Blog
Your Neck Has a “Core” Too! What is the Longus Colli?
In this month’s blog we’ll dive deeper into the neck & cervical spine: what optimal alignment looks like, what happens when we come out of alignment, and how to realign and strengthen the neck.
Our neck is responsible for moving our head around for us to see and interact with the world. It also serves the vital function of protecting our throat, windpipe, and the blood vessels that supply the brain. If you think about all the super important jobs our neck does, no wonder it occasionally feels tired! It, like the rest of our body, needs a strong core of support.
What Happens to our Hips When We Sit?
For most people, this long year of pandemic has translated into a lot more sitting time, and we’re feeling the consequence in our hips. At the studio, hip openers are one of the main requests we’re hearing in classes
Why? Sitting for long periods of time can cause tightness in the hip flexors and lower lower back, and corresponding weakness in the glutes and lower abdominals. This pattern is called Lower Crossed Syndrome (Remember Upper Crossed Syndrome from our last blog?), and there are many ways Pilates can help.
Anatomy Moment: The Dynamic Pelvic Floor
If you’ve ever done a kegel, or even if you know about this simple exercise, you may know where the pelvic floor is, but why is it so important? The pelvic floor is the “pilot light” for our internal core unit, it helps support our organs and it helps ensure proper hip, lower back, and pelvic movement mechanics. And there is so much more to it than the kegel!
Anatomy Moment: 52 foot bones
Feet have been on my mind lately. Many of my clients have foot pain, and just recently I got back to running after taking some time off due my own bout with it. I like to start my interest in a particular area with the anatomy – if we don’t know what’s there, it’s hard to be able to treat it! Way back in the beginnings of my anatomy geekiness, I was fascinated with the fact that a quarter of the bones of the human body are in our feet.
Modifications for common injuries - Part II
I was listening to Katy Bowman’s podcast over at Nutritious Movement, and loved her advice to someone who wanted to keep moving her body, but had plantar fasciitis (a painful inflammation of the fascia on the bottoms of the feet). With plantar fasciitis, she couldn’t keep up her usual walking. Katy’s advice? Get down on the floor! Roll around! There are so many other body parts you can move, move those!