SCIENCE OF HEALTH

The Science of Health

This page is a mixed bag of movement ideas, lifestyle considerations, scientific studies, articles, videos, and book recommendations to help you live your best life. Enjoy!

The videos directly below outline three specific exercises you can perform to help with different aspects of movement in life.

7 MOVEMENT SNACKS

Movement snacks have nothing to do with cookies or cupcakes!

I originally started with the movement snacks for some of my office worker clients who would be stiff and sore at the end of the day. It also works if you’re at your computer a lot, and watching TV or sitting in general.

Movement snacks will relieve stiffness, joint pain, increase blood flow, and after a couple weeks, they can recalibrate your body. Set an alarm and do one at the top of every hour, I’ll be curious to hear how they help.

Let’s take a look...

Click here for a pdf that will remind you how to perform each of the snacks!

TRAVEL, AND WORK, PAINFREE

Do you ever experience pain while traveling?

I know long rides in the car can cause me some lower back issues, or even worse, riding in a plane. You’re sitting down and you’re in hip flexion for hours at a time. You start getting low back pain, maybe even some pelvic issues. What we need to do is get into different types of hip extension.

The heel squeeze is putting your feet together, putting your heels together, squeeze them together/towards each other really hard, and you’ll feel your glutes contract.

This move can be done while seated or standing and should help a lot!

UPPER CROSS SYNDROME

Upper cross syndrome is happening when we see a forward head posture, cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, and protracted shoulders. So basically the forward leaning position we see all the time, and a lot of this is due to sitting.

We can use the three corrective exercises of cervical extension, thoracic extension and scapular retraction to counteract this position.

This video shows clearly how each of the exercises is performed and how they will help you release the patterns of upper cross syndrome.

Six repetitions of each of the three, just three times a day, will make a big difference in your posture, which will also help your balance.

WIN-WIN-WIN!

LOWER CROSS SYNDROME

Now we’re going to take a look at lower cross syndrome. Just above is a look at uppercross syndrome. Lower cross syndrome was brought to our attention by the Czech physiotherapist Vladimir Yanda and examines how sitting affects posture and the lower body.

In lower syndrome our abs and our glutes become inhibited. The lower back and the hip flexors become tight. Once again, I’m going to provide three corrective exercises that will help with lower cross syndrome.

With these three corrective exercises we have combined stretching with muscle activation.

Always remember, age is not measured in years, it’s measured in lack of motion.

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE

Let’s take a quick look at movement issues that may either be hardware issues or software issues. Hardware issues are the more difficult ones to solve because they’re normally a structural issue. Software issues lots of times are easier because it’s really a mind-muscle connection and you can use an external stimuli to make the subconscious brain change.

Take posture, for instance. We’re going to use what is called reactive neuromuscular training. And we are going to use an outside stimulus to completely change posture.

You’ve got to watch this video. It is absolutely amazing to see how quickly and easily posture can change with just a simple adjustment and the AX foam pad. Check it out!

SLEEP

Today we’re going to spend a couple of minutes talking about how to get better sleep. There’s a lot of science out there these days concerning sleep hygiene... blue light when should you turn off your screens before bed, having a totally dark bedroom, when should you stop eating before bed, and different temperatures. Today I’m going to tell you about three things I instituted about a year ago and that have changed my sleep from four and a half hours a night to seven and a quarter hours a night.

Getting into different shapes for quick comfort in bed, learning how to use lymphatic release and performing vagus nerve activation is literally going to change your day by changing your sleep.

Let me know how these work for you!

MAKING DIFFERENT SHAPES

We are always in the same shape. Think about it — pretty much always. And that is the shape of sitting. Now, if you sleep in the fetal position, you’re sitting while you’re sleeping as well. The fascia adapts, the connective tissue adapts, it becomes short and tight. Movement is affected, balance is affected, and it can affect pain as well. What we need to do is regroove our fascia, and we can do that by getting into different shapes.

Let me show you five different shapes you can get into that will help you regroove your fascia.... I like to do them at night so I sleep more easily. They can be used to equal advantage to begin your day with more flexibility, think of these as a nice way to ease into your day.

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