Posts from the ‘Sweaty stuff’ Category

I have a confession: I’m obsessed with your body. And mine.

Why?

Well, that’s easy. WE ARE SO FASCINATING!

Although in recent months I have taken this interest to new heights, it all started about five years ago. I had moved to New York City and my body seemed to be falling apart. Every day I pounded the pavement in cute shoes, commuting to work, walking to meetings, dancing the night away. Relatively quickly a pain developed in my feet, and in a few short months that nagging pain became excruciating, shooting up my leg and affecting my body in all sorts of ways. My hips hurt, my back complained daily. Was I really feeling the signs of aging at 23? Impossible. One night, while standing at a Jamie Cullum concert in my new cheetah-print Steve Madden flats, I looked down and saw the sides of both feet were flaming red. It was time to see a doctor.

I ended up finding Dr. Ethan Ciment – aka the best podiatrist ever - who became a wonderful friend over the years. He explained my problem: collapsable arches (flat feet) which was causing my bones to splay each step I took. While that in itself is not inherently bad, the shoes I wore crowded my feet so badly that bunions had formed and were super inflamed. (Note: Bunions are caused by an extra-angular position of the bones in your toe joints…they are NOT a crazy skin growth like some people think.) It was time to say goodbye to the unsupportive-yet-adorable shoes I owned and get orthotics. And honestly, I was willing to do anything. I love fashion, but not at the expense of my comfort.

Armed with new shoes and knowledge, the pain quickly subsided and I could enjoy moving around again. A few months down the line I had surgery on my right foot to correct the bunions and went through physical therapy to regain proper use of my foot. I was so interested in how something as seemingly-unimportant as shoes could cause so much damage to the entire body, and how these things could be corrected. Thus, the obsession began.

Workin' the surgery boot

Over the years, I endured different pains in my knee, hip, ankle…always on the right side. I don’t need a degree to know how these things are related. Each time, the weeks in physical therapy helped me to understand the root of the problem and how to alleviate the pain. Without fail, every injury stemmed from tight muscles (often caused by a repetitive movement I’d been doing).

So why do our muscles get tight? And how can we fix them? This is what I paid the professionals to tell me.

As I got deeper into my yoga practice, things started shifting. My teacher had a strong Iyengar background and would talk about moving the body in ways I’d never thought of before. It clicked immediately. Armed with this new knowledge, I trained for a triathlon and not only avoided injury, but came out much more flexible than before. During my 200-hour yoga training, the anatomy portion just wasn’t long enough. I found myself craving more, asking question after question, connecting the dots. The fact that we are so unique in our composition and yet, everything works the same is so friggin’ cool.

Hands on learning: Playing with "fascia"

The more you know about your own body, the better you can use it. Especially when it comes to a yoga asana practice, where we move our bodies into all sorts of different positions. We’ve all been struggling in a pose and look around the room at that one person who seems effortless in her actions. The initial thought is often “She’s so good, she’s so flexible” and while this may seem to be the case, she also is probably anatomically built to go deep in certain positions. Because let’s face it: certain bone structures will naturally give a “head start” in a yoga practice. However, there is SO MUCH we can do to help open things up and keep our bodies limber. And I know this firsthand, because I am not one of those anatomically gifted people.

Earlier today, I watched this video about fascia and stretching. WARNING: There are images of a real human cadaver, so if that sort of thing makes you cringe, don’t press play.

Funny thing is, this sort of thing used to gross me out, too. Now, I just want more, more more.

I’ve been practicing Thai Yoga Massage for the past 5 months or so, and while the training I received in Thailand was wonderful, I found myself craving a much more in-depth discussion of anatomy. We are handling human bodies, after all. So this January I am starting a 6-month integrative massage program which will thoroughly cover anatomy and therapeutic massage techniques using both Western and Eastern methodologies.

My most recent injury is three weeks old. As I mentioned, I tend to have an injury on the right side of my body about once per year. This time, it traveled up to the right side of my back. After a month of intense yoga practice – including many new postures and practices – I woke up with a strong pain in my lower back. Uh oh, I thought. Back pain is not good. Especially a few days before I embark on two weeks of intense yoga trainings at Kripalu.  In my second week there, during the most painful muscle spasm I’d ever experienced in my life, I discovered a form of therapy called Positional Release to help release the exaggerated contractions of my quads and psoas muscles, which were causing an unnatural anterior tilt in my pelvis thus leading to the painful back spasms. The theory, based on strain-counterstrain techniques, took everything I knew about stretching and turned it upside down. And the coolest thing is that is WORKED.

Like anything else, I took this as a lesson to get to know my body better and practice some patience. And as a teacher, it is a huge blessing to experience common injuries to better relate to and help students with their own issues.

I’m not going to say that one method is better than the other. There are so many techniques out there to help us find the cause of physical ailments and heal them. But what I will say is this: Don’t just accept what you are told. To truly help heal your body – and others – you must understand the root cause yourself. To do this, no matter how little or much you know about anatomy, ask questions. Lots of them. Ask to see pictures, skeletons, whatever it takes.

Above all, as the saying goes: You are your best teacher. Learn to listen to your own body and movement. Understanding your own body and movement tendencies will not only help you heal injuries, but it will help you move and live to your greatest physical potential. We truly are fascinating beings; treat yourself as such!