challenging, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. You felt good when you were done. And no matter how tired you felt going through it, you felt energized, too,” Egoscue recalls of his fitness regimen for the military.  Back then, however, Egoscue didn’t see the obstacle course as much more than a means to an end. It took him a few more years to connect the dots—combining his later acquired knowledge of the anatomy and unique insights on the role posture plays in our health—to fully understand why those courses were so effective.

“It’s all about negotiating obstacles in various positions and circumstances. It’s an inclusive, holistic way of conditioning that compels the body to work in the way it was designed to work. Bicycling, jogging—these are beneficial, but they don’t promote balance and strength in a varied array of positions. They don’t promote the health of joints and full range of motion, and therefore, don’t boost the metabolism as much. That’s what makes people feel energized—that metabolism boost,” Egoscue explains. That experience maneuvering obstacle courses as a Marine was exactly what Egoscue aimed to replicate with those high school students at the equestrian show park. And he hit a bullseye.

Watching the boys, Egoscue realized he had stumbled upon an ideal means of exercise: An enjoyable way to produce balance, strength and endurance. Of course, he knew he had discovered nothing new. After all, he was only harking back to fitness techniques he had learned in the military.  But during a time when so much fitness had turned (and continues to turn) to the specialization of skills, isolation of muscles, repetition of routines and reduced range of motion, he had been reawakened to the importance of full functional movement in our conditioning.

“Word spread about what I was teaching these kids,” Egoscue remembers. Soon enough, he started training others in the show park, devising exercises and arranging them in a specified order—and people were loving it. Some even asked him to design and build a unit of obstacles that they could do anywhere, anytime. For those who couldn’t meet in the San Diego park, Egoscue created a structure—a series of bases and beams (pictured above)—that people could go over, under and around anywhere.

Over, under and around make up a key concept for functional movement, which is the element that makes the Patch—as Egoscue’s new exercise program later became called—such an effective workout. The young boys had come up with the name for the stretch of commercial tomato patches dividing Egoscue’s clinic from the show park.

“Functional means allowing the human body to fall into its natural groove of movement. If you get on the ground, go over things, under things and around things, you’re eventually going to get more functional. You coax the body to perform natural movement patterns,” says Brian Bradley, postural alignment specialist and vice president of Egoscue. These are the same patterns that may have been lost or neglected due to a sedentary lifestyle.

It all harks back to one of Egoscue’s earliest claims, fully explored in his first book, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion: The more we move our bodies in ways that promote full range of motion, the healthier those bodies will be. Even folks who hit the gym regularly are often not as healthy as they could be.

“So much of what we do in the gym is about trying to be perfect in our form,” Bradley says. “First, that’s just not natural. Second, and ironically, by striving to be ‘perfect’ and even symmetrical, people in gyms are losing their natural balance. They’re inadvertently strengthening and working one side harder than the other. With the Patch, people naturally achieve balance through their bodies working as a unit.”

It’s that whole-body aspect that makes the Patch so efficient. Many forms of exercise, especially in the gym (think bench pressing, squats, even lunges or rowing) utilize just parts or peripheries of the body.

“Every single exercise we use in the Patch tires every muscle,” Bradley says. “That’s why a 15- or 20-minute routine from the Patch is worth two days of normal training. It’s also a great warm-up for any type of training you might do afterward. It centers your balance and makes you a hip-driven mover. By using your hips, your body gets twice the result with half the effort.”

And it doesn’t stop there.  “As your day unfolds and you do the activities of normal daily living, your body continues to get more functionally strong and balanced because of the changes that occurred in the Patch workout that you did earlier that day or a couple days prior. Every step you take after the Patch enhances the effects of the Patch.”

While there is an actual Patch apparatus, a series of plastic, portable bases and beams that Egoscue designed and that can be moved inside or out if you happen to own one, the fact is, a Patch routine can be done anywhere. It does not require a specific space or a specific setting. “It just requires you, your imagination and your surroundings,” says Egoscue. “Any outdoor setting with a bench or stairs or playground becomes a Patch. Any indoor setting for that matter, with tables or benches or chairs.”

The cherry on top: Doing the Patch is actually fun—though you won’t catch Bradley using that word to describe it. Making the program sound too playful has its disadvantages. People might be less inclined to take it seriously. But Egoscue is often quick to point out that originally, all forms of what we have come to call exercise were predicated on the notion of play and fun. It’s only in recent decades, and largely in America, fitness has become an obligation more than a joy—for adults, that is, not kids.

“Watch a group of kids running around a playground. They’re exercising like crazy, but they don’t know it. They just think they’re playing and having fun,” notes Egoscue. “Same with the Patch. It’s a hell of a workout, but it’s all disguised as pure, unadulterated, childlike fun.”

Photo by Hailey Wist

The post Unlock Your Body’s Fullest Potential with Patch Fitness appeared first on Sonima.

Historically, sulfites have been used since ancient Roman times to sanitize wine vessels and were introduced as a food preservative in the 1600s. Sulfites are often added to wines to protect them against oxidation and microbial growth. “Without them, [long-term] preservation of wine would be impossible,” says Jeremy Fisher, sommelier at The Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick, NJ. “A 1961 Bordeaux would taste like vinegar.” The fermentation process produces small amounts of sulfites—not enough to preserve wine indefinitely. “Transporting wines around the world without sulfites would be impossible, according to most winemakers,” says Fisher.

In addition to wine and dried fruit, you’ll find sulfites added to many foods, such as some canned seafood and white potatoes meant for frying. You might also see them in dried vegetables, pickled onions, fruit juice, vinegar, lemon and lime juice, fruit bars, gravy, pizza dough, deli meat, shrimp, lobster, and gelatin. In cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, they may turn up in hair dye, tanning lotion, anti-aging cream, bath gel, perfume, blush, and certain medication such as anti-fungal and corticosteroid creams and some antibiotics. Some people say that sulfites impart a bitter taste to food and drink, but that’s up for debate.

Sulfites occur naturally at low concentrations in some foods, such as grapes. If the sulfites occur or are added in excess of 10 or more parts per million (ppm) in a finished product, you’ll see a “contains sulfites” label on the package—a mandate by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because sulfites are a known allergen.

How Do Sulfites Affect Your Health?

You may have heard that the sulfites in red wine can make your head pound. But there’s no verdict on whether red-wine-related headaches are due to sulfites or other compounds. What we do know: Sulfites can cause itchy skin, low blood pressure, abdominal pain, and diarrhea—as well as life-threatening anaphylactic shock and asthma attacks.

However, you have to be sensitive to sulfites to see these reactions. About 1 percent of people have a sulfite sensitivity. “This sounds like a little—but in the U.S. alone, this would amount to more than 3 million people,” says Vincent Pedre, M.D., author of Happy Gut and an internist at Concierge Choice Physicians in Rockville Centre, New York. When you’re considering asthma suffers, between three and 10 percent are sensitive. “Sulfites are only bad for people that have a known sensitivity, because of the uncomfortable feelings they will develop,” says Pedre.

Related: What Does It Mean to Have Food Sensitivities?

Aren’t sure if you’re sensitive to sulfites? You can visit an allergist for a skin prick test or blood test. The Mediator Release Test is one recommended blood test that can determine food sensitivities. If you’re not an asthmatic, you can try the DIY test. Pedre suggests avoiding wine for a month, then having wine with a significant amount of sulfites. If you notice any unusual symptoms after drinking the wine, you might have a sulfite sensitivity.

Measuring Your Exposure to Sulfites

Sulfite-free wine doesn’t actually exist, since all wines contain at least some sulfites. If you see a “contains no detectable sulfites” on the label, that means it has less than 10 ppm sulfites. In this case, “there are still some sulfites present, although in minimal amounts that are deemed incapable of causing an allergic reaction of any kind,” notes Fisher.

How many sulfites does your glass of wine contain? U.S. wine isn’t allowed to contain more than 350 ppm, and most wines end up with less than 150 ppm. Italian and French varieties tend to contain fewer sulfites and typically max out at 250 parts per million.

Red wines generally contain fewer sulfites than whites and roses. While sulfites help preserve light colors, the natural tannins in red wines also do this. Sweet dessert wines have a much higher sulfite level, up to 500 ppm, to stop the sugars from continuing to ferment in the bottle.

Organic wines contain fewer sulfites than conventional, but the distinction in labeling is important: U.S. labeled organic wine must contain less than 10 ppm added sulfites—and wine labeled “made with organic grapes” needs to have 100 ppm or less sulfites. Estate-bottled wines and biodynamic ones are likely to have lower sulfite levels, too.

Even though wine gets a bad rap when it comes to sulfites, many foods have much higher levels. “Sulfite levels are much higher in food than wine, up to ten times higher,” says Fisher. Foods that have more than 100 ppm sulfites include bottled lemon juice, dried fruit other than raisins and prunes, sauerkraut, and molasses. If you’re sensitive to sulfites, you might be better off dehydrating your own fruit and squeezing fresh lemon juice.

While fresh green and fruit salads are no longer allowed to contain added sulfites, all grapes contain some naturally occurring sulfites. The organic version should contain less, as conventional ones are treated with sulfites to prevent fungus growth.

You can also reduce sulfites by filtering them out. Products like Ullo act as a wine purifier to remove sulfites from drinks (but aren’t recommended for champagne, since they remove some carbonation, too). They’re expensive, running around $80 for a purifier and four single-use filters. “That seems like a lot of money to spend,” says Fisher. When it comes to removing sulfites from produce, you can attempt this yourself: Soak vegetables or fruit that might contain sulfites in electrolyzed water that has a pH between 9 and 11, such as AQUAhydrate. “Alkaline water is very effective in removing pesticides and additives,” says Pedre.

The post Are Sulfites Bad for Your Health? appeared first on Sonima.

If you haven’t tried any kind of alternative treatment or medicine before, you might be skeptical. It’s worth exploring, though, if you have a serious OTC habit. In fact, 38 percent of American adults use some kind of complementary alternative medicine according to the National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health. Janet Zand, O.M.D., notes that once people figure out the alternative remedy that’s best for them and their specific type of pain, it’s sometimes possible over time “to move for example to half the dose of conventional OTC pain reliever after adding in a natural one.” Ideally, after awhile you might even be able to skip your OTC medicine altogether. Plus, there are often positive side effects from natural pain relievers, since many of them have more than one use. Before starting any new pain relief regimen (natural or otherwise), Zand recommends checking in with your health practitioner first about appropriate substances for your symptoms, potential drug interactions and correct dosage.

Here are some natural remedies that will help soothe your pain that are both tried-and-true by health practitioners and scientific studies.

1. Ice and Heat

Best for: Muscle and joint pain, cramping pain
Why it works: While this might not be the most surprising treatment, ice and heat are nature’s most intrinsic treatments for pain. Heat is ideal for chronic pain, while ice is better for inflammation or a relatively recent injury. This is because heat increases blood flow to the painful area, which relaxes tight muscles and joints, and ice constricts blood vessels which numbs pain. Check out this handy infographic from the Cleveland Clinic, which explains when to use heat versus ice.
How to use it: Apply an ice pack, damp cloth, heating pad or heat wrap for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

2. Curcumin

Best for: Any kind of inflammation, especially arthritis
Why it works: Found in turmeric, curcumin is one of the more well-researched natural pain relievers. While larger-scale studies are still needed to completely understand all of its uses, it’s been confirmed that it does help alleviate inflammation and some pain. A 2016 study found that the supplement was effective in combatting exercise-induced muscle soreness, and a 2012 study found it effective as part of treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Curcumin is also currently being studied for several other purposes, notably as part of treatment for and prevention of colorectal cancer.
How to use it: Some people wonder whether eating food with turmeric is enough to get curcurmin’s benefits. According to Zand, “food seasoned with turmeric is healthy but is most likely not a therapeutic dose. It is a good healthy habit to eat it, but if you are experiencing pain don’t expect a bowl of curry to make your pain go away.” She recommends looking for a pill supplement that contains 95 percent curcuminoids. “Generally, the products are standardized,” she notes, and it’s easy to tell from the label exactly how much you’re supposed to take. It should also be added that you should not take more than the recommended dose of this (or any) supplement, as it can cause digestive issues like nausea and diarrhea.

3. Arnica

Best for: Bruising, swelling, and inflammation
Why it works: While arnica is one of the most well-known homeopathic methods, there is conflicting research on its effectiveness. Despite this, many people continue to use it. Zand explains that while most of the evidence around arnica’s effectiveness is anecdotal, if it works for you there’s no reason to rule it out. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to use, so it’s worth a shot — especially for bruising and light swelling.
How to use it: Arnica generally comes in an ointment form, but can also be taken as an oral supplement.

4. Proteolytic Enzymes

Best for: Inflammation, digestive issues
Why it works: These enzymes are naturally made by your pancreas to help digest food, but they can also be ingested as a supplement for additional benefits. Though they’re generally thought of as supplement used to treat inflammation, they are true multi-taskers. In addition to treating pain caused by inflammation in joints they can also help lessen the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other digestive issues.
How to use it: These are taken as an oral supplement. Zand particularly recommends a supplement called Wobenzym. “It works best when taken between meals,” she says, “and you should definitely consult your healthcare practitioner before you start taking it.” Certain types of enzymes are not appropriate for everyone.

5. Willow Bark Extract

Best for: Musculoskeletal pain, back pain
Why it works: Willow bark extract contains salicylic acid, which Zand likes to call “the original aspirin,” since the chemical makeup of the extract is similar to the active ingredients in the OTC drug. This substance has been proven effective in long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders as well as back pain, both with and without the aid of OTC pain relievers and other pain management medications. In fact, many people prefer willow bark extract to aspirin because of aspirin’s digestive side effects.
How to use it: Just like aspirin, willow bark comes in pill form, and you should follow the dosage instructions on the packaging.

Related: A Closer Look at How Acupuncture Works

6. Acupuncture

Best for: All kinds of pain
Why it works: A recent study conducted in the emergency department of a hospital showed promising results of the ancient practice of pricking needles into the skin at specific pressure points. The researchers showed that acupuncture treatments reduced both the pain and anxiety of patients in the emergency room. Additionally, acupuncture boasts the advantage of being one of the most versatile natural pain treatments, as it can help alleviate many different types of pain.
How to use it: The first step to getting pain relief from acupuncture is finding an experienced practitioner. Zand recommends the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s database as an amazing resource to find someone highly qualified.

7. Corydalis yanhusuo

Best for: Acute pain, inflammation and nerve pain
Why it works: Corydalis yanhuso is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2014, it was discovered that the plant, traditionally used for pain relief, contains an analgesic called DHCB. The study calls this discovery a “promising lead in pain management” and more research is being done on exactly how to harness this ancient herb’s powers.
How to use it: This pain reliever can be taken in oral supplement form.

The post 7 Natural Pain Relievers That Really Work appeared first on Sonima.

Food sensitivities are different from food allergies and intolerances. Both food allergies and sensitivities are overreactions of the body’s immune system. “But that’s where the similarities end and the differences begin,” says Ryan Whitcomb, R.D., C.L.T., a dietitian in Jersey City, New Jersey. Whereas food allergies involve immunoglobin E (IgE) antibodies, which your body produces in excess when it overreacts to an allergen, food sensitivities involve overreactions to several types of antibodies, including immunoglobin G (igG) and/or immunoglobin M (igM). The immune system’s T cells or complement proteins may be involved. When an overreaction happens, it can cause inflammation in your body and symptoms such as migraines, congestion, or diarrhea. And food intolerances have nothing to do with the immune system—they happen when your body is missing a specific enzyme needed to process a food.

Food sensitivities are typically caused by exposure—often overexposure—to a food or chemical. But it could have nothing to do with what you eat. “It may be caused by the mother’s microbiotia during pregnancy,” says Patenaude. Some experts believe that certain cases of infant eczema may be caused by food sensitivities.

While food allergies may be life threatening, food sensitivities aren’t. They are, on the other hand, annoying and can significantly decrease quality of life by causing symptoms like headaches, abdominal pain, and brain fog. “Over time, people learn to cope with their issues—whether a stuffy nose, a funny stomach, or fatigue—because they’ve had them for as long as they can remember,” notes Whitcomb. These symptoms can take anywhere from 45 minutes to three days to show up. And then there’s the chance that you might not have any symptoms if you eat a small amount of a food. “If you’re sensitive to apples, the apple juice in the granola bar you eat might not cause an adverse reaction, but eating an entire apple might,” says Whitcomb.

Food sensitivities may be to blame, at least partially, on technology. “The technical and agricultural revolution is definitely [moving] too fast for our body’s evolution,” says Mark Pasula, Ph.D., an immunologist who created two of the major food sensitivity tests. “Our immune system is not evolving as fast as technology.”

How to Get Tested for Food Sensitivities

There are a handful of food sensitivity blood tests out there, including the IgG Food Antibodies Assessment, the Antigen Leukocyte Antibody Test (ALCAT), and the MRT. The latter is considered the best of these tests.

Several decades ago, Pasula moved from Poland to the United States. “After a few years of living here, I developed very strange allergy-like symptoms that were very, very difficult for me to cope with,” he says. “I decided to help myself and create a test that would identify my problems.” After years of experimentation, Pasula patented his first test, the ALCAT, in 1982. That test worked by identifying white cell reactions to food extracts. But Pasula calls it a “first attempt,” noting it worked decently but not as well as the next generation, the MRT, which tests not just if the blood reacts to a food or chemical—but how and to what degree the body dislikes the food. “The ALCAT test is still around, but it represents very old technology, versus today’s test,” says Pasula.

As for the IgG test, Pasula says it shouldn’t even be on your radar. “The IgG test is generally tells you which foods you consume,” he says. “If you, for instance, eat beef every day, the test very likely will show a high level of IgG to beef.” Authors of a position paper in the journal Allergy agree with this, stating that IgG testing is not helpful for determining food sensitivities.

Related: Is Personalized Nutrition the Future of Dieting?

Depending on where you live, testing with nutritional counseling could cost a few hundred dollars or more—and sometimes will be covered partially or fully by insurance. Anyone who can order blood tests, including doctors and some dietitians, can order the MRT test.

The MRT test assesses 120 common foods and 30 chemicals. It might grow to include more foods and chemicals—but adding an item will cost at least $30,000 on the development side, says Patenaude, so growth will be slow. If you’re looking to get tested, you can search the database on HealthProfs.com to find a dietitian licensed to treat sensitivities.

However, some health professionals have doubts about the accuracy of food sensitivity testing. “There is no validated test for food sensitivities,” says Julie Kuriakose, M.D., founder of Hudson Allergy in New York City. “By validated, I mean the test should have documented evidence that provides a high degree of assurance that a specific test will consistently produce a result. The tests can yield false negatives and false positives.”

If you decide to get tested, Patenaude suggests doing so through a certified LEAP therapist (CLT), as anyone with this credential has gone through advanced training on managing adverse food reactions and sensitivities. LEAP is an acronym for Lifestyle, Eating, and Performance, a nutrition therapy that involves eating a restricted diet sans any foods the MRT test shows you’re sensitive to. “[Other professionals] will not understand the diet protocol based on the results,” says Patenaude.

If you don’t want to get tested, you can try a simpler, much slower road. “Food diaries are useful to narrow a list of offending foods,” says Sezelle Gereau M.D., an integrative otolaryngologist at the Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, New York. “The best and gold standard way to determine if one has a food allergy or sensitivity is to eliminate the foods strictly for three to six weeks and then reintroduce them in small amounts, one by one over a series of days and observe for reactivity.”

How to Treat Food Sensitivities

Because food sensitivities develop slowly over time, it also takes time for them to resolve. And not all of them do resolve. With nutrition therapy based on the MRT test, dietitians help patients with food sensitivities lose their defenses to certain sensitivities. “Think of the immune system as the bouncer at a swanky night club,” says Whitcomb. “Overexposure to a food or chemical can cause the bouncer to think that a food or food chemical is no longer safe, which is what causes the symptoms.”

Using the LEAP protocol, a dietitian will create an elimination diet based on your test results. You’ll start with a small number of foods, then add new foods slowly to make sure you don’t react to foods for which you didn’t get tested. Such elimination diets are shown to be helpful with conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), found a review study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Several months down the road, you’ll be able to reintroduce foods you test sensitive to back into your diet. If you have a reaction, you might need to avoid the food for several more months—or much longer. “The immune system has memory, and each white blood cell has a different span of memory,” says Whitcomb. “Depending on the cell or cells that are reacting, you might be able to get one food back in a few months, a few years, or never.”  Whitcomb, for example, tested sensitive to wheat, chocolate, and peanuts. By avoiding those foods for a year, he was able to get them all back. But his sensitivity to soy and chicken remained unchanged. “With chronic sensitivities, specific types of cells called lymphocytes get involved that are long-living cells and can cause sensitivities that can last for years,” explains Pasula.

While you may outgrow a food allergy, you won’t outgrow a food sensitivity. You might, however, regain tolerance to some of the foods you’re sensitive to—meaning you can have some, but you run the risk of having symptoms when eating the food if you overdo it.

The post What Does It Mean to Have Food Sensitivities? appeared first on Sonima.

Your Diaphragm

“The average person at rest takes around 23,040 breaths per day,” says Matt Delaney, C.S.C.S., a licensed massage therapist and Tier X Health Coach at Equinox Columbus Circle. “Our diaphragm initiates every single one of them.” That’s not all that this dome-shaped muscle at your ribs does: Along with other core muscles, it helps stabilize your trunk, which is key for efficient, pain-free movement, says Delaney. When there’s dysfunction? You’re susceptible to injury and pain.

Massage it: Sit in a chair and curl the tips of your fingers under your rib cage, says Delaney. Take a deep breath into your belly and on the exhale, flex forward trying to bring your head to your lap; allow your fingers to move further under your ribs. Make sure to exhale fully — this allows the diaphragm to reach its end range under the contact of your fingers. Repeat three to five times.

Your Gut

Many scientists consider the gut the second brain, says Scott Weiss, C.S.C.S., a New York-based physical therapist. That’s because more and more research suggests that a healthy gut (filled with beneficial bacteria) creates a healthy body (and mind). “A mechanical massage aids in moving digestion along,” Weiss says. It also eases muscle tension and relieves air and gas from the system, he says.

Massage it: With firm pressure, make circles to the left on the stomach’s surface. “This circular pattern mimics the normal digestive movements,” says Weiss. Then place one palm on your upper abdomen and overlap it with your other hand (consider this 12 o’clock). Start pressing inward, applying pressure in a clockwise fashion. Slowly go from 12 to 3 to 6 to 9 and back again, he says. This can be done 20 to 30 times with strong, firm pressure.

Your Face and Jaw

Whether you realize it or not, you hold a lot of tension in your face and jaw. Emotions, thoughts, and an internal dialogue can lead you to clench your jaw and facial muscles, says Weiss. “Eating, speaking, and reacting all day can stress these muscles, too.” Yet, most massages leave these stressed out muscles alone.

Massage them: Use the palms of your hands and and pads of the fingertips to apply pressure to the face, forehead, and jaw. Clench you jaw a few times. You’ll find the muscles that need work. Apply pressure where needed. Make your way around the ears, too.

RELATED: 6 Self-Massage Tools to Restore Your Body at Home

Your Thumbs

There are three muscles that sit at the base of your thumb — they make up what’s called the thenar eminence, explains Delaney. And these muscles take a beating all day long as you text and scroll, impacting your grip strength and fine motor control, he says. “It may not sound like a big deal, but grip strength is vital to our longevity,” says Delaney. So much so, in fact, that it’s one of the measurements cardiologists use to predict the outcomes of surgical patients.

Massage them: Start with your thumb flexed into your palm with your palm facing down. With the pointer and middle finger of the other hand, reach under the middle of the palm just below the thenar muscles and draw some tension toward the thumb knuckle. Maintain this tension as you slowly move the thumb away from the palm and allow your fingers to glide up toward its base. Repeat 3 to 5 times per hand.

Your Wrists

In a world of tablets and laptops, your hands and wrist muscles are used more than any other major body part, says Weiss. The best news: Maladies like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis can be kept at bay with some simple massage, he says.

Massage them: Clasp your hands together and make figure eights. Use the prayer position to open and stretch the wrists. Push your fingers to the left and right while together to further stretch the deeper muscles of the wrist, he says.

Your Feet

Most of us take our feet for granted until problems crop up. Here’s why that needs to change: “They are the most dynamic part of our structure,” says Delaney. “Our feet are our first point of contact with the ground and are constantly providing the brain valuable information about where we are.” Plus, a sedentary lifestyle can leave them craving stimulation and too-tight shoes can constrict them, impeding blood flow.

Massage them: Place a golf ball under your foot at the base of the heel, says Delaney. Sitting or standing, trace a line from the front of your heel to each one of the toes and back. Be sure to work across the foot, too, paying special attention to trace the cup of the heel and ball of the foot, he says. Repeat three to five times per foot.

The post 6 Often-Ignored Body Parts That Benefit from Massage appeared first on Sonima.

The Point of the Practice

Needle phobes are likely familiar with acupuncture’s main tool: fine, disposable needles no thicker than a few strands of hair. Practitioners use them to stimulate so-called acupoints all over the body, says Alexandra Vander Baan, a doctor of acupuncture, and owner of Yintuition Wellness in Boston, Massachusetts. These acupoints, which total 361 across the skin’s surface according to the WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region, are used to bring energy back throughout the body where it might be imbalanced.

Break a bone or burst an appendix, there’s no better choice than allopathic (or mainstream) medicine, says Vander Baan. But when it comes to some common conditions such as respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, and chronic pain, acupuncture is incredibly effective—and arguably more successful in delivering results, she says. A key difference between conventional medicine and a holistic treatment like acupuncture is that the latter addresses those interconnected systems of the body, plus the underlying causes of concerns, including inflammation or hormonal imbalances, she says. “Today, the overwhelming majority of symptoms we experience are systemic—affecting the whole body, not just a single organ or tissue,” she adds.

Related: The Magic of Dry Needling for Pain Relief

How does acupuncture work? In a typical session, a patient will discuss their concerns with the acupuncturist who will then insert needles in strategic areas of the body, depending on the patient’s needs. Once the needles are in place, the patient will continue to lie comfortably on the treatment table for anywhere from five minutes to an hour. Most people report to feel very relaxed during treatment, and generally experience no discomfort from the needles. Research suggests acupuncture encourages the body to release feel-good endorphins. Other studies find the practice improves circulation, which can help the body repair itself and mitigate both pain and perception of pain, says Vander Baan. More studies are needed on the topic.

While some science suggests acupuncture can fend off low back pain or headaches, other research shows that these outcomes are minimal—nothing more than a placebo effect. However, many current clinical guidelines for chronic pain, chemotherapy, anxiety and depression, and labor pain do feature acupuncture as a recommended treatment, and that means something, Vander Baan says. The World Health Organization even lists 28 different medical conditions that can be treated, at least in part, by acupuncture. The National Institutes of Health agrees, stating that the needles are a therapeutic intervention for everything from menstrual cramps to nausea brought about by pregnancy or chemotherapy.

Is Acupuncture Worth Trying?

Acupuncture’s devotees range from dedicated yogis and weekend warriors to athletes and stressed-out 9-to-5ers. The clientele is diverse because so, too, are the uses for acupuncture. Fatigue, anxiety, headaches, low back pain, constipation—all of these can be signs of an underlying imbalance in your body, Vander Baan says. “One of the advantages of the TCM is that we can detect and treat sub-clinical symptoms before they become full-blown medical conditions,” she says.

Being receptive to the medicine is key to success. “This isn’t to say those who ‘don’t believe in it’ won’t benefit,” says Vander Baan. But the placebo effect plays a role in all therapeutic interventions—not just acupuncture, she says. One 2014 study published in Science Translational Medicine found that half of a migraine drug’s power came from simply thinking it would work, even when people were taking a placebo. In addition to embracing positive results, it’s important to keep your overall well-being in check, too. Those who take an active role in their health will likely see the most boons from the practice. After all, a healthy diet and lifestyle help support and sustain progress, Vander Baan says.

Paying for the Pinch

Complementary treatments like acupuncture used to be far from complimentary. Data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey found that 83 million Americans spent $33.9 million on alternative medicine in just one year. Ouch. But Vander Baan says that today she sees more insurance companies footing the bill for time on the table.

“The landscape of insurance coverage is changing because of an increasing demand for complementary therapies,” she says. In fact, research from consumer insights firm Nielson found millennials are more likely to use acupuncture and herbal remedies than other generations. An estimated 3 million Americans have signed up for acupuncture, especially since emerging research has demonstrated it’s safe and cost-effective. And more are welcome to try it: About 54 million Americans are eligible for acupuncture covered by the Affordable Care Act, reports the Journal of Integrative Medicine, published in 2014.

Not sure if you’re covered? Ask your insurance provider, and get the scoop (here’s a list of go-to questions to ask) before you book an appointment. Some companies may cover your session if you have a prescription and the treatment is pre-approved, or only if you go to a doctor in-network. If you’re not covered, you’re looking at fees from $60 to $120 per session, according to AcuFinder.com. Also worth noting: If the practice works for you, it could help you cut costs down the road if you can avoid other expensive and invasive interventions (i.e., surgeries or long-term prescriptions), Vander Baan says. Find a trained acupuncturist through the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

The post A Closer Look at How Acupuncture Works appeared first on Sonima.

“The rear-end should act as support for the entire body and as a shock absorber for stress during exercise, but if it’s too weak, other parts of the body take up the slack and it often causes injury,” says Chris Kolba, Ph.D., a physical therapist who specializes in orthopedic and sports medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Sitting is a great way to weaken those butt muscles, the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius. Kolba calls the condition that results “dormant butt syndrome.” Stuart McGill, Ph.D., the director of the Spine Biomechanics Laboratory at Waterloo University, describes it as “gluteal amnesia” because people afflicted with it seem to “forget” to use their glutes when they perform tasks like squatting or hinging at the hips. Whatever you want to call it, when the glutes are effectively out to lunch, a host of extra strain winds up on the hamstrings and lower back. That can kick off a vicious cycle that leads to chronic back pain.

Related: Understanding the Source of Back Pain

McGill’s research has conclusively shown that pain, whether it stems from the back or the hips (another common trouble spot), inhibits the glutes. When the glutes are restricted somehow, more stress winds up on the back. You end up in a chicken-or-egg situation where it’s no longer clear whether the back pain is shutting down the glutes or vice versa. What is clear is that the two issues often go together.

The good news? McGill’s work also shows that when someone manages to get his or her glutes back in working order, the pain they had experienced in their lower back subsides or disappears entirely. Follow his three steps below to unlock your buttocks’ full potential and live a more pain-free life.

Step 1: Rebuild the mind-muscle connection.

Try this simple technique to check whether you’re still in touch with your bottom half. Lie back on the floor and place your hands underneath each of your butt cheeks. Take turns contracting each of your glutes. Your hands are there to notice if those muscles are indeed firing. This may feel a bit silly, but it serves an important purpose. “It’s getting your brain to connect to the muscle,” McGill says.

McGill cautions that this is a self-exam and corrective exercise, not a new way of life. “Some people think that they should walk around with their bottoms clenched all the time. But that’s just silly,” McGill says. “Your glutes are a very phasic muscle, you should use them only as you need.”

Step 2: Get your glutes back in business.

During his more than three decades of research on back pain, McGill tested several many different exercises to see how they affected the glutes. Over and over again, the two moves he found to be the most effective at getting the glutes to work well within a person’s daily movement patterns were clamshells and glute bridges. He suggests performing 3 sets of 10 reps of each move at least once per day. (McGill compiled these exercises and dozens of others in his new book Back Mechanic, a guide to self-assessments you can use to identify and solve your own back pain.)

Clamshells

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Glute Bridge

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Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands under your butt to feel its engagement, then squeeze the cheeks as if you were trying to hold a coin between them. Your goal is for the pelvis to remain neutral and not tilt in any way. From there, bridge up, using your butt to drive the movement. The bridge activates the gluteus maximus, the larger muscle that makes up the bulk of your rear.

Step 3: Keep your body—and your backside—more active throughout the day.

Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor, Pete Egoscue, agrees that inhibited glutes can wreak havoc all over a person’s body. “The idea that a person’s glutes are going to suffer from all of that sitting is correct,” says the creator of the Egoscue Method. So while you’ve probably heard this before, remember you should try to avoid sitting for prolonged periods. When you’re at work, get up and take a break every 20 to 30 minutes. Consider a standing desk—they’ve become a lot more affordable in recent years. Egoscue also has two exercises he suggests people perform to give their booty an occasional wake-up call throughout the day.

Rear-Leg Knee Bends

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Stand up and take one step forward with your right foot. Make sure your feet are hip-width apart and pointing straight ahead (or as close to straight as you can manage). Keeping your torso vertical, bend the knee of your left (rear) leg , then straighten it. When you straighten your rear leg, focus on feeling the line of energy from your butt down to your heel on the ground. If you place your hand on your butt, you should be able to feel your glutes contract as you do this. Perform 10 reps on each side.

Three-Position Toe Raises

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Stand with your big toes touching, your right heel pointing at 5 o’clock and your left heel pointing at 7 o’clock. Engage your quadriceps (the big muscles in the front of your thighs) and rise up onto the balls of your feet then lower. Keep your toes pressed against the floor and focus on keeping the quads tight as you move up and down. You should be able to feel the muscles of your upper thighs and glutes flexing as you rise. Do 10 reps.

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Then switch it up so that your heels touch and your toes are pointing outward (toes pointing to 1 o’clock and 11 o’clock). You should feel even more glute engagement along with a bit more sensation in your quads as you perform 10 more reps in this second variation.

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Lastly, stand with your feet pointing straight ahead and roughly hip-distance apart. Repeat the toe-raise 10 more times, keeping your quads engaged and pelvis neutral (not tilted forward or backward).

The post The Surprising Muscle Weakness Linked to Back Pain appeared first on Sonima.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in partnership with Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts, found that the majority of these unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for respiratory problems like common colds, viral sore throats, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections. The reason the Rx doesn’t work: Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, not viruses.

Related: The Most Effective Home Remedy to Ease Cold Symptoms

So why are doctors handing out ineffective medications? One, doctors don’t always know whether an infection is bacterial or viral—and don’t always have immediate access to lab testing—so many err on the side of prescribing an antibiotic, explains Leila Kahwati, M.D., senior research analyst at the research institute RTI International and attending physician at Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Carolina. Plus, if it’s not your usual doc, he or she doesn’t have your patient history to contextualize your level of distress, and they might be worried you won’t seek follow-up care if your symptoms worsen.

Another reason why doctors may hand out excess prescriptions: They’re responding to pressure from patients. In a 2004 study published in Family Practice, 50 percent of patients who went into the doctor’s office with symptoms expected to come out with a recommendation for antibiotics. Sir Alexander Fleming, the famed bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, called it back in 1945 when he warned that the “public will demand [the drug and] … then will begin an era … of abuses.”

“Some patients do pressure providers for antibiotics either for themselves or their child,” Kahwati confirms. In some cases, this is based on anticipation from their own past experience, like having a bacterial sinus infection develop following a cold. “In other cases, the pressure stems from the inconvenience of having to make a second visit if things don’t improve, or a singular focus on ‘curing’ the infection as opposed to relieving the symptoms that the infection is causing,” she says.

If taking unnecessary antibiotics were harmless to your health, then this wouldn’t be such a big deal. But epidemiological studies have shown a direct relationship between antibiotic consumption and the emergence of resistant bacteria strains. Bacteria have evolved over time to evade the effects and attacks of antibiotics, Kahwati warns. It’s like a dangerous version of survival of the fittest: Antibiotics remove the drug-sensitive bacteria, leaving the resistant strains behind to reproduce more resistant strains. They’re becoming a new class of bacteria known as “superbugs” that we don’t have the science to treat. This has actually become enough of a public health threat that the White House released a national plan of action last year to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, setting a goal of reducing unnecessary antibiotic use by at least half by 2020.

In addition to creating an army of bacteria that’s evolved beyond our science, taking a needless Rx can also make you more sick. “Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing subjects patients to harms of antibiotics but none of the benefits—and this is a serious patient safety issue,” Kahwati says. Side effects of antibiotics can range from a mild rash to gastrointestinal upset to vaginal yeast infections and anaphylaxis, which is a serious allergic reaction that can be fatal. Antibiotics are actually responsible for the largest number of medication-related adverse events and are implicated in 1 in 5 emergency room visits for adverse drug reactions, she says.

If you’re physically active, you may need to be extra cautious. The Federal Drug Administration released a warning last month that antibiotics from a specific class called fluoroquinolones, commonly prescribed for upper respiratory tract infections, can raise the risk of tendonitis and even a full-blown tendon rupture for those who participate in high-impact sports, like running, boxing, and plyometrics.

So when is it actually a good idea to get a prescription? Conditions that benefit from an antibiotic include bacterial sinus or ear infections, pneumonia, whooping cough, and strep throat. “Treatment of true bacterial infections with antibiotics will typically reduce symptoms and shorten the course of illness—as long as the bacteria is not resistant to the antibiotic being used,” Kahwati explains. What’s more, these bacterial infections probably won’t resolve on their own without the drugs. This does not apply to the common cold. “All colds are viral and will not get better with antibiotics,” Kahwati says. Same goes for many sinus and ear infections (ones caused by viruses), sore throats, and coughs, which will typically resolve on their own within five to 10 days, she adds.

When in doubt, have a conversation with your primary care physician. “Establishing an accurate diagnosis is key to determining whether antibiotics are necessary,” Kahwati says. Your best bet is to always talk to your doctor and let them size up your symptoms. A 2015 review from Cochrane research group found that doctors were less likely to prescribe an inessential prescription when patients suffering from acute respiratory infections had a chat with them about whether an antibiotic was needed. That doesn’t mean that you should overplay or underplay symptoms to leave with the Rx you want. Just be open if your doctor suggests a follow-up visit instead of a prescription for right now.

The post When Are Antibiotics Actually Necessary? appeared first on Sonima.