Movement Calibration and Reset – Jul 9

I finished the first summer semester of Physics with an A. I’ve decided to take the rest of summer off from school so I can focus on some business ideas, movement, and most importantly… myself.

My mom was in town last week. It was a really good visit… and a challenging week overall. Anyone who knows my history… understands that these visits are ripe and fruitful for introspection and big feelings. This visit, combined with parenting and relationship challenges, was not a disappointment.

Whenever I get into the big feels, it is easy to take the focus away from other aspects of myself… breathing, meditating, journaling, and moving my body. When this happens I tend to feel stuck. The practice of moving internally and externally is so important to keeping the emotional energy flowing. When this happens I need to recalibrate. Today is restoring focus on moving, feeling, flowing, surrendering, and just being. It opens me up to trust and gratitude… and that I am right where I need to be.

My heart stirs.
The deeper I dive…
the older the wounds I find buried within.
My heart has been locked up tight…
Prison for a lifetime…
I don’t want to hold onto this any longer.

Movement is healing…
Movement is relief…
Movement pushes me deeper,
exposing older wounds.

To move exposes pain,
I am forced to feel and left with the choice…
bury it, lock it up tighter, and stop movement…
or surrender…
dive deeper…
and free my Self.
I will always choose freedom over confinement.

Neck Pain Self Care Using Thera-cane

In this video, I demonstrate how to use self-massage to work out tightness/restriction in the neck using a combination of movement assessment and a Thera-cane.

In the short time since making the video, my neck has improved. There was still a niggle of tightness at the base of the right side occipitals that I missed while filming. Probably due to being a bit rushed. I have since used the Thera-cane on that spot and my neck feels much improved.

I hope you find this video helpful. Below is a link for the Thera-cane. Please leave a comment if you have a question about this video or suggestions for a future demonstration.

Link to Thera-Cane on AmazonNeck Pain Self Care Using Thera-cane

This is an Amazon affiliate link. I am sharing for two reasons 1) because I love the product and 2) If you make a purchase after clicking it, I will get a commission. This is a great way to help support The Art of Fitness. Thank you for your support.

Neck Discomfort Self Care Using Thera-cane

Tight and Achy Right Hip and Low Back – July 2, 2018

My right hip and right side low back are achy. The anterior compartment of my right hip feels compressed with tight passive and active range of motion. I feel it all the way down to the lateral compartment of my right foot and up into my right side low back (multifidi, quadratus lumborum, psoas region. It has been building up over the course of a few weeks. I’ve been so Go! Go! Go! with school lately, that I haven’t taken the proper time to work on it. I’ve been moving quite a bit lately, however with less focus on restorative/explorative movement. Tonight is time to put in that focus.

I felt some specific spots of restriction on both sides of my neck and right forearm as I was moving, so I did some self-massage using hands and went back to challenge the movements. The restrictions eased up and my neck and forearm moved easier. I love how my body can tell me the exact spots to work on.

Movement Session

I went into this session with no preconceived idea of what it would look like. Instead, I simply followed what my body presented. My good friend and brilliant movement teacher, Melody Benton – Instagram: Movement Goddess sent me the video below posted by Abby Corriveau – Instagram: Feminine Badass.

In the video, Abby is instructing how to sit both hips to the ground in the “shin box” position using a tool. I cannot place both hips to the ground in this position. I’ve been questioning whether this is a good goal position to pursue both for my clients and myself. My concern is that pushing positions or stretches have the potential to create instability in the system… specifically through ligament laxity. It’s a concern, but I haven’t really formulated a firm opinion  Considering how tight my hips have been, I decided to give this a try tonight.

I noticed a pretty good difference in hip mobility; specific to the shin box position. I wasn’t able to sit both hips to the floor, but I felt closer. I’m not sold on whether having access to this hip mobility is good for my body in the long haul, but will definitely add it in over the next few weeks to feel how it may potentially benefit my body.

This is an Amazon affiliate link. Thank you for supporting TAO-Fit.

I installed a rock climbing board today. I recently went to Crux climbing gym in south Austin. I haven’t climbed in years. I instantly remembered how much I love rock climbing.  I very quickly found a bunch of weakness in my climbing. Before I even made it home from the gym, I decided to add it into my home training. The next day I picked ordered the Metolius Simulator 3D wall mounted training board (Amazon affiliate link). I will be slowly adding more climbing tools to the wall.

Tonight, I worked a little on finger grip (huge weakness). I would have done more, but during the install process,  I burned two of my fingertips today and didn’t want to aggravate the blisters it too much. Overall, the session felt great.

 

Post Camping Movement Calibration and Self Massage – Apr 1 – 4x speed

I went camping over the weekend at a lovely property east of Austin along the river. I spent most of two days completely barefoot, exploring grass, rock, and soft sticky dirt. I slept on a Thai massage mat, which is significantly firmer than my bed at home. It made of a rough sleeping experience simply because my body isn’t conditioned to it. I was expecting to wake up in pain. Surprisingly, my body felt pretty good overall. The only discomfort was the soreness in my legs from playing on the slackline the previous day.

I did feel physically tired. Sleeping in a different environment meant that I didn’t get as much deep sleep as normal. With a 6 am appointment on Monday, I was feeling the need for recovery.

In this session, I explore the edges of my movement joint by joint with a good bit of focus on wringing out my spine. My lower back was a bit stiff and the extra spinal mobility movements really helped. I finished with some full body self-massage using the foam roller.

I woke up Monday morning tired, but not exhausted. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. Now to reintegrate back into life again.

Knee and Neck Therapy Movement Flow – Mar 22 – 4x speed

My movement practice connects me to my body, but more importantly, it connects me to my Self… my heart, the very feeling being of me.

Why is it that when I feel most closed off internally to my heart, I am most likely to be lazy with my movement practice? The human body is a giant sensory organ. We are made to feel… to feel the full spectrum of what it means to be a human… externally (physical world) and internally (emotional world). It’s ok to feel deeply sometimes… even when it hurts. It’s a sign that I am real, authentic, and healthy.

This week I’ve had a huge emotional process. Lots of feelings swirling from just the simple daily adulting of life. It has also been a week with too little movement. When I don’t move my body enough, it is a sign that I am not feeling the depths of my heart enough. I tend to hold emotional tension and stress both physically and emotionally. By the end of a week, it can feel like I’m carrying an extra load on my shoulders. I’ve got enough on my plate… I don’t need to carry anything that doesn’t serve me.

Tonight’s movement session helped with a bit of a reset. My knee has actually been feeling better the past couple days. It’s almost as if the pop I felt last week was beneficial. My theory is that I had a cyst forming in the medial capsule from the surgery and the pop was the cyst being squeezed out and reabsorbed by my body. I’m guessing there is still some cyst (or whatever it is in the joint space). The knee still feels unstable at full extension. I can balance on the 2×4 and 2-inch bar, but I don’t dare get on the slackline yet. I’ve also had a bit of left side neck tension. Probably a secondary issue due to gait issues related to the knee pain.

In this session, I focused on rehab for the knee and neck, which really meant moving joint by joint through the entire body with a focus on the feet, knees, hips, spine, and breath. At the same time, I felt deeply into my heart. I allowed all the feelings from the week to move. I allowed myself to feel, surrender, and let go… As if someone was physically taking a weight off my shoulder. There is still more underneath, but it feels good being a little lighter for the moment.

Knee Therapy Movement Meditation

In this session, I’m focusing on moving and feeling. Being in pain takes an emotional toll. It is real. No matter how strong we tell ourselves we are… we also can feel weak and vulnerable. I find it is important to be real and honest about this aspect of movement. Emotional movement is equally as important in physical movement when developing a movement practice.

Knee Therapy Movement Meditation

It is Sunday morning and the last day of Spring Break. I’m feeling the need to nurture my body. Tomorrow I am back to the parenting/school/work schedule. My knee feels much better compared to Wednesday when I hurt it. It is close to being back to how it felt on Tuesday… which is still far from where I want it to be.

Dealing with a structural pain issue is super frustrating. I can do a ton to improve functional issues, but I can’t change my structure. The medial joint capsule of my left knee has a structural issue. It is hard to know which movements are good for it and which ones will aggravate it. A movement may be good for my knee on Monday and bad on Wednesday. Which means I have to listen really well to my body… every day… with every movement… This is challenging. Sometimes I want to cut loose and just move… move hard and move fast. Sometimes I miss moving how used to be capable of moving… before injuries started mounting on top of each other.

I have to remind myself that it is ok to feel frustrated… that it’s ok to be angry with my former self and the decisions I made. It’s ok to feel… even when feeling doesn’t feel good. But it is also important to surrender these feelings. They are not me… not who I am. It’s something I am holding and I can just as easily let it go as I can pull it closer. My choice is to let it go and feel deeper. When I feel deeper… I feel deeply connected. I get glimpses of the larger orchestrations of life. I feel forgiveness and acceptance towards myself and my body. I feel an incredible amount of gratitude and pride; that considering what my body has been through; I can still do half the cool stuff I able to do… and it could be so much worse.

I love that I get to work all this stuff out physically as well as emotionally. By the end of the session, my body feels more mobility and stability, and my heart feels more open, accepting, and willing to persevere.

Knee Therapy Movement Restoration – Mar 17 – 4x speed

On Wednesday, I hurt my left knee more. The medial compartment has been problematic for the past 3-4 months. It feels like either the meniscus wasn’t cleared out well or that a cyst has formed in the capsule space. Wednesday afternoon, I was clearing out some rocks in my backyard. I was tossing them out into the greenbelt. As I threw one, I stepped onto my left knee, it popped, immediately hurt, felt unstable, and felt my nervous system shift.

Once the initial pain wave was over, I was able to walk… with a limp and minimal pain. There was instability mostly in the last 10-20 degrees of extension. I was able to move with arm support into a deep squat position without pain.

I went into knee therapy movement restoration mode for the next two days. I went for a swim, continued to move, and did very light movement exploration. Over the next couple days the pain, range of motion, and feeling of instability improved. This session is the first dedicated movement session focused on restoring as much knee function as possible.

This is a listening and feeling session. I have no plan or no focus on an outcome. I’m just feeling and allowing my body to tell me where it needs to go.

The first part of the session was all Movement Exploration, where I seek out the non-painful edges of my movement. Lots of hip, spine, and shoulder opening. As my body started opening up, it felt more playful, and I transitioned to stability focused work.

I did vestibular and proprioceptive challenges on the left knee on the 2×4. This felt super beneficial. The left knee was much more challenged than my right. However, as I explored, I felt the left knee become more controlled.

All in all, it was a really good session. It felt like just what my body needed.

Mobility/Stability Movement Exploration – Mar 9

Something I love about these movement sessions… I never know what it’s going to look like.

I went into this session planning to do the general Movement Exploration. However, as soon as I dropped into a squat, my body asked for something different. It was still Movement Exploration, but with a lot more stability and positional work. My neck feels pretty much back to normal. No pain… not even at the end ranges of motion. I had a neck pain issue that lasted about five days. It never raised into pain above a level 4 on a scale of ten. In the past, before I learned how to apply movement, this kind of neck pain would have been a level 8 and lasted 2-4 weeks.

My left knee was very talkative at the beginning. I had to ease into a deep knee bend at first. If the pain amped up from the position, I would have backed off… The position actually felt really good and I could feel the knee soften and release into it. As it opened up, I started exploring more movements from that position. By the end of the deep knee bending sequence, the left knee felt 80-90% better. This really set the tone for the rest of the session.

During movement sessions like this one, I like to think about my body in position. I ask “what positions can my body support and more importantly, cannot support. I feel my connection to the ground from all points of contact – hands, feet, knee, shoulder, or spine. Am I able to transition from one base of support to another? Is it efficient? Is it different on one side of my body compared to the other? If it is different, is it a mobility issue or a stability issue? Can I improve it by focusing on it? Can I slow it down and control movement?

Moving with a Neck Pain

The tightness and restriction in my neck are still present. Mobility has not gotten worse, which I contribute to last night’s movement session. However, pain has set in at the end range of motion for both neck left rotation and extension. Now I have to work on moving with neck pain.

It is not a major pain, not at the point of calling it a crick in my neck. I don’t even notice it with most movements… only at the end range. At this point, this is a good thing. Normally, when I feel neck tightness/restrictions, it turns to a major crick in the neck that affects all movements. So again, I’m thankful I made the effort to move last night, and need to be extra mindful to move the next few days to continue to work this issue out.

This session is a short five-minute movement session. I don’t want to get overly focused on the “where I’m feeling pain”. Instead, I’m paying attention to other areas of my body that are also tight/restricted.

I’m noticing the pain in my neck moves down into either the left shoulder or beneath the scapula. I feel movement restriction in my right low back with rotation and lateral extension. And my left knee has been a bit more painful in deep flexion than usual (level 3 or 4 on a scale of 10).

I finish with deep squat combined with neck mobility. This was a good start to the day.

Moving with a Neck Pain-

The neck discomfort is still present but has actually improved since the morning. I still have pain at the end ranges of left rotation and extension.

In this evening session, I’m connecting the tightness/restriction/pain on the left side of my neck to the larger kinetic chain. I start with a little soft foam roller work through the spine. I noticed a tender spot on the right side mid back erectors (T11-L2) area.

I worked this area out a small amount. The purpose is not to get a full release, but to just soften up the neurological connection to the tissue.

I then go into movement exploration focusing on moving through my spine, with extra focus on connecting it to the neck. I like to think of this as wringing out the spine. Towards the end, I felt restrictions of movement in the neck and got the foam roller out again. I finished up with shoulder mobility with the staff.

I feel pretty good about how I’ve worked through this recent neck issue. In the past, this is the kind of thing that would really affect my life negatively. It would affect driving; any kind of focused time like reading or studying; my emotional state… my fuse would be super short (especially with my son); I would have nasty headaches, and overall I would just feel tired and depleted.

Working Out Kinks in my Neck – Mar 3

I started feeling some restrictions in my neck mobility. It isn’t at the point of pain just yet, but my experience knows this as a pain precursor.

In this session, I’m focusing on feeling where the restrictions connect throughout my body. Just because the restriction/tightness is felt in the neck, doesn’t mean that is where the problem is located.

Working Out Kinks in my Neck

I started with a little foam roller and Thera-cane around the neck and shoulders to feel around for muscle/fascial tissue that feels unwilling/unable to lengthen.

Next, I went into Movement Exploration, again with the same purpose. During the movement, I noticed the base of my neck wasn’t moving. I got out the massage balls and worked around the base of my skull.

I finished with some deep breathing check-in, feeling with each inhale and exhale whether I can expand into each quadrant of the body.

The neck stiffness feels a little better, but is still present, The rest of my body feels well moved and oiled. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

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