ttt
Thanks Bolo, something new for me to consider!
nowaydo,
You said in another thread that it took about a week to see results when you saw an Egoscue therapist and that you were surprised that at how little time it took. What kind of results were you referring to? Decrease in pain? An actual change in your posture?
OK, I have some comparison pics of myself. I have pics right before I started the posture therapy and then I look some new pics today.
By the way, here's a list of my posture problems which can be see on my "before" pics. Check out all the problems that I had and you can see why my body was in such bad shape:
Leaning my weight on the outsides of my feet.
Both feet pointing slightly outward, but the right foot more outward than left.
Bow legged
Left femur rotated outward more than right.
Left hip higher than right
Hips laterally shifted to the left
Right hip more forward than left (rotation)
Posterior tilt of the pelvis
Flat low back
Left shoulder higher than right
Shoulders too far forward, rounding of both shoulders (left more than right)
Left side of torso more forward than right (rotation that was opposite direction of hip rotation)
Head offset to the left
Head rotated towards the left (opposition direction of torso rotation)
Head and neck sloped too far forward
Knee flexion in both knees, but left more than right
If you are interested in seeing these "before" and "after" pics, e-mail me and I will send it over in 2 Word files.
By the way, I know one guy in San Diego and one guy in Los Angeles who specifically does the MBF system. So if you are in those areas and are interested, drop me an e-mail and I can give you contact info.
Got the pictures - thank a lot Bolo.
What a big difference! How much time was there between before and after?
Had you known that you had bad posture before you came upon the MBF system? Or because of MBF you realized you had bad posture?
The "before" pics were from Oct. of last year. I took the "after" pics a few days ago, however, big changes in my body had already occured long before that.
I did not realize how bad my posture was. I was just searching for the "core" of my problems so I tried the posture therapy and then I realized I had found exactly what I had been looking for.
Though I have talked about injury and pain, I highly recommend this therapy for everyone, even if they are not in pain. Learn from my mistakes and don't wait until your body is destroyed before you take action. It is not a matter of IF it problems will correct, it is absolutely a matter of WHEN it will occur. However, I know what I say will be ignored by many people. That is why I say that they best teacher is PAIN.
I'm definitely interested. I just ordered Egoscue's book "Pain Free" as you suggested.
When I have some time, I will talk about shoes, orthotics, and how all the fancy technology in today's athletic shoes don't really help.
Two questions for you Michael:
1 - are you familiar with Dr. Schamberger's work on pelvic and spinal alignment: www.malalignmentsyndrome.com - I have found it very useful for low back pain
2 - can you recommend any MBF therapists in the Vancouver BC area?
Thanks -
Stephan
Stephan,
No, I am not familiar with that person's program.
You are really in luck because my instructor actually lives in Vancouver.
By the way, when you see my "before" and "after" pics there is a big difference as there was a 9 month difference. About 3 days ago, I modified my own menu of exercises. I took some pics tonight and you can see a big improvement just as a result of 3 days of doing my new menu. I was able to take huge amount of rotation out of my body. Drop me an e-mail if you would like to check it out.
TTT for shoes and orthotics.
When I saw a chiropractor(and applied kinesiologist) for my neck, he refered me to an orthopodiatrist to have custom orthotics made. They were $500+ ...! I constantly got blisters on my sole and stopped using them in a couple of weeks. Biggest waste of money.
Although I don't really run for conditioning now, when I did I found it the best to run on grass/dirt in a pair of old school floppy Onitsuka Tiger. Fancy running shoes always gave me troubles.
Hi Bolo,
I know you mentioned LA and SD, but I'm in chicago, do you know anyone that you can refer me to in chicago?
I have had chronic neck pain for the past 4 years, and neither traditional medicine, alternative medicine, nor home therapy has worked for me. as you probably can relate too, chronic pain is quite frustrating.
I'll write about the shoes and orthodics stuff next week.
Sorry, I don't know anyone in Chicago.
This stuff is frakken awesome!
My orthodics are history...
OK, let's talk about shoes. Remember that anything that happens in one part of the body has an effect, whether you realize it or not, on every other part of the body. So the condition of your feet, the shoes you wear, and the use of things like orthodics has a big effect on your entire body.
Something that is very interesting is that despite the "advancement" in shoe technology, there has been no decrease in the reported number of lower leg injuries and problems. So what does all this Air, Pump, Gel, microchip, etc...etc.... do for us then? No much. In fact, I would say that it has made our bodies lazier and weaker.
Take the average athletic shoe, bend it and twist it. Also do the same thing with the average pair of dress shoes that you would wear to the office. You will probably notice that it doesn't bend and twist too easily. In fact, most shoes are stiff as a board.
Our feet are very similar to our hands. Our feet, just like our hands, were designed to move, bend, and fold in numerous directions. Imagine if you wore a stiff glove that did not allow your hand to curl, straighten, and fold. You could only bend at the wrist. Your hand would become very weak and I'm pretty sure you would develop some problems with that hands and in the lower arm area. This is type of thing is exactly what is happening to most of our feet as a result of these "good shoes".
These advanced shoes are also making the rest of our bodies lazy. Our bodies were made to run, jump, turn, etc... Our muscular and skeletal structures were design to move and properly absorb the shock from that movement. Wear your average athetic shoes, go out onto the pavement, and do some forward jump squats. With those shoes on, you can be fairly lazy when it comes to how much you bend your legs when you land from the jump squats. You can probably land with only a slight knee bend. Now do the jump squats barefoot. I guarantee you are naturally going to bend you legs more (probably down to a full squat) when you come down from the jump in order to absorb the shock. If you don't, it's going to hurt your knees and feet. Of course we don't go around jumping all over the place, but the point is that the shoes have made us lazier in our movement.
Unfortunatly, the problems that our shoes cause us begins when we were children. For those who have children, do you remember what your child looked like who he/she first walked with a regular pair of shoes? The child walked like Frankenstien. Children walk a certain way naturally when they are barefoot. Then you put on their first pair of shoes and they look like they are walking with bricks on their feet. Then what happens is that the child changes their natural gait in order to walk in those shoes. So at 1 year old, we have already begun to to change our child's natural way of movement. Try to bend, fold, and twist a baby's shoe. It's not easy and a child's foot is sure not going to be able to move in those.
Personally, I have made sure not to change my sons' natural movement. I first have them wearing Robeez. Robeez are simply leather shoes. Your not going to get any closer to barefoot movement than those shoes. My older son is now 2 years old and he play at the park and runs around like non-stop. I found that he wears through the Robeez too quickly. So now when he goes to the park I have him wear the Nike Free for children. Nike Free's are design to be flexible and allows more natural movement of the foot. When I had my son first put on his Nike Free's, his gait did not change one single bit.
For adults, I highly recommend the Nike Free. Nike makes 3 main versions of the Nike Free- Runner, Trail, and Trainer. Personally, I found the trainer to be a little tight on the front of my foot. I like the Runner, however, if you get them, make sure it is the Version 2. The original version's mesh material on the heel was too thin and tore too easily. I really like the Nike Free Trail and wear those on a regular basis.
My wife and I, along with a few of my students, have been wearing the Nike Free's for a while. Now if we have to wear "regular" shoes, it just kills our feet. We now feel that he stiffness and lack of mobility in regular shoes, especially dress shoes, is extremely uncomfortable.
I know some people say, "Well, I have (insert name of lower leg problem) and therefore I got have "good shoes" with more support and cushion." I'll talk more about that later.
Hey Rene, did you get through your daily menu yet? I pretty much remember my feeling right after my first menu. This is feeling which forever stick in my mind:)
Radek
www.jkd.sk
Hey Radek,
What happened was that Mike prepared my program and then that night, before I had a chance to do it, I was training in his class and put my neck out severely (I think a nerve pinch). I was in extreme pain and couldn't turn my head at all.
At that point he had me do some relaxation and then put me through the program, which almost immediately returned about 40% mobility and reduced the pain by a similar amount.
The next day I did the program several times, and was back to about 80% mobility and pain.
The next day, again with several reps of the program, I had complete mobility and only a slight discomfort (a "pull" feeling) at the extreme range of motion.
As an aside, I no longer walk as if I'd been spot-welded to a computer for 100 years, and my posture is night and day different from when I first arrived.
Rene, thats the stuff which I like to hear:) Hopefuly, you are hooked and ready to incorporate "postural stuff" in to your daily routine....
Radek