People have various reasons for becoming interested in using exercise to progressively change some part of their physique or ability. But it will make a big difference in how effective you are [...]

For many years I’ve had this quote by Herophilus, the “Father of Anatomy”, on my email signature. “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot [...]

If a flare up happens, some pre-existing, physical concern, such as a knee that's been bothering a person for a while, will become aggravated. That might mean that the area becomes acutely [...]

Descending stairs (and presumably walking down a steep hill) requires 90 degrees of knee flexion ability. 90 degrees would mean that your shin becomes perpendicular to your thigh bone.

So, I guess I got into that age old question on human nature, is it essentially bad and self-seeking, or good and generous? But it was also a question about the nature of nature and of the [...]

These thresholds of function are often mistaken by people as either pathology, or the inevitable effects of growing old. When you’re avoiding things that you used to enjoy in life because you’re [...]

This caught my eye as something you all might be interested in. I’ve been reading Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance by Stuart McGill. He also wrote Low Back Disorders and has authored well [...]

If we do try the activity that we saw someone else do and hurt ourselves, we might attribute the difference to a lack of skill instead of realizing that what’s under that person's skin is [...]

What do these three have in common? They are all about getting more out of sensation. Heightened sensory awareness means that we become more alive and more immersed in all that the present [...]

It’s a common practice to do a few leg stretches before engaging in an athletic activity. You’ll often see a person standing on one leg and pulling their heel toward their bottom (quads), or [...]

I’d say for most of us though it helps to try and make informed decisions about eating more kale and fewer hot dogs. And it would help to know something about the mechanics as well as the living [...]

Oftentimes people tend to think of their injury as the result of a specific event, the one time they lifted something wrong for example. I tend to think of the injury event, the moment “it [...]

Is it better to “Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.” Or is better that we: “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and [...]

Sometimes it seems like an awful waste of energy to have to heal. We might start to resent the ways in which we weren’t born whole. Or resent ourselves for the damage we’ve done. There might [...]

It can be difficult for a person to figure out how much load to put through their body and when to stop. This is maybe why hard exercise has a reputation for being brutal and silly phrases like [...]

There isn’t just one type of touch. Massage is a huge field. It can be used for everything from providing comfort and pain reduction in a hospice setting, to treating either current or long [...]

When I started my journey of exploring my own physical potential through strength and fitness training, one of the things that impressed me the most was learning just how weak I was. One of the [...]

If you start with a goal that feels doable you’re limited to only creating goals that don’t stretch you too far, that don’t require deep change. It’s like being stuck inside the borders of the [...]

I’ve been participating in a mindfulness and non-violent communication group for the past 8 weeks. The other week we were sharing the things that bring up feelings of powerlessness and struggle [...]

If you can tell you have a rounded upper back, or if you have limited shoulder mobility, or if your head rests an inch or more in front of the top of your shoulders, or if you get headaches that [...]

Sometimes when people try to start an exercise routine they end up hurting themselves. Then they try to understand why they hurt themselves and in the process usually come across the idea of [...]

Have you ever said to yourself something like, “I like the idea of running a marathon, but I’m just not a runner.” Or maybe it was, “I’m not a writer” or “I’m not someone who can do a chin-up, [...]

When you think about it, muscles go from soft to hard and back to soft constantly and rapidly. It’s what muscles do. What is it that makes them do that? There’s no need to spend a lot of time [...]

This is an excellent tool for getting a broad overview snapshot that shows you where you might want to head in the coming year.

Exercising more often, it’s a common goal and a lot of people struggle to pull it off. There are various things that can trip a person up in successfully showing up for exercise on a regular [...]

It happened like this. I was at a class about body nerd stuff (Reconciling Biomechanics with Pain Science, by Greg Lehman. Super cool.) and to make a point he was talking about limitation in [...]

I hear people say from time to time that they feel like they might “undo” their massage if they go out and do something that challenges or upsets their body afterward. Like if they were feeling [...]

It’s funny how it seems like there’s never enough time to take really good care of ourselves. It seems that if there were just one more hour in the day then we would have time to exercise, or [...]

If you’re in your 50s, and have a sudden decline in what you're physically capable of, you are probably more likely to attribute the loss of function to age-related decline than if you were to [...]

Have you ever felt like you wanted something--for example, to start an exercise program, to get to know an acquaintance better, or to start taking steps toward a vision of the future...but found [...]

One can spend a lot of time worrying about the body. It’s not very fun, and sometimes it can amplify unpleasant sensations. And yet we might feel that it's positive to notice our sensations [...]

Isn’t it curious how ingrained it is to look for a cause in the body when we have a feeling in the body? And yet, if I’m experiencing anger or stage fright, that’s called emotion. Are emotions [...]

We were hunkering down on a steep side hill as the thunder rolled just above us. Each reverberation lasted for an unbelievable length of time. Periodically there would be a crash, like a [...]

I was teaching a class recently on how to use a crosscut saw to cut trees that have fallen over. I do this as part of my involvement with volunteer trail maintenance on public lands. During [...]

Have you ever felt like you’re just stuck with less than optimal health because of some part of your lifestyle that you’re unable to change? For instance, you might be spending long hours at [...]

Is it too awkward to be a friend and a client? We’ve probably all noticed that there are different types of relationships, even if we don’t have a word for it. The relationship we have with [...]

Have you ever noticed that feeling that comes up when you reach just a little bit farther, or lift just a little bit more, or twist in a slightly different way? I call it the “I’m about to [...]

There is a recognizable quality of sensation that precedes self-inflicted, movement injuries. I’m referring to the kind of injuries that result from reaching just a little bit farther, or [...]

I wonder if you’ve had a feeling now and again of connecting with a huge well of power? I’d had this happen at random a few times over the years. It’s unmistakable from other feelings. The [...]

I was in a low plank position, my body straight, my hands and toes touching the floor and my sternum hovering an inch or two over the floor. I wanted to straighten my arms and push myself back [...]

Sometimes it's easy to accept that we’re not yet able to do something difficult. At other times and in other situations we can create a lot of stress for ourselves by believing, regardless of [...]

I often wonder how we can have perspective on our own experience. I’ve heard that some people taste more than others. Some might have stronger basic tastes like salt and sweet. And others [...]

If you want to consistently do a task that is Important, but not Urgent it helps to create some kind of support structure. Care for our well-being is too Important to have it eclipsed by all the [...]

When someone notices stiffness in their body they tend to think about increasing their flexibility, not realizing that the concept has evolved and with it the language we use to describe our [...]

There seems to be a common belief that if we just do something long enough we will wear ourselves out. As in, “I did so much hiking and now my knees can’t take it anymore.”. Which is [...]

How do you increase the sensation in your body? If you can’t feel it you probably can’t control it. Have you noticed that some parts of your body are easier to feel than others? For instance, [...]

As our own power and resilience increases, so does our ability to function as a source of support and strength for others. Sometimes it seems that we equate strength with mental and spiritual [...]

I live in the Pacific Northwest, on the edge of vast amounts of National Forest land. As a result I know a lot of people who, like myself, enjoy spending their time hiking, bicycling, gardening [...]

A lot of people feel challenged with getting started with exercising. I know I did. I’d been getting what I felt was a fair amount of exercise through recreation and lifestyle, but I [...]

If you have ongoing neck pain from working at the computer, what would be the simplest, effective treatment that would stop the pain and keep it from coming back? The problem is that, even [...]

A lot of people that have had foot or heel pain have found that stretching their calves provides effective relief. I’ve heard folks who had plantar fasciitis (pain on the bottom of the foot [...]

This type of pain can feel like stepping on a small rock or it can feel tingling and numb. It can also feel sharp. You might also feel pain over the entire ball of the foot, or just under the [...]

I don’t think trekking poles are bad--I use a trekking pole myself. I just take issue with the usefulness that’s attributed to them. I don’t think they're doing what they tend to be described [...]

Unlike non-living material, living material--the tissues of the body--gets stronger with use and weaker with disuse. For a pair of pants it’s the opposite. The more you wear them the bigger the [...]

The capacity to turn our attention inward and focus on our own sensations is only available to us if we feel safe enough to turn our attention away from our environment. If we are in a survival [...]

I've been learning more about strength training and physical fitness. I have a bit of a personal remodeling experiment going on, and one of the concepts I encountered in physical fitness is the [...]

Here’s a bit from a book I’ve been reading, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky. It’s a good book. I recommend it. Though it’s a bit more heady than the light-hearted title sets [...]

So much of our lives and lifestyle depends on the things that we do each and every day. It’s better that those things support us and move us in the direction of our dreams and goals. Have you [...]

If your friend came to you in pain--maybe they had had some kind of hurtful or traumatic experience--what sort of response would you offer? You could tell them what they need to do to solve [...]

Is there more than one possible story? There is the story that sees trees as lumber and mountains as quarries, and the death of the Orcas as lamentable collateral damage that we can’t really [...]

There are an impressive number of nerve endings on the bottoms of the feet. Many of these are the types that function by changing shape and reporting the fact that they changed shape to the [...]

I’ve been thinking about power. What you might call inner strength or personal agency, or confidence. Like many people at this moment, inequality and unfairness has been on my mind. And like [...]

What does the best feeling spot in your body feel like right now? We often notice when our body doesn’t feel great, when there’s outright pain or uncomfortable stiffness--but what does good [...]

It will probably happen to all of us at some point that we’ll have a physical experience that is painful, and that the pain resulting from that experience stays with us for an uncommonly long [...]

An important part of caring for your organism is trying to understand it better, it’s not a bad idea to do this all the time, but it seems more compelling to make the attempt when there is an [...]

The other day, in a social setting, a former client was sharing how it had been eye opening for him to make the connection between how his thoughts and emotions had an effect on his physical [...]

We tend not to want to get too close to pain, to really take it in and be with it. Pain feels unacceptable. Similar to having certain parts of our physical body that feel unacceptable, or [...]

I wonder if healing our own bodyminds could be seen as a microcosm of healing the bodymind of humanity? I suppose not everyone has the point of view that humanity needs healing, but there is [...]

This is really why massage is relaxing, because all the sensations bring our attention into the present. As we come to more fully inhabit the present we might notice that we’re safe. That our [...]

Answer: You move it. That’s pretty simple, right? Does it sound too simple? After 15 years of working with and learning about bodies, I’ve reached an answer that is a lot clearer and [...]

I talk a lot about movement. The reason being that movement is essential for all body processes and for tissue health. It’s also a way for us to bring our mind into our body. Massage is [...]

There’s all this language around vertebral (spinal) discs, and some of it relies on the mental image that it is in fact something like a frisbee between the vertebrae. For instance, people [...]

I had a powerful experience of one of the tools for living with more ease the other day. I believe there is a significant difference between knowing something academically, when it sounds like [...]

I know massage has an image of being a very passive activity. And I know that despite one’s best intent it’s still super easy to fall asleep. I don’t actually think there’s anything wrong with [...]

One of my favorite tools for enhancing my own sense of physical ease is gravity. Yes, gravity, that constant force that pulls us toward the planet. It’s a comforting sensation. Being a [...]

There’s this fairly universal tendency to overestimate our capacity. When we have an expectation for how much we can get done and then we fail to meet that expectation we can feel ethically [...]

One common cause of shin pain is hyper irritation of the tibialis anterior. This is the muscle on the front of your leg, just to the outside of the bony ridge that runs from your ankle to your [...]

Thankfulness and celebration feel like devotional practices to me. Whether you have a theistic point of view or a non-theistic spirituality, you might still relate to the idea of acknowledging [...]

Maybe you’re living it right now and you are aware of it. Quite often I see people who seems to have everything they need in order to be living the good life right this moment...but they seem [...]

There are a few really simple solutions to some of the more frequently occurring types of knee pain. It might not be the thing you need, but the good news is you can try it and it won’t hurt [...]

Relaxation is not just a physical state. It is a complete state of being. When your body is in a relaxed state so is your mind. When your mind is keyed up so is your body. Relaxation won’t be [...]

In a basic way everything that’s alive moves. Trees move, they wrap around rocks and other immobile things, they miraculously transfer liquids to their upper branches, they sway elastically in [...]

There are a great many people whose feet hurt, whether this has been called plantar fasciitis or is something with no name it can be a significant problem for ones quality of life. I just [...]

We are mostly living in comfortable environments that don’t require any fitness. It is easy to walk from the house to the car and putter around the yard without much fitness. It seems that the [...]

“It’s going to be a few minutes before I can pull myself back together.” was something I heard from a client the other day. What would happen if you didn’t? So much of the tension that we [...]

Do you feel like you’re not doing enough to take care of your health? Maybe you’ve already given up white sugar, but you think you should give up caffeine too. Maybe you’re already walking 2 [...]

What if we can train ourselves to do what scares us? There’s a physical practice called Parkour that I’ve been interested in for a bit. It’s sometimes also called natural movement and a few [...]

“How can we as health care providers, admit that we’re still learning, still practicing...even though people’s quality of life, and sometimes even their lives, depend on our being experts...on us [...]

I was talking with a client the other day about taking movement breaks while doing computer work. She was lamenting that although she knows it doesn’t make her feel good to sit at her desk for [...]

Spring is here! Despite several ski trips this year, I still feel like I’m coming out of a long period of inactivity. I’m starting to spend more time out in my yard and garden. I’ve been [...]

When a muscle gets tight enough, it shows up as pain that often isn’t felt at the same location as the muscle. It can be an intense pain. It’s generally hard to put your finger on the specific [...]

I’m reading this book of Norwegian folk beliefs. It says in there that illness, especially particular kinds of illness are signs of moral degeneration in the household.

We got a cat! His name is Oberon, after the King of Fairies. He’s our first pet. He’s a feral cat, from the Humane Society animal shelter, but he loves being petted and seems to enjoy our [...]

How can you keep doing the things you know are healthy for you? We might make new goals that stretch us, particularly at the beginning of the year. Or we have a habit we’ve been building for [...]

One thing that makes writing these articles difficult is that it’s hard to state anything scientific in clear and certain terms. Take any given subject...stretching for instance. There are [...]

This idea of assigning fault to a guilty party has affected us in ways beyond our legal system. It’s a basic premise in health care too that we need to determine what the culprit is.

Do you ever have pain that’s hard to locate?  It feels like one day it will be in one place and another day it will be in another place, probably nearby by definitely not the same place?

I've been reading some interesting discussions lately about stretching.  It seems there’s some evidence that stretching doesn’t actually noticeably change your muscle length, i.e. range of [...]

A lot of people struggle to do exercise with any regularity … even though they know it’s good for them and they’ve noticed that they feel better afterward.  Maybe they see it as a boring waste of [...]

Often when someone is injured, after the initial round of healing is over, the injury enters a chronic or recurring phase.  I’m thinking of the kind of injury where someone lands on their [...]

The other day I was at the hostel in Winthrop, chatting about this and that with the other folks that were there. As often happens in an active crowd the talk turned to past injuries at one [...]

If you prefer a taller workstation that allows you to stand up while you write or draw you would be in good company.  Leonardo da Vinci used one, as well as Albert Camus and Virginia Woolf, but [...]

This morning I was packing cucumbers in jars to make dill pickles and I noticed a little pain in my right arm. Granted I was doing my darnedest to get the most cucs in the jar that I could, but [...]

Have you started spending more time at your desk lately?  You don’t want to have a sore a neck and shoulders, but don’t know where it comes from except that sitting at your desk so much is [...]

Pat was a client who was experiencing some pain with her self care.  She was concerned that the pain might be making the condition worse so she stopped doing the self care parts that were causing [...]