While you may have a basic understanding of PRI, these two videos serve to further explain the need for integration, care and maintenance of our body's alignment. Short on time? The 60 second video is for you. When you can, come back to enjoy the six minute version which dives deeper into the complex systems of the body and our ongoing need to balance out the asymmetry within.
How to Survive Your Thanksgiving Cooking
Image via google images
Unfortunately, we can’t help you tolerate your mother-in-law’s endless “opinions” about your recipe choices and cooking techniques, but we have some tips that will help ease the back or knee pain that so many of us experience after cooking for a length of time.
Many of us tend to stand with one, or several of the following: knees locked back or hyperextended, pelvis tipped forward, exaggerated arch in the low back, weight on our toes versus our heels. This posture may not seemingly create much, if any, pain when only standing for short durations, but can really start to become problematic when we stay in this posture for too long or are lifting heavy pots and pans with this faulty alignment. Here are some quick ways to keep that pain at bay for as long as possible:
Take breaks. So many of us become focused on getting the task done as fast as possible, we “tune out” our bodies. Our bodies are not meant to stand for more than 30 minutes at a time and when we aren’t listening to its subtle cues, our pain levels can easily escalate before we realize there’s a problem. Try setting an egg timer for every 20-30 minutes. When the timer goes off, sit down, walk around, just do something other than standing in place. Feel like you can’t stop mid-recipe? Set up a card table with a chair and sit when you’re prepping ingredients.
Wear comfortable shoes. You’re likely going to change into some nicer attire, or freshen up to get the onion smell off of you, before your guests come over. Therefore, you may as well wear the most appropriate things while cooking. Although flats and minimalist running shoes may feel comfortable on your feet, they allow your heel bones to rotate and arches to fall. When your feet aren’t able to support the weight of your body appropriately, you will find “easy,” or compensatory, ways to try to give your body that support. We usually “hang on our ligaments” or “lock our bodies out” to do this, i.e. locking our knees or arching our backs.
Don’t lean. When our postural muscles that help hold us upright get tired, we’ll find other ways to hold ourselves up. It’s very common to arch our backs, rotate our pelvis forward, and lean our hips against the countertop or kitchen sink. This puts a majority of our body weight directly onto our lumbar spines (low back) and forces us to lock our knees out.
Avoid twisting. Not everyone has a gourmet kitchen with ample room. Often, we’re cooking in a small space because of the kitchen size and/or the family standing over our shoulders trying to sneak a taste before dinner time. With that, we tend to twist our upper bodies and back as we reach to another spoon, pot, etc. Instead, move your feet. Our feet should always be below our hips, hip width apart, with our toes forward. So as you reach over to get that colander, take some steps to get there instead of just twisting your body or overreaching.
Make someone else do the dishes. For goodness sakes, if you just did enough cooking to need to read this article, you deserve a break!
Image via google images
Video: What is Postural Restoration: Your PRI Questions Answered (Part 2)
Here is the follow up to our first video explaining postural restoration. We hope this gives you a much better understanding of how PRI can make a difference in your life. Questions? Just give us a call at 314.733.5000 or send us a note. We'd love to discuss your needs.
Summertime Means Fun, Sports Activity and Overuse Injuries
(image via WSJ)
Summer is a time kids and adults look forward to! Baseball is one of summer's favorite past times. Unfortunately, overuse injuries in young baseball players, particularly pitchers, is becoming all too common. Ask us how we can help you and your players to avoid injuries!
Here's a video going into more detail on how these injuries occur. If you find yourself or a loved one is suffering from overuse injuries, this is an area of expertise for our team.
Video: What Is Postural Restoration? Your PRI Questions Answered
Curious about Postural Restoration but unclear on exactly what it is? This video answers everything about this integrated approach to whole body health and wellness.