posture and pain | SIMPLE PAIN RELIEF with Kathryn Merrow, the Pain Relief Coach

What Causes A Knot In Your Back?

There are muscles in your back between the shoulder blade and spine called rhomboids. There is one on each side. The rhomboid muscles are often blamed for pain and knots in their area. Actually, that area can be the “symptom” and not the cause at all!

People (including professional massage therapists) often massage the rhomboid area trying to release the knot or pain there. If it doesn’t release (relax) the knot or pain, that means the cause is somewhere else.

Let’s pretend your back pain is a dragon. Sometimes Continue reading “What Causes A Knot In Your Back?”

October 27November 7

How to Get Better Posture for Back Pain Relief

Back pain is often caused by posture. When your posture collapses–you “fall forward” with your head leading the rest of the group–the muscles in your chest get short and tight. That makes it hard to breathe, hard to hold your head up, hard to have good posture.

At the same time, the muscles in your back get overstretched and strained and so they complain. (They hate being stretched too far!) They give you pain to call your attention to the fact that something is wrong.

Collapsed posture also causes lower back pain, headaches and migraines, constipation and lots and lots of other problems.

It’s a primary cause of “old age.”

You had wonderful posture when you were very young and with a bit of help from you, you can have it again.

In a very small nutshell, strengthen the muscles of your backside from knees to head. Lengthen (stretch) the muscles of your calves and the whole front side of your body from knees to head.

If you happen to see a baby, a cat or a dog stretching, imitate them. 🙂 They are stretching the correct muscles to be functional and pain-free!

April 8November 7

Does Poor Posture Cause Pain? How Do Arch Supports Help?

Can your posture cause pain?

Oh Boy! It surely can! In fact, it does.

Poor, or collapsed, posture can cause pain in your head, neck, feet, legs, hips, hands, arms, upper and lower back. Why?

Because being out of muscular “balance” means that you are using muscles to do the job of bones.

With poor posture, your muscles are trying to hold you upright, but that’s the job of your bones. Muscles are for moving. Bones are for supporting.

All of your muscles attach to bones. When a muscle is overworked or overstretched because of poor posture, it causes pain.

Poor posture can even cause your organs–heart, lungs, intestines, stomach–to have difficulty functioning. Why? Because you are collapsing forward.

As you bend forward, all of your organs are compressed, or squashed. It is much harder for your organs to do their best job when they are squashed.

What can you to to correct your posture?

One important thing is to get arch supports (orthotics) for your shoes if your feet are “flat.”

How can you tell if your arches are flat?

Stand up with your weight the same Continue reading “Does Poor Posture Cause Pain? How Do Arch Supports Help?”