SARAH COURT, PT, DPT, E-RYT

Physical Therapist, movement mentor, yoga teacher trainer.

Anatomy

Do I Have to do the Same Exercise on Both Sides?

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I don’t know about you, but when I did my first yoga teacher training, I was told that you always do the same sequence of poses on both sides. I didn’t know much about anything at that time, so I didn’t really question it, but it left me wondering… 

Always? 
If you didn’t, would you become lopsided?
What if you were already lopsided?

If you’ve heard this before, and you’d like a reasoned answer as to why “always” isn’t always the case, watch my short video to learn:
 

  • why the “same thing both sides” idea may be so prevalent in yoga
  • how asymmetry is natural…
  • …but too much might be problematic down the line
  • how to fold asymmetrical practice into group classes, workshops and privates

 
What were you taught about doing the same exercises on both sides? And has your thinking changed since then?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Yoga Alliance Interview – Scope of Practice

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Yoga Alliance Interview on Scope of Practice

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I join David Lipsius, CEO of Yoga Alliance, to discuss the conditions and injuries people often bring to yoga and how a teacher might respond. We take a deep dive into how clarity around a yoga teacher’s scope of practice can help teachers, students, and the medical establishment have a healthier relationship with yoga.

Should an organization like Yoga Alliance dictate to the larger yoga community around scope of practice for yoga teachers? What are the consequences both with and without this established boundary?

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I join David Lipsius, CEO of Yoga Alliance, to discuss the conditions and injuries people often bring to yoga and how a teacher might respond.

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For lots of people with neck pain, their cervical range of motion – the movements they are able to do with their neck – become limited as a protective mechanism. If you’ve had neck pain for a while, even when it has resolved, you may still hang on to those learned movement limitations, instead of returning to full range of motion.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog Text” _builder_version=”3.0.89″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”HelveticaNeueMedium|300|||||||” text_letter_spacing=”2px”]

Those limitations often then lead to compensatory movements in order to accomplish a task. For example, if you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation. This compensation can lead to a lot of shearing forces into the cervical vertebrae, and thus in itself create new pain and problems for the bones and muscles of your neck.

In this video, I demonstrate a simple but extremely effective exercise to isolate rotation of the neck and how to perform it without any compensatory movements. The key is to pin one spot on the top of your head to the wall and not to deviate from that spot, even if it means the amount of rotation that you are doing feels more limited than usual. This precision will teach your neck how to do pure rotation again, and if you practice this exercise it should both a) make your neck feel better and b) actually start to help you regain proper neck rotation movement in your life.

Try it out, and let me know how you like it in the comments!

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If you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation.

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Help For Your Stiff Neck

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Help for

Your

Stiff Neck

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How to clean up your neck movements!

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ specialty=”on” padding_top_1=”0px” padding_top_2=”0px” _builder_version=”3.0.89″ custom_margin=”0px|||” custom_padding=”0px|||” module_class=”border-right”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ specialty_columns=”3″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row” _builder_version=”3.0.89″][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”3_4″][et_pb_code admin_label=”Facebook Video” _builder_version=”3.0.89″]<iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fquantumleapmovement%2Fvideos%2F1674663579234480%2F&show_text=0&width=476″ width=”476″ height=”476″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” allowFullScreen=”true”></iframe>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_text admin_label=”Generally speaking” _builder_version=”3.0.95″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”HelveticaNeueMedium|300|||||||” text_letter_spacing=”2px”]

For lots of people with neck pain, their cervical range of motion – the movements they are able to do with their neck – become limited as a protective mechanism. If you’ve had neck pain for a while, even when it has resolved, you may still hang on to those learned movement limitations, instead of returning to full range of motion.

Those limitations often then lead to compensatory movements in order to accomplish a task. For example, if you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation. This compensation can lead to a lot of shearing forces into the cervical vertebrae, and thus in itself create new pain and problems for the bones and muscles of your neck.

In this video, I demonstrate a simple but extremely effective exercise to isolate rotation of the neck and how to perform it without any compensatory movements. The key is to pin one spot on the top of your head to the wall and not to deviate from that spot, even if it means the amount of rotation that you are doing feels more limited than usual. This precision will teach your neck how to do pure rotation again, and if you practice this exercise it should both a) make your neck feel better and b) actually start to help you regain proper neck rotation movement in your life.

Try it out, and let me know how you like it in the comments!

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If you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation.

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For lots of people with neck pain, their cervical range of motion – the movements they are able to do with their neck – become limited as a protective mechanism. If you’ve had neck pain for a while, even when it has resolved, you may still hang on to those learned movement limitations, instead of returning to full range of motion.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog Text” _builder_version=”3.0.89″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”HelveticaNeueMedium|300|||||||” text_letter_spacing=”2px”]

Those limitations often then lead to compensatory movements in order to accomplish a task. For example, if you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation. This compensation can lead to a lot of shearing forces into the cervical vertebrae, and thus in itself create new pain and problems for the bones and muscles of your neck.

In this video, I demonstrate a simple but extremely effective exercise to isolate rotation of the neck and how to perform it without any compensatory movements. The key is to pin one spot on the top of your head to the wall and not to deviate from that spot, even if it means the amount of rotation that you are doing feels more limited than usual. This precision will teach your neck how to do pure rotation again, and if you practice this exercise it should both a) make your neck feel better and b) actually start to help you regain proper neck rotation movement in your life.

Try it out, and let me know how you like it in the comments!

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blockquote” module_class=”paragraph-with-left-border” _builder_version=”3.0.89″ border_width_all=”10px” border_style_top=”none” border_style_right=”none” border_style_bottom=”none” border_color_left=”#285e86″ custom_padding=”|30%||15px” background_layout=”light” text_font=”HelveticaNeue|700|||||||” text_font_size=”18px” custom_padding_tablet=”|20%||15px” custom_padding_phone=”|0px||15px” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” text_letter_spacing=”4px”]

If you have limited neck rotation, but you need to look over your shoulder to reach into the back seat of your car, you might end up pulling your neck into a sidebend or extension to get around what you are lacking in rotation.

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Isometric Contractions For Pain Relief

by Leave a Comment

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Isometic

Contractions For

Pain Relief

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Should I use them with my clients?

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Something that´s been on my radar lately is the study of isometric muscle contraction and its relationship to pain relief. If that sentence made you say, ¨Huh?¨ – let´s back up and review.

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Something that´s been on my radar lately is the study of isometric muscle contraction and its relationship to pain relief. If that sentence made you say, ¨Huh?¨ – let´s back up and review.

Generally speaking. We can categorize muscle contractions into 3 categories.

1. Concentric – when the muscle is getting shorter (like my biceps when I pick up my coffee to take a sip)
2. Isometric – when the muscle is contracting without changing lengt (like my biceps as i´m holding my coffee still to take a sip)
3. Eccentric – when the muscle is getting longer (like my biceps as I then put my coffee back down without dropping it)

In the rehab world, eccentric gets a lot of attention because it´s been proven to help a lot with tendon repair. And at the same time, we know that an eccentric contraction actually loads the muscle more than a concentric contraction – by about 40% more- so it´s a quicker way to make a muscle stronger.

But in the past few years, more research is been done on how to use isometric contractions, especially for people who are in pain, as a way to induce pain-free muscle contraction, and start to re-wire the brain´s pain map about movement.

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What research is starting to show is that for some people, in some instances, an isometric contraction is the way to help them start to create movement without pain.

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The big thing to take away is this: when people have pain when they move, they develop a fear of the movement causing pain in the future (it´s even got a name: kinesiophobia). From modern pain science, we know that in order to get someone healthy and moving again, we have to find ways for them to move that don’t have pain attached. What research is starting to show is that for some people, in some instances, an isometric contraction is the way to help them start create movement without pain.

Watch the video for demonstration of how you could do this for your client, and how you could then progress it or regress it as needed.

Ultimately, this will be an ‘it depends’- some people will tolerate it, and some won´t – but it´s a great tool to add to your toolbox, especially if you are working with someone who is in pain and is now afraid to move.

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