Hi Esther
Firstly, let me say that im honoured to have picked up your book '8 Steps to a Pain Free Back'. Its a marvelous piece of work that really opened my eyes to the role posture plays in ultimately how our bodies feel.
Esther, without going in to too much detail on my own physical situaton, here are some details.
* Due to a car accident (15 years ago) it left my left leg aprox 1cm-1.5 cm shorter than the right. Also, the foot is rotated outward a little (10 or so degrees) meaning that it is not aligned with my knee. It sits outward a little. This seems to create imbalance throughout the body ie: rotation.
*I do experiience symptoms (tension and discomfort in knee, back, shoulders, leg ect... Overall its just tension and discomfort.
* Although I do have a build up in the left shoe and also wear orthotics, the left foot does seem to be a trouble maker for the rest of the body. It causes muscular compensation ect that I believe is causing allot of the above symptoms.
*I am committed to improving my posture and over all well being.
I am in the process of going through the 8 steps outlined in the book. I have been practicing stetchlying and stack sitting reguarly. Also, I have ordered 2 stretchsit cushions. The other lessons are coming along progressively.
Esther, in your opinon can one be pain free even though they have structual misalignments/imbalances such as what I have outlned?
Also, is there any advice/tips that you would share? Are there any steps/ exercises that you recommend I focus on?
Thanks Esther
David, Australia
10 hours 30 min ago
09/10/2008 - 8:36pm
My first reaction to your post is "what a polite and gracious expression..."
I think the way to make up for rigid structural asymmetries or distortions is to become super-strong in the relevant places. An extreme example is when people come to see me and they have an L5-S1 fusion done by a surgeon of the tucked pelvis school of thought. If you have forayed into my book to any extent, you know how pivotal I consider an anteverted pelvis to the rest of the body's structure. So how do we proceed with a pelvis that has been fused in a tucked position. The answer is to create enough strength in the inner corset muscles that the extra height created overwhelms the distortion in shape that the tucked pelvis predisposes.
In your case, I would focus on getting the knee to align well with the hip even if the foot is pointed outwards. Focus on strengthening gluteus medius (mainly by using it in glidewalking, but also supplementing with the second last exercise in the book), which is an external leg rotator. Also, having extra strength in your inner corset mollifies a lot of distortions throughout the body. Consider taking up swimming, which gives you plenty of inner corset practice if you do it well - also, minimizes the stresses that gravity may be augmenting in your particular architecture.
Hope you get lots out of the 8 Steps book. I also recommend joining the free and topical teleseminars I offer: http://www.egwellness.com/classes-services/workshops