SARAH COURT, PT, DPT, E-RYT

Physical Therapist, movement mentor, yoga teacher trainer.

Movement hacks and tricks

30ish Bridges in 30ish Seconds

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Last week I talked about how sometimes a simple bridge is exactly what our student or client needs, and we don’t always have to invent the most creative / most complicated movements every time we teach.
 
And then over the weekend I did something to my foot (navicular drop leading to 5th met head displacement, maybe, according to me and Dr. Google?!) and I’m trying not to weight bear on it more than I need to, but somehow still get some glute strengthening in…
 
Enter the bridge!

I brainstormed a bunch of variations (and filmed them sped up… you don’t actually need to do 30 bridges in 30 seconds!). Some require a yoga block or two and a blanket, but you can sub a fat book for a block. I did a few at the end with resistance bands too, just cos I have them. There’s endless possibilities, but feel free to bookmark this list as a starting point when you need a creative boost.

If you’ve only ever done a bridge one way, watch my short video to see a handful of other ways you can do it.

 And if you try any, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Bridge for Privates

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Have you ever felt pressured to keep your students entertained with constant new variations on basic yoga poses?

“It’s Utkatasana, but with Warrior 2 arms!” 

(actually, I might use that someday ;-))

If this is tough for you, it definitely doesn’t help to see other teachers on social media endlessly riffing on poses, with weights, bands, household items, furniture…

But you know what? There’s a big difference between what a private student needs, and what a group class is about.

If you’re thinking “it me” right now, watch my short video to learn:

  • Why you don’t need to reinvent the bridge (or clam) for privates
  • When you feel stuck, a bridge can be a bridge (sorry) to other ideas
  • Why functional is fun, but sometimes basic is best
  • How to take a simple pose into a group class and make it anything but

What have you learned along your teaching journey about teaching privates? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

And if you think you need a private session, contact me and let’s get you started!

What To Do With Your Foam Roller

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What to Do With

Your Foam Roller

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(Now that you’re not foam rolling anymore)

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Ok, so just to clarify – you can still foam roll all you want on it. Roll your heart out. Recently, more and more studies are showing that a more pliable and targeted tool will be more effective for making the kind of change to the tissues that you’re probably looking for.

However! One of my Ground Rules in Quantum Leap is “Keep Everything.” If foam rolling gives you pain relief, or you think it’s fun – go for it. There’s no reason to throw anything away – either you repurpose it, or you file it away for very specific useages.

When not being used for rolling, one of my favorite ways to use the foam roller is to work on trunk stability and core strength. I’m demonstrating a few ideas in the video – try them out, let me know what you think, and tell me about your cool innovative uses for your foam roller!

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If foam rolling gives you pain relief, or you think it’s fun – go for it.

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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!

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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.

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!

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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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Super-easy, No Props, Not Embarrassing All-in-One Spine Mobilizer

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Super-easy, no props, not embarrassing all-in-one spine mobilizer

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Aka: how to stretch in public without looking like a weirdo

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Do you ever feel self-conscious busting out your movement regime at the office, or at the airport?

I love being able to take classes or be in movement spaces where there is lots of room to take up space, but sometimes we don’t have that option, and we need a simple way to get in some movement that a) doesn’t need a lot of space or special props and b) you can do publicly without feeling self-conscious about it.

In this video I demonstrate how to do this super-easy, no props, all-in-one spine mobilizer.

There are a few different things I love about this move:

  • It’s completely closed chain (hands and feet fixed to an object) so you can use both your legs and your arms to create that leverage for pushing.
  • It starts you in a position that mimics gait – in other words, you’re like a freeze frame of walking with the reciprocal (opposite) arm to leg pattern.
  • When you walk, your spine needs to be able to move in all three planes, and so you can use this movement to work on all of them, or you can pick the one that feels the most restricted and work on that one.
  • You’re working on spinal movement while already in rotation, which means you’re working in more than one plane of movement at the same time. This is much more typical to how bodies move in real life.

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

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We need a simple way to get in some movement that a) doesn’t need a lot of space or special props and b) you can do publicly without feeling self-conscious about it.

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Isometric Contractions For Pain Relief

by Leave a Comment

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BLOG

 

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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