Buyer beware! Are you wearing heels?

Men and ladies who don’t wear high heels, do not skip this.  Because you are probably wearing heels too!

 

If you wear regular sports shoes or even dress shoes that have a wedge or cushioned heel design, then what you are wearing is also a heel despite the name. 

 

Now we all know at least one female in our lives who loves to wear heels but who also understands how much it hurts their feet or the rest of their body but wear them anyway.  But it’s the rest of the population who wear sports shoes to exercise and those who wear work shoes with some kind of cushioned heel that makes the foot slope downward who may not be aware how even that slight heel could be affecting their feet and the rest of their bodies sitting on top of these feet.

 

Stand barefooted and notice your alignment.  Now do the same with a book under your heels.  Notice how you have to adjust your body back to stop from falling forward?  Notice how your weight shifts from your heels to the balls of your feet?  The bones in the front of your foot are small and the joints many.  They are designed for articulation or movement whereas the ones at the back, in your heels, are bigger and designed for weight bearing. 

Now notice what you did when you stepped on the book.  You probably brought your pelvis forward and maybe even locked your knees out and arched your lower back.   You might even jut your head forward to compensate for this change in relationship to gravity.  And you may now notice the tension in your lower back.  Basically, your heeled shoes are teaching your body poor alignment.  Take a look at this picture

Does the picture on the right look familiar to anyone? Notice the disjointed alignment.  Do you really want to be her?

 

So go take a look at your own footwear.  Even a set of low heels or other footwear that are not flat could be doing you harm.

 

Buyer beware!  Are you wearing heels?

Why do we have a brain?

Why do we have a brain?

What is the brain for?

“We have a brain for one reason and one reason only and that’s to produce adaptive and complex movement.”

 

If you’re not moving much, then your brain will atrophy because it’s ‘use it or lose it’.

Move well and move often.

 

Why not crunches

This is a common question I get asked, normally by surprised clients, when the topic of ‘abdominal’ or ‘core’ exercises come up.

 

But first, an anatomy lesson.  So, the reason they are called the abdominals (plural) is because it is not just one muscle.  The so called ‘six pack’ is just the superficial rectus abdominis.  By superficial I mean on the surface, which is why you can see it.  It connects your pelvis to your rib cage at the front.  However, there are also the obliques (internal and external).  They are your ‘side abdominals’ and run diagonally across your body.  The internal and external obliques run perpendicular to each other so they do different jobs.

Then deeper than these muscles is your transverse abdominis.  This is like a corset running around your midsection and many people believe that this is the most important ‘core’ muscle.  Ask any pilates instructor and they’ll tell you all about it.  But that’s not all.  If you ignore the naming convention of just looking at things named as ‘abdominals’, you will come to a better understanding of what your so called ‘core’ truly is.  If abdominals (predominantly front and sides of the body) are important for stabilisation, don’t you think the corresponding muscles on the back are also ‘core’, even if they don’t the word ‘abdo something or other’ after their title?

Have you heard of the erector spinae in your back?  Well they do a similar job to your front abdominals.  And if you have a look at the picture above, you may notice that even deeper, so even more ‘core’ than your abdominal muscles are things like your quadratus lumborum and your psoas.  So if your transverse abdominis is important because it’s deep then shouldn’t these two be even more important because they are deeper still?

(If you’re having trouble understanding the picture above, imagine you took a sword and sliced someone in two across the belly and the top section fell off, then is the view you would see from the top.  The bottom of the shot is your back and the missing half is your front.  L3 is your third lumbar verterbrae ie your spine (bone)).

And what about further down?  Yes you will come to your behind, and all those big strong gluteal muscles.  There are 9 in total.  And yes, they are part of your core too.

 

So now you have a brief overview of the anatomy of the ‘core’.

 

But what does it do?  Good question.  Your core is designed to stabilise.  Stability is it’s main job hence the term core stability.  Write that down.  So when you lift things or when you walk or when you sit or when you run, your core is working hard not to bend or crunch.  It’s job is to solidify your midsection and keep your spine straight, to protect your spinal cord, blood vessels and ligaments that are housed by the spine.  The most important thing there was keeping your spine straight.  So you need to train your core that way.  Planks, farmers walks and other things.

 

However, one of your abdominals, your rectus abdominis is designed to also flex the trunk and because this is the main abdominal muscle we can see in the mirror we think that is all there is to the abdominals.  So people flex the trunk in their training, they do situps and crunches. But what about your poor spine that is being flexed and unflexed (extended is the proper anatomical term) over and over again? Do you think that is healthy?

If you’re not sure, take a paper clip and bend it and unbend it over and over again at the same point.

If you’re still not sure, find a cardboard box, and press on it.  Now do it again after kicking in one side.

 

I hope that by now you’ve had at least one ‘aha’ moment.

 

But wait, there’s more.  What’s the most common position we adopt everyday in modern life now (besides sleeping which many of use are not doing nearly enough of anyway)?  Sitting.  Ever notice your hips get tight after sitting?  Because most people are flexing their hips.

So what do we not need more of? Hip flexion when we exercise!

Yet that is what happens in sit ups and to a lesser extent in crunches depending on height of the movement.  Your abdominals are on but your hip flexors must also work to get your body up.  Do you think is a healthy position to train your body into?

It took a long time for homo sapiens to learn to walk upright yet many people are training themselves (and worse, others) to reverse this evolutionary process.  So there you have, why you should not be using crunches to train your ‘core’ or whatever else you want to call it.

 

The best corrective exercise

I can’t remember who wrote the piece but I was recently reading something on how modern western medicine is so good at emergency medicine but so poor at preventative and other medicine/health services.

I know this will annoy some people but I tend to agree.

This is a cultural issue as I think there is too much focus on what and when and how often but not much on HOW.

 

People ask me what are the best exercises and how often they should do them but not many ask for technical instruction and deep understanding.  It is not surprising then that they give up as they see little benefit from doing even good exercises improperly.  There are no magic beans.  It’s hard work and practice.  Find a good teacher, someone who can see and correct your mistakes and show you how to refine your technique and be in it for the long run.  Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself and your own health.  If you cannot take care of yourself how do you expect to be able to take care of your children, your partner, your friends, family and other aspects of your life?  It still amazes me how little people will actually invest in their own health even though they tell me it is important.  Here I am talking about time investment as well as financial.  If you do not make time for yourself you will be a worn down and easily agitated person and frankly not that much fun to be around.  Your circle will suffer.  On the other hand if you look after yourself then you will be more relaxed and cheerful.  Am I starting to make sense?

 

But I digress.

Back to exercise and how doing things properly is important.

 

Even the best exercises if done poorly can lead to problems, namely injuries.  Take the humble squat as an example.  Just take a look in just about any gym and see who has sore knees or backs from squatting poorly?  Not squatting, but squatting the way they do.  “The squat doesn’t hurt your knees, how YOU squat hurts your knees” (Thanks Dan John).

Then take a look at physio prescribed exercises.  Many people will religiously follow the reps and sets as laid out by their prescriber and yet their form is so atrocious that they are not actually getting the benefits from them that they should be.  (Sometimes they were not shown properly but that’s another story).

 

And then you see others do activities that are typically associated with problems in certain parts of the body yet they are doing fine or even getting better with the activity and you can’t work out why.  Take skiing for example, most people will say that if you have knee issues do not ski, you will hurt your knee, it’s not good for you etc etc and yet I found that skiing was one of the best things for my knee because it taught me to use my body more efficiently and thus protected my knees.

 

So what is my point after all this zig zagging?

 

Well, it’s this.

The best corrective exercise is doing an exercise correctly!

Write that down.

When you learn to perform a movement properly then you stop hurting yourself AND you are actually healing yourself because you have learnt the correct movement for your body.  For me, the pistol squat is the best exercise for my knee as it forces me to have good lower body mechanics throughout the movement.  If I do it slightly wrong, then I will know about it.  This is despite all the academics and other health professionals telling me it’s putting too much load on this and that joint.

And when I say exercise I mean movement or position, so if sitting hurts your back, then wait for it…it’s how YOU sit that is hurting your back!  So you need to learn how to sit correctly.  Even if you learn to sit a bit better, that reduces the load and the pain.  Is that not corrective straight away?  This applies to standing, walking, running and other activities too.  Years of pain and tension can be undone by simply learning to sit and stand and bend and lift properly.  Things we do everyday but if done improperly could be detrimental to our health.  Bad backs, sore feet, shoulders, knees, headaches, etc, the list goes on.

 

Of course there are some activities that carry inherent risks but most people simply do not do them enough to really be concerned about them.  Focus on your movement quality and the quantity will take care of itself in time.

 

But if all you do is focus on the quantity then you will have to pay for your health anyway, to get the subsequent problem fixed.

You either pay first and enjoy it or you pay after and be miserable.  This applies to physical activity as well as diet.  Many people on high paying jobs with fancy cars and apartments or other non essentials will tell me they can’t afford clean food or water.  If your health is really that important to you, then put your money where your mouth is.  Trust me, you’ll feel a whole lot better and those around you will too!

 

Good day and good health to you!

More McGill

Suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain and tension? Then listen to the good doctor!

“The best muscle relaxant is good posture (alignment)”

 

 

The problem with thongs

Anyone rock climb or worn rock climbing shoes?  Notice what happens with your toes?  You learn to grip with them.  They get beat up and the big toe starts to move in towards the other toes.  Technically it’s called hallux valgus.

But never mind the name.  The important thing is that your feet start to become deformed.  Yes you read correctly.  And then you wonder why the knees and hips ache?  The Chinese had it right, you do die from your feet up.

So what does this have to do with thongs?

Well, when you wear thongs something similar happens.  You learn to grip the thong to prevent it sliding off your foot.  The toes learn to grip to stabilise.  This is not healthy. This happens to a larger extent the faster you go in thongs.  It is a compromised stability function that is useful for survival but not as a long term adaptation.  The equivalent would be breath holding for increased stability (I see a lot of this in active people who go beyond their bodies’ limits), butt gripping to stabilise the hip (tucked pelvis), and rectus abdominis gripping (using trunk flexion to stabilise).  And despite what some dancers think, hyperextended joints are not healthy and is a reflection of inherent instability higher up the chain.  None of these are beneficial long term adaptations and reflect an inherent lack of stability elsewhere in the system.  They are survival instincts.  They are stressors!

The other problem with thongs is everyone buys them too small so that their toes stick out the front .  No science needed there.

And then most of them are too spongy and thick for good proprioception.  Going barefoot is as much about the sensory input as it is about the motion.  About a quarter of the body’s muscles and joints are in the foot.  They need stimulation and activation.  And the corresponding parts of your nervous system.  Same as your hands.

So if you don’t learn to use them you are actually making your nervous system less efficient.  Conversely, you can be getting smarter by not wearing shoes.  You can work out what the flip side is right?!

Foot alignment

Duck feet, pigeon toed, straight feet. One foot one direction, the other a totally different direction?

Imagine your feet as tyres on your car. 

 

Would you accept that alignment or would you make an adjustment? 

 

One gentleman came to me a while ago with ankle issues and was really having problems with walking and his knee.  But that didn’t stop him attending classes at the gym.  No, he thought it would just work itself out if he got stronger. 

 

Do you think your car’s wheel alignment will get better just by driving it more?  I don’t.

 

So what did I do?  I pointed out his foot positioning and asked him to pay more attention to it.  Almost immediate relief.  Of course it is something he has to work on now. Sometimes, actually many times, the answers are that simple.  It’s just that people overlook the obvious things like alignment and want to go straight to muscle retraining.  But you know what?  Try putting everything in the right place and see if it all doesn’t work a lot better? 

 

I’ve shown him the path.  Now he must walk it.

 

So take a look again at your own feet.  Any bony spurs? Bunions?  Duck feet or pigeon toes?

 

You know what to do.

Barefoot and minimal shoe

So some people are still confused about minimal footwear and going barefoot, ie no shoe.

 

Minimal (flat) footwear is better than traditional wedge heeled footwear (heels) as it trains the body to relearn how to move more efficiently to not have such great jarring forces through the body upon impact.  They also allow much greater proprioceptive feedback  as there is less in between our feet and the surface.  Think mitts and barehand when you’ve been out on a cold day, maybe skiing and you need to play with a zipper on your clothing or backpack.  What do most people do?  Take the mitt off for greater sensory feedback and motor control.  Same goes for shoes.  And just like thin gloves are better than thick, thin shoes are better than thick in this instance.  Unheeled shoes also do not tilt the body forward from the ground up and so do not teach us to tuck our pelvis and lose the alignment of our whole body on top of our feet.

 

So some people think minimal footwear is the solution.  But no shoe on the market can move the way our foot does.  No matter how thin or ‘minimal’ the shoe is it is still a prison of sorts for our feet. Our feet have multiple bends in them and do not just bend in a singular banana fashion as seen in minimal footwear.

So we lose more power in propulsion in shoes and hence are not as strong and when it comes to force absorption because our ankles and foot joints cannot articulate as well as they should, joints further up the kinetic chain then have to absorb more impact.  That’s your knees and hips. 

 

So minimal footwear is better than traditional footwear and a more suitable option where hygiene or safety is involved (I’m thinking broken glass not protection from dropping objects onto them as unless you wear work boots).  However, barefoot is still the best option. 

 

So what do I recommend?  Step by step.  Try going barefoot in and around the house first if it’s not something you’re used to.  Give your feet time to adjust.  Try it for a few weeks or even months depending on how long your feet have been imprisoned.  Your foot muscles need time to be retrained.  Then and only then try it outside, preferably on softer surfaces like sand or grass.  And short durations to start with.

Alignment is more than posture

When I tell people about alignment, they respond ‘yes I need to work on my posture’.  But alignment is more than that.

 

Alignment is contextual and so the alignment required when walking uphill is different to walking downhill.  The alignment required for squatting or jumping or throwing are all different.  But the foundation and the easiest way to learn alignment is with basic standing, sitting and bending.  From here we can get onto movement.  But just like we must learn the alphabet before learning to write sentences we must first start with basic alignment before we learn to connect and move.  Simple right?

 

But many people have no idea how to do this. 

 

The best way is to get a teacher or someone who can instruct, guide and correct you.  But only you can walk your path.

 

So you must also take responsibility and ownership.  Start to become aware of your own alignment and bodily sensations.  Scientists and academics would call it proprioception.  Be aware of where you are, what you are doing and start where you are.

 

And one great way to do that is by stimulating your body’s sensors.  Go for a walk. Outside preferably.  Feel the wind in your hair, the different textures under your feet and the smells right under your nose.  Start where you are and let me know how you go.

We were made to move

Move in natural ways.

When clients ask me what they should do or how often they should ‘exercise’ they are often surprised when I ask them a question.  How much walking do you do?  Most report very little.

Walking is one of the most basic and fundamental human movements.  It is locomotion but it is also restoration.  When you walk well, you move well.  Walking opens up the four locks of the shoulders and hips.  It is better than trying to stretch and stretch a muscle.

So if you aren’t already doing so, I encourage you to walk 30-60minutes a day.  Frequency is just as important as volume or duration so you can try breaking it up into 10min blocks spread throughout the day.  Or 2 lots of 30minutes, 3 lots of 20minutes.  The most important thing is that you do it and you pick the option that suits your lifestyle.  But 30-60minutes should be the minimum amount. If you can’t find the time, tune out from your tv, smartphone/device, some other time waster and you’ll not only find yourself feeling and looking better but having more time too!

 

And if you’ve been reading my earlier posts, try it with minimal footwear or even barefoot if you are comfortable and watch your stress, joint and muscle issues disappear.