• Lie down on the floor with your legs out straight
• Bring your legs together
• Keep your knees straight and lift both legs off of the floor about thirty degrees.
• Notice: what happens to your abs?  Did they bulge outward?  What does your back do?  Does it arch?  What does your neck do?  Does it tense?

​How did you do?  In my experience, 95% of my clients use a pushing strategy: holding breath, pushing out into abdominal wall and pelvis, arching back and tensing or lifting the neck. Outside of pilates, or working out, this strategy gets carried over into daily tasks such as: getting out of bed, bending and lifting tasks, pushing open a heavy door, etc.   ​

The first step is to become aware of the day to day habits that interfere with optimal breathing:

• shallow breathing into chest and neck
• holding breath
• holding abs
• locking down ribcage or gripping shoulder blades back and down
• lifting shoulders to breathe (over activation of the scalenes, upper trapezius, levator scapulae)
• squeezing butt cheeks (tightens the pelvic floor muscles)
• ribcage and pelvic positions

The second step is to practice breathing.  During quiet respiration there should be movement in the intercostals (the muscles between the ribs), the diaphragm, the abdominals and the pelvic floor.  In order to have strength in the muscles, they need to move through full range of motion: lengthening and shortening. In this video, I talk about diaphragmatic breathing and core function.  Practice lying down, sitting and standing.  Each position places a different demand on the body. 
​Have fun and explore!

The third step is to begin to challenge the system.  Can you maintain the breath as you add a new skill or a new load?  Are you able to get movement into all areas of the thoracolumbar pelvic canister?  Quite often I observe tension and stiffness surrounding the ribcage.  Below I share a breathing drill to get mobility at the lower ribcage and diaphragm and a link from Dr Evan Osar on Three Dimensional Breathing. 

​Susan McLaughlin is a physical therapist who specializes in the management of pelvic floor and orthopedic dysfunctions. She is the owner of ALIGN integration|movement in Salt Lake City, UT.  Helpful tips and other self care strategies can be found at www.alignforhealth.com.

Neck pain is a big drag!  Neck stiffness is so annoying! How often have you tried stretching and neck strengthening exercises that send you into more pain and stiffness?  I have totally been there!  One of my favorite ways to relax the neck is to start getting movement into the shoulders, shoulder blades and thoracic spine.
3 Movements for a happy & healthy neck (before you begin, check your neck motion: rotate each direction and then bring your chin to your chest.  Notice how far you move and how it feels):

• Sidelying Trunk Rotation and Shoulder Windmill
• Shoulder Blade Movement on Hands and Knees
• Shoulder Stretch

Now recheck your neck motion and notice if it feels different: is it easier, not so stiff, more motion?

This movement sequence was inspired by my exploration with Jill Miller's Yoga Tune Up™/Roll Model and Yamuna Body Rolling.

STEP 1:  Get some stimulus to the lats and the muscles between the shoulder blades.  As the arms have moved forward to type on the keyboard, these muscles are now resting in a lengthened position.  This active shoulder girdle stretch takes the muscles into more of a stretch, just like a sling shot, so they can contract back into resting position.

STEP 2:  Stretch the neck and arm.  Lengthen the tissues in the entire arm and neck by holding onto a door jam and leaning away.  This provides a traction stimulus to the wrist and shoulder, which is a wonderful reprieve after sitting hunched in a ball at the computer.

STEP 3:  Get up out of your chair every 30 minutes.  Walk to the water cooler, stretch your arms to the ceiling, stretch your legs, something simple before sitting down again. 

Susan McLaughlin is a physical therapist who specializes in the management of pelvic floor and orthopedic dysfunctions. She is the owner of ALIGN integration|movement in Salt Lake City, UT.  Helpful tips and other self care strategies can be found at www.alignintegrationandmovement.com.

Below is a video sequence to address spinal mobility and upper back tension.  Before you begin, lie on your back with your legs out straight.  Notice the contact of the back of your legs, your low back, lower ribs and shoulder blades to the floor. After you complete the sequence, lie on the floor again and notice the change of your muscles and your connection with the floor.  Enjoy!

Almost a year ago I wrote about the pectoralis minor's referral pattern into the shoulder blade and shared a lovely release using a tennis ball (you can read about that here).  I am back at it again with another post highlighting the pectoralis minor and pectoralis major.  Due to the location of their attachment sites on the skeleton, they can affect the function of the head, neck, shoulder and arm.
Pectoralis Minor attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula  and to the outer surfaces of the third, fourth and fifth ribs. Restriction here can pull the shoulder blade forward (you will see the bottom/inferior portion of your shoulder blade lift away from your body wall), potentially bringing the entire arm with it).
Pectoralis Major is a big fan shaped muscle that is attached to the chest at the sternum (breast bone) and clavicle (collar bone) .  The fan shaped fibers coverge at the arm and attach into the bicipital groove of the humerus.  Restriction in this muscle will pull the arm in front of the body and rotate your arm into internal rotation (with your arms at rest at your sides, look in the mirror: where are your elbow creases facing?  If they are turned toward your body, that is called internal rotation.  In neutral, the arms should rest at the sides of the body with the elbow creases facing forward).

Before you begin with the exercises, do a motion assessment first.  Stand with your elbow creases and palms facing forward.  Lift your arms up and see how far you can lift without arching your back or letting your lower ribs lift away from your body wall.  Complete the movements as show below and then repeat the assessment.  For the first exercise you can use a tennis ball, but I prefer the high grip rubber of the Yoga Tune Up massage balls.

Not quite a month ago I wrote a post about raking leaves and waking up the next day with pain at my shoulder blade.  I was able to relieve it after a few minutes of exercise.  Well.... it came back after a weekend of hovering over my computer.
This time I had a different strategy:  address the tension in my neck and pectoralis minor.
Due to the attachment on the coracoid process of the scapula, tension in the pec can pull the scapula forward lifting the bottom edge away from the body, potentially creating dysfunction for the entire shoulder girdle.
I was inspired by Jill Miller's YogaTune Up® Blog on the pec minor. So I share with you pics from my 2 minutes of myofascial work with a tennis ball, and "bam" no more pain!  I used a tennis ball for this, but I recommend the high grip rubber of the Yoga Tune Up massage balls.

I felt good all day!  Until I woke up the next morning and there it was again: pain in my left shoulder blade!  This time I released my pec minor AND added the ball release to the muscles at my neck just above my clavicle.  Five minutes later, no pain!   Check out how I did it by watching this video on the right. The video on the left is a another great way to get into the pec minor.