Tag: tools

Yes, we are connected

by Jody, posted in aging, movement, pain, tools - movement, training, yoga

skeletons

Though I’ve been focusing on the feet these last few weeks, if you’re having problems with your feet you may also want to make some other connections. Yes, similar to what we’ve been exploring there are things you can do physically that will help. But our feet are connected to our leg bones, our leg bones are connected to our hip joint. Our hips are connected to our spine and further it goes, up the whole body.

We tend to look where pain expresses itself… and think we will find the solution there.

Some people may have knee problems and look to ‘fix’ the knee when really what’s happening (or not happening) is at the hips or at the feet. Or elsewhere.

Imagine you have a cast on your ankle and how it might feel when you walk. How your body might compensate. You may end up with a sore back or shoulder muscles as you try to move as best you can with a stiff, unable to bend, ankle. We’re not usually walking around with a cast on, but many people don’t really use a lot of their ankle flexion for a whole host of reasons. Shoes, patterns of movement, previous injury, etc. Pain may be expressed in your back or shoulders when what’s really going on is down at your feet.

People will often say, “yes but I had an x-ray or ultrasound and they found this (insert condition here) is wrong with my feet”. Yes, I’ve been there too. Diagnosed with chronic plantar fasciitis in both feet, osteoarthritis in both big toes. Basically, I was told to wear rocker shoes, orthotics, and live with it.

Orthotics absolutely serve a purpose in many cases but I’m not sure of any other body part we are willing to cast or brace for a lifetime. We might need a collar brace, but not forever. We may need to wear a special boot to help with a foot injury or after surgery. The point is we work hard, physiotherapists and others work hard with us, to remove these external or artificial supports. Our feet and some orthotics, in my opinion, should be no different.

After my own diagnosis and subsequently learning that our body will most often adapt to what’s asked of it, I figured there must be another way. I have put some effort and focus on my feet in many of the ways shown last month but what was happening in my hips (lack of strength and stability) also played a part.

There are often many pieces to the puzzle of long-term, persistent or chronic pain.

For instance, why was it my feet didn’t always hurt? Why only sometimes? Some days?

Paying close attention I came to notice that when under stress, under too much ‘load’, my pain was likely to arise or increase.  If I was out enjoying myself, not a care in the world, doing something fun or even necessary perhaps, I didn’t seem to have pain. But at other times, it most definitely kicked in.

The biggest a-ha for me now is to realize that structural degeneration or tissue damage is likely to show up for me and everyone else at some point (Note: Brinjijki et al 2014 study as shown in the table below). Particularly by the time you’re my age (56). I need not ‘fear’ this, or fear making things worse, but rather utilize all the things I know I can do, that might help with the pain I sometimes experience in my feet.

  • Strengthening
  • Stretching
  • Keeping my feet soft, supple, agile
  • Adding load, good stress, to keep the bones healthy
  • Wearing appropriate footwear; allowing for space, mobility, flexibility
  • Keeping my overall ‘weight’ in a manageable range
  • Knowing that my levels of stress, fatigue, diet and a range of other factors may also play a part.

degenerative spine issues

In the month of November, we’ll explore our HIPS (Yes, I switched my focus this month from shoulders to hips. We’ll get to shoulders in December). This is where load and/or gravitational forces are primarily distributed through the body so how well we manage this, matters.

Along the way, I’ll throw in a few morsels about chronic pain that might help you make sense of your own personal experience with persistent pain in the hips, or elsewhere.

I hope you’ll join me.

 

The Evolution of a Practice

by Jody, posted in aging, how to begin, movement, pain, yoga

SimplifyWhen I used to write about yoga for a local magazine, the numbers of Americans practicing yoga was about 20 million. Today, about 6 years later, that number has nearly doubled, edging up towards to 40 million. Globally, the estimate is about 300 million and the number of over 50s practicing yoga has tripled over the last four years.

People often wonder what this thing called yoga actually is. Difficult to answer in just a sentence but to me YOGA is the exploration, awareness, and response that informs how I (might best) relate to the world inside myself and to the larger world around me.

A large part of this doesn’t involve the physical yoga postures or asana practice, but that’s usually where people begin. It is a good way into the wider exploration. Most, practice on a mat and typically in a group class. Certainly, it’s where I began.

Not knowing anything about yoga when starting out, I first practiced Ashtanga yoga and then when I began teaching it was a somewhat modified Vinyasa practice. Both involve strong, physical, almost gymnastic-like movements linked with the breath. Ashtanga, in particular, is meant to be practiced for 1.5hrs each day, 6 days of the week.

My practice today no longer resembles this in the least. Today, my physical yoga practice is interweaved throughout the day, with broader concepts in the background.

  • Most often it does not take place on my mat.
  • Most often it is less than 30 minutes at a time.
  • Most often it’s a response to whatever I feel might best serve me, at any given time.
  • No special place, clothing, or time.

Which I think might be a helpful way to practice for many who don’t have the time, money, or perhaps ability to get to a studio or gym.

What does this practice look like?

Join me over the next few months and we’ll look at little snippets of yoga, movement, breath practices that can be done in a couple of minutes or combined to make your own personal practice. On your own time, in your own space, that fits into whatever your life demands of you.

Most important to me is to teach people what they can do for themselves. Provide agency. The ability for you to have the tools and the freedom to make choices that enhance your wellbeing and your life.

  • In October we’ll focus on the feet.
  • November will be all about the shoulder joint.
  • In December, we’ll get into the hip joint.

I’ve chosen these particular areas to focus on as they tend to be where problems, pains, issues show up for most people I talk and work with.

You can find me talking about this on Facebook, and Instagram, if you want to follow along.

 

Great programs but why the disconnect?

by Jody, posted in exercise, pain

disconnectAfter receiving basic information about the University of Ottawa Heart Institute’s Heart Wise Exercise program, presented at my yoga therapy training, I wanted to go back to learn more so paid them a visit earlier this week. Theirs is a program that helps to connect patients who have been through initial rehab programs after diagnosis, illness, surgery from heart disease, to community-based exercise programs and fitness professionals. It served primarily Ottawa but over the years has expanded in/around Ontario and a little into Quebec.

I mentioned a program in Alberta that I’d found on the internet a year or so ago. In Alberta the Prescription to Get Active Program allows you to visit your doctor, receive a ‘prescription to get active’ and then find a facility in your community offering all kinds of activities from walking, strength training, yoga, cycling, swimming, dancing, etc. The ‘prescription’ allows for free access (often a series like a 10-pass visit, free month, etc.) to get you started.

I often reference the excellent program the province of BC provides to health care providers and those living with chronic pain. The Pain BC program is one of the of the best (well, the only one of its kind I know of) in Canada in terms of information, resources and programs.

It’s too bad all these programs are rather piecemeal and for the most part unknown across Canada, rather than being coordinated. I give great credit to the people and work done to provide them.  It’s just our government or overriding systems that seem to be unable to provide the coordination, or funding or whatever might be needed so everyone can access them.

Regardless, for my Canadian friends and followers, feel free to check them out!

Links above, but for easy reference click on any of these links:

Low Back Pain: GAPS between Guidelines and Practice

by Jody, posted in chronic pain, news, pain, research, yoga, yoga therapy

bettingrealitycheck

Continuing with the second of three papers recently published in The Lancet regarding Low Back Pain. What guidelines are already in place, what’s actually occurring in practice and suggested solutions going forward.

What’s striking to me is the

clear evidence of substantial gaps between evidence and practice, that are pervasive

A few years after delving into this, I am still scratching my head how far behind we are in our medical and clinical practice given the evidence. Yet, I’m hopeful that as more and more of this gets into the public domain, much-needed momentum will begin to close the GAP. Particularly with the crisis we find ourselves in, the growing epidemic of opioid use which is literally, killing people.

What are the treatment guideline GAPS, as outlined in the paper?

Below are

study results of clinical practice and highlights the disparity between ten guideline recommendations and the reality of current health care.

Guideline Message: Low back pain should be managed in primary care.

Practice: in high-income, low-income, and middle-income settings, people with low back pain present to emergency departments or to a medical specialist.

Guideline Message: Provide education and advice.

Practice: in high-income, low-income, and middle-income settings this aspect of care is rarely provided.

Guideline Message: Remain active and stay at work.

Practice: in high-income, low-income, and middle-income settings, many clinicians and patients advocate rest and absence from work.

Guideline message: imaging should only occur if the clinician suspects a specific condition that would require different management to non-specific low back pain.

Practice: although such specific causes of low back pain are rare, in high-income, low-income, and middle-income settings, imaging rates are high.

Guideline message: first choice of therapy should be non-pharmacological.

Practice: surveys of care show that this approach is usually not followed.

Guideline message: most guidelines advise against electrical physical modalities (eg, short-wave diathermy, traction).

Practice: worldwide these ineffective treatments are still used by the professionals who administer physical therapies.

Guideline message: due to unclear evidence of efficacy and concerns of harm, the use of opioid analgesic medicines is now discouraged.

Practice: these medicines have been overused in some, but not all, high-income countries; low-income and middle-income countries seem to have very low rates of use.

Guideline message: interventional procedures and surgery have a very limited role, if any, in the management of low back pain.

Practice: these approaches are widely used in high-income countries, little evidence on their use is available for low-income and middle-income settings.

Guideline message: exercise is recommended for chronic low back pain.

Practice: clinician treatment preferences and health-care constraints limit uptake.

Guideline message: a biopsychosocial framework should guide management of low back pain.

Practice: the psychosocial aspects of low back pain are poorly managed in high-income, low-income, and middle-income settings.

As you can see, what’s recommended is not what’s being offered to people for treatment.

Though first line care is meant to be non-pharmacological,

a study from the USA showed that only about half of people with chronic low back pain are prescribed exercise. In Australian primary care and in the emergency department setting in Canada, the most common treatment is prescribed medication.

Then, there are the rates of imaging, even though it has a limited role to play (see previous post).

39% in Norway, 54% in the USA, 56% in Italy as three examples, presenting patients to emergency rooms are given imaging.

Even worse, opioids. Though data for effects of opioids for acute low back pain are sparse,

one study showed that they were prescribed for around 60% of emergency department presentations for low back pain in the USA.

And,

More than half the total number of people taking opioids long-term have low back pain though NO randomized controlled trial evidence is available about long-term effects. Well, we can see some of the short-term effects taking place across our countries at the moment.

In terms of surgery, which has “a limited role for low back pain”,

studies from the USA, Australia and the Netherlands show frequent use of spinal fusion.

So the waste to our healthcare system is apparent, but the bigger cost is what’s happening to the people who are provided these treatments that have shown to have little success. They seem stuck in what seems a never-ending loop of pain.

Key messages:

“Guidelines recommend self-management, physical and psychological therapies, and some forms of complementary medicine, and place less emphasis on pharmacological and surgical treatments, routine use of imaging and investigations is not recommended.

Little prevention research exists, with the only known effective interventions for secondary prevention being exercise, combined with education, and exercise alone.”

Where do we go from here?

“Promising solutions include focused implementation of best practice, the redesign of clinical pathways, integrated health and occupational care, changes to payment systems and legislation, and public health and prevention strategies.”

Current guidelines need to be utilized which we clearly see, they are not.  There needs to be better integrated education of health-care professionals including a change to the clinical-care model. Revamping the “current models of health-care reimbursement, which reward volume rather than quality”. Integration of health-care and occupation interventions so we can get people back to work and back to their lives. Changes to compensation and disability policies. Finally, public health interventions to change public’s beliefs and behaviors.

Which brings us to the last of the 3 papers, Low back pain: a call for action, up next on the blog.

What might be useful skills?

by Jody, posted in chronic pain, individuality, interoception, movement, pain, skills, yoga, yoga therapy

Funniest thing I read the other day.

Being flexible ain’t all it’s cracked up to be

Doing the splits is not exactly a useful skill.

– Painscience.com

I’ve written about this before, here. But I think it’s important to talk about again.

People associate yoga with flexibility.

I do associate the word flexibility with yoga, but it’s in how we apply flexibility to our life.

That is, we have lots of choices available to us.

People often get stuck and then their choices become smaller, and smaller, and smaller… until they feel something a little like this; boxed in.

stuck

What I’m really looking for is this:

Freedom.

Do you have freedom, to do what you want in your life?

Do you have the freedom to BE you?

Skills that may aid in this might be strength. Physical strength if you want to move around in the world. Be able to go jogging, walking, cycling. Even to simply pick up and play with your kids/grandkids.

Maybe you are an office worker or writer and need to sit a lot of the day. What skills might be useful to do that?

A skill may be the ability to voice your opinions at work?

Or the skills required to get a good night’s sleep, so you have the energy for the coming day.

A useful skill may be noticing what creates tension in your body.

Try sitting in a dentist chair for any length of time and notice how you feel?  A sore jaw, perhaps, makes sense. But what might your shoulders feel like? Or your leg muscles? Imagine doing this, unknowingly creating tension throughout the day, and what it might create? Pain, fatigue, stiff or sore muscles.

Yoga, is all about the noticing.

Which helps guide our life, …

out of the box, and toward spaciousness and freedom.

 

 

 

 

Just, … breathe

by Jody, posted in how to begin, movement, stress, tools - breath, yoga

People often sit at their desk, laptop, TV, or plugged into a smartphone with their earphones in. Listening to music, podcasts, videos on YouTube, working, or whatever.

As an experiment, the next time you put your earphones on, don’t ‘listen’ to anything except your breath.

It may not be as noticeable if you’re on the bus, driving, in an airport or a similar noisy environment. But, still, I think you’ll find it to be … telling.

How are you breathing?

Are you breathing fluidly?

Is there equanimity on the inhale and exhale. Or is one shorter or longer than the other?

A pause in between may be good. But do you find that you’ve actually stopped breathing? As in not breathing altogether of course, but that your breathing is not fluid. Easy. Continuous. That there is a long pause, perhaps, between the two. That you fail to begin the inhale, until long after the exhale.

  • Why might that be?
  • How do your neck muscles feel, while you’re noticing ‘this’ breath?
  • How does your torso or trunk feel?
  • How does your abdomen/belly feel?
  • Do you notice or feel anything at all?
  • Do you sense anything?
  • What might this noticing, this awareness tell you?

In the meantime, try this.

Inhale, and exhale, along with the shape below.  Expansion, contraction.

breath

I’m curious to hear of your experience.

I can say for sure, I noticed a few things about my own breathing patterns.

When there is quiet, what do I hear?

(Though we’re in the midst of a cold winter, I find I can ‘listen’ more clearly to my breath when swimming or floating in water, similar to listening with earphones in as above. Or if I submerge myself in bathwater. So choose what’s best for you, whatever might be your season.)

Please feel free to comment, in the space below.

 

Yoga Tools – Open Your Mind

by Jody, posted in mindfulness, movement, tools - movement, yoga

I’m going to challenge you to change things up this week. Whatever you think you should be doing, (in a movement, in your posture) whatever you’ve been told to do… do the opposite.

15327336_10157994488295226_6548450058877273096_n

As an example, while you’re sitting during the day:

  •  If you have a tendency to hold yourself rigid, perhaps with your shoulders pulled back, chest puffed out front, sitting up nice and tall, as some would say ‘good posture’, allow yourself something different. Perhaps slump a little, let the upper back round a little, feel as if you can soften the area between your collar bones, let your belly be soft and full when you breathe. RelaxI’m not saying this is what you need or you should sit this way all day. But try it for a few minutes and notice what you feel.
  • If you tend to be someone who is generally in a slumped position when sitting, try the opposite. Feel your sitting bones on the bottom of your chair, perhaps even pushing them into your chair slightly. Think about sitting tall, imagining your head feeling light above your shoulders, it lifting towards the ceiling. Collarbones wide, shoulder blades down your back.  Notice what you feel.

Though this is only one example. You might try this way of being, or doing, in a multitude of ways.

In yoga, do you always exhale when forward bending and inhale on the reverse? Try changing it up and see what you feel. What do you notice?

Experiment with doing the opposite of what you think is right for you, what you’ve been told is right for you and see how it goes. If you like, comment below so we can take the conversation further.

 

Yoga Tools – Awareness

by Jody, posted in how to begin, mindfulness, tools - stillness, yoga

imagesThe bumper sticker on our last Yoga Tool was to recognize that just as we take a drink when we are thirsty, eat when we are hungry, we need rest when we are weary. All of which requires first, awareness of a particular sensation in our body.

There are signs and signals speaking to us all the time, but are we really listening?

Are you like me in that you eat regularly on a schedule or do you listen to the signal telling you when you’re hungry? Do you sleep only at certain times of the day or are you paying attention to the signs that you need to rest? These are two indicators built into the survival mechanism of our body. Similarly, if you enter a room with a smell so strong it seems toxic you know to immediately step out again. If you are suddenly ill bringing up something you ate, again a signal. Your brain’s number one job is to keep you safe and protected.

Pain is no different. It is a signal from your brain, a call to action.

Below is a quick and easy Tool to begin learning to sense information your body or your brain, is providing. I often use it in the beginning of a yoga class, to bring some awareness to what we’re about to do.

one-to-fiveLie with your back on the floor. Bend your knees and place your feet hips-width apart. Let your knees gently fall towards each other, resting easy and comfortable.

Now, begin:

To sense what you feel in terms of your body’s contact with the floor. What parts of your body are in contact with the floor? Is the surface of the floor hard, soft? Are you comfortable? Do you feel the support of the ground below? Lean in. Feel grounded. Feel supported.

To feel your breath moving through your body. Where do you first notice your breath? In your chest, your lungs? Your nostrils? In your belly perhaps? Does the air feel smooth flowing in, and out? Does it feel forced, soft, cool, warm? Can you sense movement, in tune with your breath, elsewhere in your body?

To notice the tone of your muscles. Are your muscles at rest, tense, or sore? Where in particular do you notice any tension? Where might you find softness? Can you soften the areas around your eyes? Let your jaw, feel relaxed. Your tongue loose and soft in your mouth. Can you contract a muscle somewhere and then for contrast, let it go?

To pay attention to your heartbeat. Can you sense it? Can you feel it? Where do you feel it?

Going even deeper, can you feel or sense the blood flowing through your body? 

If you can’t feel a particular sensation, just notice that. Without judgement. Just let it be.

Body / Breath / Musculature / Heartbeat / Bloodflow

5 steps inside…

Take some time each day to first, pay attention. Build awareness.

Practice this once per day over the next week.

*Note: If you’re typically a doer, go-getter, Type-A, cannot sit still type of person, consider doing this AFTER a workout, brisk walk, end of your day, when you’re more likely to be at ease with the sense of quiet and stillness this exercise asks of you.

Yoga Tools – Rest Easy

by Jody, posted in how to begin, stress, tools - stillness, yoga

Life is not easy. For any of us.  There is more than enough to do, day in and day out. Stressors at work, at home or elsewhere.

So cut yourself some slack. Give yourself permission to rest. 

restStart with just 5 minutes.  Do this at least once a day. Do it twice if you like. But do it consistently.

You might want to set a particular time for this. Perhaps at mid-day, or early evening. It’s not often you need to rest first thing in the day and this 5 minutes isn’t meant for sleeping, so not too close to bedtime either.

  1. Either lie down or sit in a comfortable position (*see below for IMG_9231.JPGspecifics). It’s preferable to lay on the floor but if you’re unable to do so, a bed or sofa is fine.
  2. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
  3. Close your eyes or soften your gaze.
  4. Begin to breathe in and out through your nose (close your mouth).
  5. Be here for 5 minutes, just breathing naturally. Don’t try to change anything about your breath.
    • Notice where you feel your breath. It might be most noticeable in your nostrils, maybe in your chest or perhaps your abdomen.
    • Notice how your breath is moving. If there’s any particular quality to it such as smooth, interrupted, easy, strained.
    • Then just breathe. And just notice.
    • If your mind wanders, as it’s likely to do, just bring your attention back to your breath. Feel where it’s moving through your body, where you notice it. Try not to judge the wandering of your mind as anything either good or bad.
    • And just breathe. And just notice.
  6. When the timer goes off, slowly open your eyes. Roll over and stand up.

Notice what you feel. Mentally or physically make a note of what you experienced or noticed.

Keep practising for a week.

Check in with me next Tuesday and we’ll expand on this practise.

If… you can’t find 5 minutes in your day? You might want to look at that.

If you have any questions or comments, post them below.

* Positioning if seated

  • Sit forward on a chair so your back is not touching the back upright portion of the chair.
  • See if you can feel your ‘sitting’ bones (ischial tuberosities) and let your weight be supported there.
  • Have your feet planted on the floor, hip-width apart.
  • Hands comfortably on your lap.

* Positioning if lying down

  • Lie on the ground, perhaps on a carpet or mat if available. If you have back pain, you may want to use a rolled up towel, yoga mat, etc. to slip under your bent knees for support.
  • Hands can be by your side or placed on your belly.
  • Notice the parts of your body supported by the hard surface of the floor (heels, hips, shoulder area, head).