There are so many essential little muscles hidden away controlling our posture and defining our self-concept, we’re usually not aware of them until something goes wrong.
Creatures of Habit
Every body has different habits, strengths and weaknesses, and different histories of fitness and muscle tone. Many people never completely learn how to walk, stand, or sit (learn more at corewalking.com) or find their ability to do any of those with optimum posture compromised by lifelong deficiencies or increasingly poor muscle tone. Careers of sedentary work or repetitive stress (such as playing a musical instrument) inevitably create problems with these muscles over time, unless the (potential) sufferer creates a therapeutic regimen of stretching and exercise to rebalance the muscles.
Muscle Problems!
These diabolical little muscles may be weak or tight, creating postural imbalance and nerve impingement, causing sciatica, low back pain, frozen shoulder or rotator cuff problems. They’re hard to isolate. It takes specific knowledge, self-education, research, and particular (sometimes odd or unexpected) stretches and exercises to remedy the situation.
Chronic pain from these sources can be eliminated. It can take some time to rehabilitate and strengthen the muscles, but it can be done. Too often in current medical practice these autonomously remediable problems are treated with prescription pain killers, leading to major side effects including addiction, ruination and death.
Curing Chronic Pain
Exercise is the solution that works, creating hugely beneficial side effects such as improved vitality, health, and youthfulness. A thorough program of physical rehabilitation including some yoga or tai chi, or stretching, aerobic and anaerobic (resistance) training, can make you feel and look 20-40 years younger and cure your chronic pain.
Exercising can fail to help without mindful improvement of technique. Proper technique results from proper posture during exercise. If lifelong habits have created distortions and imbalance in posture (likely to be an issue when beginning a program of rehabilitative exercise), persistent focus on proper posture and technique in exercise is essential for the formation of new habits, strengthening muscles long neglected. The body will go through changes and new sensations as lifelong habits are changed. The process can be uncomfortable in the beginning.
If you exercise without changing your approach to your physicality and correcting your postural deficiencies, you may fail to progress in healing your imbalance and reducing chronic pain, eventually (possibly) injuring yourself or giving up.
If you can visualize yourself as a more erect, stronger, more flexible, pain-free person with a more attractive bearing and physique while believing that the work you’re doing will get you there, you will succeed. With this belief in your ability to heal and rehabilitate with the means at your disposal, you will be able to summon the courage, determination and persistence required to persevere through the change or recovery process.
Some of the little muscles that can cause big problems are:
Pelvic Girdle
- Tsoas
- Iliacus
- Piriformis
- Quadratus
Shoulder
- Teres Minor
- Subscapularis
- Supraspinatus,
- Infraspinatus
Googling the above muscles with the term “stretch for ______” or “strengthening ________” gives practical, useful search results leading to diagrams, videos, how-to’s and other useful resources.
Get started today for a stronger, more confident, pain-free future!
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