Julie's Blog

Healthy Shoulders Start with Understanding Them

Low Back Pain, Sciatica, Hip Pain, SI Joint Pain, Knee Pain What do they all have in common?

Stability starts with the Tripod of the Foot

When it comes to spine stability and health maintaining shared segmental load is a must. Producing too much movement (or load) from one spot in the spine creates structural issues leading to osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and disk herniation. Often the muscles that support shared segmental loading of the spine need to be retrained. A yoga class is great for getting us to move our spines through the different planes of movement. If we are not careful, we can get caught up in the poses and miss the awareness of where we are moving from. We are born with thoracic kyphosis (flexion) in our spine. It is developed in utero and referred to as our primary curve. As infants we work hard to develop our secondary curves. Lordosis is developed in the cervical and lumbar sections of our spine during our first 12 months. Our movements as babies help develop the muscles to support and maintain these curves. As adults our occupations or habits can cause movement patterns that fail to maintain shared segmental loading of the spine. Repetitive motions, sitting, looking at a computer or down at our phone for extended periods of time all shift us toward failing to support our spine. Unconsciously we move more and more from just a few segments in the spine and eventually suffer from neck or lower back pain. Through awareness and retraining, we can coordinate our muscles again to support and maintain shared segmental loading of our spine. These movements are most likely ones you haven't done in years :) Our spine is a miraculous structure. If you haven’t gotten down on the floor and crawled around, I recommend it! Interested in feeling a change? Schedule a Movement or Breathing session with Julie.

There are numerous benefits to breathing through your nose. The benefits range from obvious ones such as better sleep, a calming state, avoiding dry mouth and gum disease to the less obvious ones like straight teeth, better posture, improving your energy and immune system. Your initial reaction to thinking about how you breathe is probably like mine was, "I always breathe through my nose, 100% of the time". Take a moment to explore this. Try this short self-quiz. (Be honest.) Recite the Pledge of Allegiance out loud (Or read this entire article out loud) notice if you are inhaling through your nose or mouth. I find that over 90% of people I encounter breathe through their mouth while talking. Watch the newscasters on TV or listen to the DJs on the radio for examples. What about when exercising? I definitely used to breath threw my mouth while exercising. When I combined the mouth breathing, I was doing while exercising and talking (I talk for a living) at least 50% of my awake time was mouth breathing. Who knew what I did while sleeping! Training yourself to continually breathing is worth the effort. Benefits of Nasal Breathing: -Filters dust and allergens in the air -Moistens and warms the air -Prevents over breathing (it's a real thing and very common) -Releases Nitric Oxide (NO is a vasodilator, it opens air passages naturally) -Boosts oxygen consumption and improves circulation -Improves lung volume -Aides immune system -Supports the correct formation or teeth and jaw -Lowers risk of snoring and sleep apnea -Prevents dry mouth and gum disease As a functional breathing coach, the first place I work with clients is nasal breathing which automatically improves their overall breathing. We breathe over 25,000 times a day, 24 hours a day. Taking 4-5 minutes a few times a day to retrain your breathing pattern goes a long way to improving our overall heath. You may be curious about breathing through your nose while exercising. I was recently interviewed by Matt Miller with Cycle Magazine for the benefits of nasal breathing while biking. Read the interview here: https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-progression/why-nasal-breathing-could-be-key-to-breathing-better-on-you-next-mtb-ride/ Here is another article from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/when-it-comes-to-breathing-during-exercise-youre-probably-doing-it-wrong/2019/01/23/b4d3c338-1e59-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html Use this video link for exercises to improve your nasal breathing habit. https://youtu.be/auNlCLS2uCI?si=Z50LvbMkz-SQdMkY Questions about where to start with improving your own breathing? Schedule a Functional Breathing Assessment or send an email.

Keep it on the Positive Side