Correct posture - Part 345

It looks like I like to repeat myself, like history.
If you do a posture do it well.

By the way, this website explain some in high details. Very cool.

Plank, Yoga style

Ok, Now the little daily story. The bridge is a good tool to build Glutes and stretch Psoas. Well, I tried it before and did not like it.
Why ? It is supposed to:

"Lengthens the spine – especially in the lower back. Can help ease lower back ache.  Helps to open the front of the shoulders. Tones the abdominal muscles. Very relaxing and can relieve stress."

Not for me. I always squeeze my low back spine, kind of compress my disks and feel pain after, in the low back, where it was supposed to be "helping".

Beautiful Bridge.

Again, there is a secret. In fact, two.

"To get even more space in the lower spine visualize the tailbone being pulled away as your pelvis rises up. Keep this image of the tailbone being pulled away as the hips come down as well."

you have to push away your pelvis, which is very different that arching your back. Believe me, there is a hell of a difference.

Second one, is to put a medicine ball between your knee, which forces to contract the inside muscle of the leg, and relax the external ones.

Like this, but the ball activate the inner leg muscles

I like paddle boarding too, but there is more waves at my local spot.

Next time i am on water, I am trying this.

Lesson 345: If you do it, do it well.

Back Pain ? Why you should read my blog ...

Well, the first reason is because it is super cool and funny and pointless.
The real one is because symptoms of psoas and back pain are not the same , but are representives of the same issue.
I am repeating myself, but you have to understand that :

sitting with a bad posture = tight psoas = weak glutes = anterior pelvis tilt =  crushed spine

Rational is here

When I asked my PT if she had a lot of clients like me, I was surprised to hear : "Not so much". In fact, Psaos pain seems to be current for runners or athletes like dancers stressing the hip flexors (seems kitesurfing doing just that). Most of people would in fact suffer back pain in the same setup. 

Skeletor is back

I am lucky, I do have back pain on the left side too, and psoas pain on the right side.

Read this blog, if you went through this nightmare already, let me know, give me hope, and if I go eventually through it, hopefully that will give hope to others.

Typical bad kitesurf stance stressing the flexors and the low back.

This one is way better. You can still imagine the flexors are working a lot.

As I said yesterday: Feeling better, but not there yet ...

Then, Why should you read my blog ? Because if you know me, you are likely to be sitting in front of a computer way too long. And if you do not have psoas pain (yet), you do have back pain (like 80% of people around us). Then you should do something about it, or try to prevent it. And for that, read my blog ;) and go on a mat.

Breakthrough

TADA !

Let s take a small break from the heavy and sort-of sad stuff from the last couple of posts, to relate to some more positives signs. Symbolically, since we have decided to focus and the Now and Then, (and cut the link with our last dock lines to the mainland, by selling our sailboat), I think I got breakthrough on the way to recovery of my hip flexor pain. 

Breakthrough (beautiful, isn't it ?)

The visit with Heather (see a couple of post back), and the understanding of the role of glute, as antagonist muscles for the psoas, helped me change the way I am training and exercising the last 3-4 days. And I see a difference already. For the first time, in months, or years, I did 3 days of consecutive activities without too much pain afterward. Yes, we are not there yet. I can still see several months of workout before complete recovery. I did not start to run yet. I did not even try to kite more than one hour. However, for the first time, I hear feel in my bones some progress. Focusing on the glutes activation during my stretching / strengthening exercises was the trigger , I think.

The exercise that really helps me is this one:

Glute activation

This exercise is the only one I found so far that helps to trigger the Glutes without triggering the psoas or the IT Band. After this,  I understood (finally !!) how to trigger the gluteus medius, but this time, USING THE RIGHT MUSCLES:

gluteus medius activation

Lesson:

Doing an exercise is worthless if you are not doing it right and not triggering/using the right muscles.
(Believe me or not, but it is uncommon for most physical therapists to really points that out. Mine did not. Disturbing, isn't it ?)

The second factor of this "breakthrough: is my understanding (real - deep understanding, not just intellectual. Understanding with U.) of the role of antagonist muscles in the role of stretching / strengthening.

reciprocal inhibition

The glutes are the antagonist muscles of the psoas. Which means:

- Triggering the glutes force the psoas to relax

- Strengthening the glutes will force the psoas to stretch.

Seems obvious, right ? But think about it:

- NOT triggering the glutes during an exercise will never relax the psoas, making any deep stretch impossible, worthless and dangerous (forcing can lead to ligament injury).

Obviously, if I started Yoga 10 years ago, 

and was able to do this, I would be fine by now.

Now than  I can do all those exercise the correct way, I begin to feel my glutes and see finally some improvements. And while surfing and kitesurfing, I can pay attention to contract my abs and my glutes simultaneously to get a better posture, which means, that eventually I should be able to relax those hip flexors while doing the activity that use to hurt. Funny ?Well, as I said, we are not there yet, but believe me, after months of despair and very few progress, this is enlightening my days. 

And my wife concur : "Now, you are doing non funny jokes and being annoying again".

I take that as a good sign ;)

Let her go ...

Consciousness is about unveil the trick of mind. Really what do you need, and what do you want. I have to let her go.It just does not fit. Right now, there is so much going on here, paradoxically  on this small island in the middle of nowhere, that we cannot run after chimeras endlessly. It took a lot of time and a lot of introspection to let us realize our boat was not a priority right now. My wife got her own goals and challenges. And myself, right now, is all about body reconstruction and fitness conversion. If she were berthing next door, maybe that would have be different. But the mainland seems to us so far now, and so unlikely to go back there, like another world.

Last pictures of the last trip of Mobylette. Proud as a captain.

Yes, we are selling her.

Really like this one. Last day, north of the bay of San francisco.

But, one day, there will be another Mobylette! maybe one like Her. And this time, we will do the big loop .. Not just around the bay !

Good Old' Wauquiez 38'

Writing this blog and defining goals to reach in the next couple of years made us realize how impossible / how unlikely / how superficial / how not that important after all / how smoke and mirrors, it would be to try to pursue them. Then , I am losing one third of my goals. ZIP. Like that. At least the blog helped us on this. Thank you, Blog. And Thank you, Mobylette, for the time we spent together.

Consciousness

In this part 3.1 on the awareness resolution, I want to improve my consciousness.
I said 3.1, because I will try to do smaller posts, and following the Nintendo Rule, you can expect 3.2 and 3.3. At least.

Consciousness is pretty vague, I concede.
Maui is an island that bring you closer from the nature, and I want to be conscious of my surrounding, and my impact of the world.

Maui famous windmills

Mobylette, our boat, was an attempt to reduce our "footprint". I still do believe that cruising is wonderful way of living in close relationship with the ocean, earth, and limit our global consumption of Gaia - The living earth.

Sailing the bay

And, when I can, limit indirect damage caused my my nutrition.

Like Factory Farming.

Or my indirect indirect impact on the world itself. Because those cows, they found a quite a funny way to make us pay for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming


Concentrating large numbers of animals in factory farms is a major contribution to global environmental degradation, through the need to grow feed (often by intensive methods using excessive fertiliser and pesticides), pollution of water, soil and air by agrochemicals and manure waste, and use of limited resources (water, energy).[64]
Livestock production is also particularly water-intensive in indoor, intensive systems. Eight percent of global human water use goes towards animal production, including water used to irrigate feed crops.[64]

Looks like a big Mikado game.

I dont consider me as vegan, but if I can choose, I will pay more, and eat less of meat, and get it from  organic food stores.

Lucky us, we have a wonderful one in Paia, Surf Town , Maui.

Mana shop, all organic, and pretty cheap

I guess it was symbolic that tonight, we saw, all together, as a family ... The Lorax.

I speak for the trees!

Myself, i just speak for my conscience.


And as a member of SurfRider, a little bit for the ocean too.

http://www.surfrider.org/