MOVE WELL STUDIO

Author Archives: galyadenzel


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It’s all (or mostly) in your head

How do we learn about what’s normal? Or what’s natural? Mostly by observation. The more we see something, the more we start to accept it as common, and soon it becomes ”normal”. What was people’s ”normal” weight 100 years ago is very different from what we consider ”normal” today. Because something is common, that does not mean it’s healthy, good or natural.

Enter your head position! What is normal and what is natural?

Nowadays, normal looks more like this:

image from: http://ptsperspective.blogspot.com

Teaching whole body alignment is a fantastic opportunity to show the difference between ”normal” and ”natural” and to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you have the potential to be.

Nowhere is this easier as when we observe the position of the head in daily activities. I am a perfect example of someone who has ”chicken head”. I am so curious about the world and want to participate so actively in what is going on in the world, that my head travels ahead of me. I enter a room and you see my head enter first, then my body…in the last few years I have been way more aware of that and nowadays you probably see my whole body enter a room – and I like to think that’s better 😉

In the illustration below my wonderful colleague Restorative Exercise (TM) Specialist, Debbie Beane  is demonstrating the optimal head to shoulder alignment.  On the left, you can see ear over shoulder, chin level with the ground, the weight of the head distributed evenly over the spine.  On the right you can see the more common – head forward posture, also known as ”my back is killing me” or ”I get headaches every day”.

Check yourself out? Where are you now? Can you make a gentle effort to take the head back a little bit?

sitting posture

Tuck your chin back, level it with the ground, elongate the neck. Now breathe and relax the shoulders.

A cool way to help the neck get long is to carefully pull the hair on the back of your head up and elongate the back of the neck. You can see me demonstrate that below:

P1420720

What did this small adjustment just save you? A migraine? Vision loss? Hearing loss? Cardiovascular disease? Back pain? 100 dollars worth of Advil?

You are welcome!


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Upcoming workshop – The Pain Free Office

Are you one of those few lucky people who works walking, climbing, rolling, ducking, diving, chopping, carrying, then resting, digesting, sleeping, savoring the break and going at it again? Are you one to change 50 postures throughout your day?

If not, you are probably stuck in a chair, or in the best case, on a Swiss ball or ergonomic chair, in front of a screen, for many hours of your day…

If that’s you, you need to inspect how you are sitting, because the way you posture yourself can determine how your body feels and performs. We can argue all day about the benefits of a stand up workstation, but if you are posturing yourself poorly there as well, there is little benefit to making that lifestyle change.

In just two short weeks I am teaching a free workshop on how to stand, sit and move in your modern office, and if you are in the Orange County area, I would love to see you there! In the meantime, watch this short video we shot a few months ago and start to understand how important alignment is to your health and performance!

 


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Alignment, pregnancy and ribcage position

Pregnancy should be a most natural experience. Your body comes with the programs, instincts and pre-calculated adjustments it needs to make in order to house the new happy and healthy life inside of you!

In the meantime though, modern mammas are spending considerable hours sitting, driving, stuck in the sad confinement of cubicles, and even when they do choose to move for health they end up doing countless hours on treadmills at the gym, or join classes that may or may not help their body. See, there is a natural physiological alignment that is best for pregnancy and your exercise program that is designed to make you fit, may not be making you fit for pregnancy!

image from office.microsoft.com

while postures like these are ”normal” they are not natural, notice how if you draw a horizontal line through the bottom of the pelvis and a horizontal like through the line of the bra, they are not parallel? The ribs are thrust forward and the spine is sheared…

Once pregnant, the influence of culture (seeing movies and TV shows, seeing and communicating with other pregnant women) can leave a momma taking postural positions and practicing postural habits that often lead to low back pain, foot pain and neck pain.

Pushing the ribcage forward over the pelvis is an all too common adaptation that many pregnant women have learned to make and is one that is easy to correct. Left uncorrected and unnoticed it can lead not only to pain but to permanent skeletal changes after pregnancy and an inability to optimally recruit the abdominal and low back muscles. Lack or core stability can then lead to many other movement dysfunctions in the extremities, and ultimately lead to pain and reduction in quality of life.

All I am trying to say is: ”Listen ladies, you may or may not be aware that while you are pregnant you are holding your upper body in a way that is not only providing less than optimal housing for your little princess growing inside, but is also putting you at risk for disease down the road. It’s easy to fix. Please watch this video!”

Thanks to Katy Bowman, my mentor and founder of the Restorative Exercise Institute for this fantastic video!

Be well, move well 🙂

Galina


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What is Restorative Exerciseâ„¢?

I met Katy Strahan a few months ago when she called me for a consultation. We had a really long phone conversation and I was amazed to find that we had a lot in common -our adoption of ancestral diets, love for fermented foods, a drive to achieve better movement quality, a desire to educate people about their full  life potential! Working with Kathy was an amazing experience, because she lost her eyesight when she was only 2 years old. Now 50 years later, she is extremely active, has an online following of thousands of people who want to live a healthy life and is a daily inspiration to all of us who like to see that a life with limits can be lived limitlessly!

Kathy interviewed me about my work and was kind to share the recording with me.  I think this audio is a great way to get introduced to Restorative Exercise ™.  I share why whole body movement is important, how to make time for it and how exercise may not be enough for health and longevity! Enjoy!