How to Reduce Pain & Stiffness From Prolonged Sitting→

Do you get pain and stiffness from long hours of sitting everyday? In this video I will share simple strategies I use to stay mobile, comfortable, and active while sitting in a chair.

*Clicking the image below will take you to my YouTube video “How to Reduce Pain& Stiffness From Prolonged Sitting.”

*Muista Chair (Active chair that supports comfortable sitting I personally use at home): https://muistachair.com?aff=3 (this is my affiliate link. When you purchase using the link above, I will receive a small commission from Muista)

Asian Squats: Is it good for lower back pain?

I’ve come across several articles on the internet that say Asian Squat can improve back pain. I’d like to share my opinions on this topic based on my experience and knowledge as a movement teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner.

There are many origins of back pain, so you cannot generalize back pain as one. Back pain could be related to muscle strain, ligament sprain, disc degeneration, joint degeneration, arthritis, nerve tissue injury, nerve sensitization, stress, anxiety, fear, lack of movement, etc. Thus, it’s hard to say Asian Squat can improve back pain without being more specific.

It is true that many experience improved back pain as a result of incorporating Asian Squat into their daily activities. My guess is that their experience is related to increased movement. By adapting Asian Squat, you are mobilizing many body parts that you haven’t mobilized before. Getting in and out of Asian Squat mobilizes your ankles, knees, hips, and spine a lot more than getting in and out of a couch. You are “waking up” all those parts that have not been used before.

I believe the most significant benefit of Asian Squat is all movements required to get in and out of Asian Squat. As a result of more movement, you’ll improve blood circulation, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to all of your body system. I can see this can have a positive impact on heath of back, and this may be one of the reasons why some people experience improved back pain from doing Asian Squat.

I feel many believe Asian Squat position provides benefits, but I believe increased mobilization required to get in/out of Asian Squat provides more benefits, which many people don’t discuss. So, the bottom line is movement matters; movement is life; let’s move more!

Happy Squatting! Happy Mindful Movement!

The Feldenkrais Method For Chronic Pain

Before I explain how the Feldenkrais Method can help with chronic pain, let’s talk about the difference between acute pain and chronic pain in a very simple way.

Acute pain is associated with tissue trauma/injury, and pain that is due to acute inflammation and actual tissue damage.  I’m sure you have twisted your ankle at least once in your life. Pain and swelling immediately come on after an injury.  

Chronic pain/ persistent pain refers to pain that has lasted more than 6 months since the onset of pain/injury.  It’s not uncommon people have had back pain for years.  In this case, pain is often not associated with tissue injury/damage, but is associated with increased nerve sensitivity and changes in how the nervous system perceives stimuli.  When certain body positions and movements and pain are associated repeatedly over time, the nervous system anticipates a response (pain) with those body positions and movements. In an extreme case, just a thought of doing those triggering movements is enough to produce pain response.  

The Feldenkrais Method is about creating new ways of movements, which means creating new pathways or neural circuits in the brain.  New movement patterns and new neural circuits will allow you to move without pain as your nervous system has not yet formed an association between those movement patterns and pain.  Once you experience new ways of movements without pain response, you can taken an advantage of those new movement patterns and expand movement capacity from there and start to disassociate movements with pain. The more your nervous system dissociates pain with movement, the less sensitive the nerves become, allowing you to move more with less pain, therefore getting out of vicious pain cycle.

I will give you examples:

If you are afraid of bending over, try lying down on your back and gently bring both knees towards your chest using your hands.  You can also try rocking forward and back on your hands and knees (move your buttocks towards heels and away from heels).  These movements are essentially the same as bending over but in different orientation.  Even if you cannot bend over because of back pain, you may find that you can do the two movements above with no pain or less pain.

Movement is only one aspect of chronic pain, but a very important one, and the Feldenkrais Method’s unique approach to movement is very effective and helpful for people with chronic pain.

 Get help to move out of vicious pain cycle.

Movement is essential to our life. Improving movement quality is directly related to quality of our life. Teaching people to move well is my passion. Sign up for Trans4Move Newsletters that will teach you how to improve your movements, functions, and your life!

My name is Taro Iwamoto. I am a Feldenkrais practitioner and movement expert. I help people develop new and more efficient movement patterns and expand movement options in order to overcome injuries/pain and move beyond limits. Feel free to post in the comments section below and feel free to share this with your friends!

How I do know whether I need a knee replacement or not? Can the Feldenkrais Method help prevent a knee replacement?

“I have a severe arthritis in my knee.  Will I need a knee replacement or can I avoid a surgery with the Feldenkrais Method or any other modalities?”

This is a very common question I receive from my clients and friends.  I believe that the amount of information you can get on the internet is overwhelming, and it is not easy to differentiate reliable information based on good research from information based on personal opinions without a scientific basis.

My intention for this article is to clarify a reasoning for a surgical intervention and the Feldenkrais Method (TM) for some conditions such as arthritis, degenerative joint disease (DJD), and degenerative disc disease (DDD).

The diagnoses mentioned above are all chronic conditions that result from repetitive use over many years vs traumatic acute injuries.  It is important to remind you that degeneration of joints, discs is normal aging process, and that should not intimidate you.  No matter how well you use your body and move you will have some wear and tear.

So how do you know if you need a surgery or when you need a surgery?

Here are two important questions you need to ask yourself:

1) Is your condition causing pain/discomfort?  How severe?

2) Is your pain/discomfort compromising your daily activities?  How badly?

Notice I didn’t ask you about the severity of degeneration based on imaging studies (MRI, X-rays, etc).  Why didn’t I ask you that question?

Whether you will need a surgery or not depends on the severity of your pain experience, not necessarily based on the severity of arthritis, bone/joint degeneration.

* There are other factors: age, other medical conditions.

Research shows that the severity of pain is not really correlated with the severity of arthritis. In fact, many people experience little or no pain in the presence of severe arthritis, or vice versa.

It’s not uncommon for some people in their 90’s to have no joint pain.  I bet x-rays would show quite a bit of joint degeneration in most joints including knees, hips, and spine.

Does it make sense for them to have a surgery if they are not having much pain and their functions aren’t affected?  A surgery may not be necessary if a person is experiencing little or no pain regardless of the severity of arthritis/degeneration.

I’d like to clarify that I am not suggesting that you don’t see a physician, nor that imaging studies are unnecessary.  I believe it is important that you consult with your physician regarding your condition(s).  My point here is that the presence of degeneration does not necessarily determine whether a surgical intervention is warranted.

Can the Feldenkrais Method (TM) reverse my joint degeneration?  How can it help me?

The state of the joint integrity cannot be reversed with the Feldenkrais Method.  It is important to realize that your habitual movement patterns create uneven use of your body.  You use certain parts much more than others.  There is a very good chance that to some degree uneven use has contributed to increased joint degeneration in some areas.

Proportional distribution of effort and movement is one of the Feldenkrais Method’s fundamental principles.  We, Feldenkrais practitioners teach you how you can redistribute your movement effort more evenly and efficiently, which will reduce stress at the affected part, and you can move more comfortably and easily.

What is unique about the Feldenkrais Method is that we don’t work with the affected part in isolation.  We, instead look at its relationship with other parts and improve the whole relationship, as you cannot influence one part and not influence the rest.  

If one part is affected by any condition, your nervous system will find a way to compensate in an effort to protect the affected part.  While compensatory mechanism is helpful and necessary for a short period of time, it will have consequences in a long term.

That said, the Feldenkrais Method can improve the relationship between the affected part and the rest of the parts and can recreate a new experience and sense of how you use and move the affected part of yourself and change your pain experience as well.

Thus, whether you end up needing a surgery or not, the Feldenkrais Method can benefit you. You cannot go wrong with improving the quality of movement. It will benefit you tremendously even if you have a surgery.

In summary, the severity of joint degeneration is not directly related to the severity of pain.  Whether you’ll need a surgery (a knee replacement in this case) or not depends on the severity of pain experience and how much pain is limiting your activities (plus other factors such as age and other medical conditions).  Ultimately your physician and you will decide the best option for you.  The Feldenkrais Method can benefit you whether you pursue a surgical intervention or a conservative treatment.

 Get help to move more comfortably and be more comfortable in your body.

Movement is essential to our life. Improving movement quality is directly related to quality of our life. Teaching people to move well is my passion. Sign up for Trans4Move Newsletters that will teach you how to improve your movements, functions, and your life!

My name is Taro Iwamoto. I am a Feldenkrais practitioner and movement expert. I help people develop new and more efficient movement patterns and expand movement options in order to overcome injuries/pain and move beyond limits. Feel free to post in the comments section below and feel free to share this with your friends!

What can you do to prevent the problems associated with sitting too much?

Are you getting sore from sitting too much at work?  Wondering what you can do to prevent the problems associated with sitting too much?  

This seems to be a very common issue for many people, perhaps including you.  Proper ergonomics definitely helps, but that’s not enough, right?  Paying attention to your posture, but you can’t think about your posture all the time, can you?  So what can you do??

While sitting in itself is not bad and it is necessary, a lack of movement or less movement variability that sitting for a long period of time creates can be problematic.  I believe we, human-beings are designed to move.  Less movement means less muscle activation, less bone stimulation, less brain stimulation, less blood circulation, etc.  Your brain and nervous system will get your attention by increasing muscular tone and/or producing pain/uncomfortable sensation in your body, which is a cue that you need to move.  

Ideally you want to get up and move around every so often, but when you are at work or driving, it’s not very realistic to do that.  My guess is that this is a dilemma you are facing.  So, a real question is: What is a solution?

Solution:  Create more movements in sitting.  Sitting on an exercise ball or a dyna disc (shown in the video below) can help create more movements due to an unstable sitting surface.  I need to mention to you that you will want to start sitting on an exercise ball or a dyna disc for a short period of time and gradually increase time if you have never used it as a chair.  As it is unstable, it will require you to use muscles you haven’t used a while or you don’t use all that much, thus will require you to adapt to new physiological demands.

While an exercise ball or a dyna disc can be helpful in terms of creating more movements in sitting, they are not absolutely necessary.  You can also create more movements in sitting with simple exercises.  I suggest you try these exercises to improve comfort in sitting at work.

 Get help to improve comfort in sitting at work.

Teaching people how to move well is my passion. Sign up for Trans4Move Newsletters that will teach you how to improve your movements, functions, and your life!

My name is Taro Iwamoto. I am a Feldenkrais practitioner and movement expert. I help people develop new and more efficient movement patterns and expand movement options in order to overcome injuries/pain and move beyond limits. Feel free to post in the comments section below and feel free to share this with your friends!

Movement, Kinesthetic Awareness, and Pain

This blog post is related to my previous posts: "Chronic pain: The Vicious Cycle" and "Kinesthetic Awareness: Road Map for Movement."  In this post, I will talk about relationships between movement, kinesthetic awareness, and pain.

I discussed how movement clarifies "body maps" and kinesthetic awareness, and lack of movement has the opposite effect.  Pain usually discourages people to move.  When people experience pain chronically, they start to avoid movement, called fear avoidance of movement. Decreased movement due to pain will then decrease kinesthetic awareness.  Research shows that decreased kinesthetic awareness is correlated with increased pain as decreased kinesthetic can be perceived as a threat by the nervous system.  My own understanding is that moving with poor kinesthetic awareness is like walking in a dark room (maybe a hotel room that I stay for the first time) without a flashlight.  I would feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and anxious.  All these feelings can be perceived as a threat.  As I discussed in the previous blog (Chronic pain), the brain produces pain when it perceives a thread to the system.  It does make sense why decreased kinesthetic awareness is corrected with increased pain.  Then, increased pain further discourages movement, and so forth.  

To break this cycle, here's what needs to happen:  

- Understand pain

- Move with attention (attention is a key to improving kinesthetic awareness)

- Gradually increase movement to desensitize the nervous system and increase tissue tolerance

Sounds simple enough?  Please keep in mind that  it takes time for the nervous system to rewire itself, but the nervous system DOES CHANGE!

Chronic Pain: The Vicious Cycle

If you or someone you know are dealing with chronic pain, please read this blog post and share it with other people.  

I've worked with and know many people with chronic pain and their quality of life is negatively affected by pain.  Most of them have tried many things (pain meds, injections, chiro, acupuncture, PT, massage, Yoga, you name it).  Each helped to a certain degree but only for a short period of time.  None resolved their pain.  They were given so many different diagnoses by different health care professionals.  Each time they saw a new healthcare provider, they were given a new diagnosis, and they became more confused about what's going on and they gradually became fearful of movement as they were afraid of causing more damage.  They were in a vicious pain cycle.

This scenario is actually very common in people with chronic pain.  Unfortunately, not all healthcare providers have a good understanding of current pain science.  Since there's a plenty of great resources available, I will not go into details about pain science.  A short video below helps you understand pain.

Why is it important to understand pain?  One of the most common misconception about pain is that pain = tissue damage, and pain is telling our brain that there's a damage.  However, this is not true.  The brain produces pain only when it perceives a threat to the system regardless of tissue damage.  This is why phantom pain, perceptions that an individual experiences related to a limb or organ that is not physically part of the body,  exists.  

In people with chronic pain, their nervous system has become so sensitive that it can perceive even normal stimuli as a threat, thus produce pain easily.  Their pain experience is due to sensitive nervous system, not tissue damage.  In order to get them out of pain cycle, they first need to understand the mechanism of pain.  As long as they still believe that pain = tissue damage, the nervous system continues to stay sensitive and react to movement easily by producing pain. Knowledge is a very powerful therapy that can rewire the brain.  When cognition and understanding about pain change, the nervous system starts to become less sensitized and will not perceive normal stimuli as a threat. Movement is absolutely necessary for recovery, but as long as the brain still perceives movement as a threat, you will continue to experience pain.  This is very important  for me as a movement educator/therapist.  Many clients are dealing with chronic pain, thus, I am very careful about how I use my words as words can influence their cognition/beliefs, which can have either positive or negative effects on the nervous system.  For example, if I frequently use negative words like "broken," "weak," "torn," "out of alignment," etc, then they become more anxious, worried, fearful, and confused, which is perceived as a threat by the nervous system.  The result:  PAIN!  The opposite is also true.  I certainly try to use words to help my clients get out of the vicious cycle of pain.  

Awareness Through Movement®

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) consists of verbally directed movement sequences presented primarily to groups.  In ATM lessons, people engage in precisely structured movement exploration that involve, thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining.  Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities.  Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships.  The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity.  (www.feldenkrais.com)

One of many things the Feldenkrais Method emphasizes is to improve awareness by helping people become aware of their habits as well as new ways of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking while you're engaged in various movements, thus the name Awareness Through Movement.  I will share one of my favorite quotes from my Feldenkrais trainer:

"Habits are bricks. Repetition is the cement between the bricks. The more repetition of habit, the more solid the wall.  If you keep repeating the habit, it becomes solidified causing pain, rigidity, depression, etc.  Awareness creates doors and windows in which you can move over, under or thru that blockage."

Awareness Through Movement lessons are designed to create those doors and windows and guide you discover and open them.  When you those doors and windows, whole new possibilities start emerging.  You will discover a lot more than more efficient movements, more comfort, reduced pain.  Words are just words, and can't give you such kinesthetic experience. The only way to truly understand the effects of this work is to actually experience it.  I encourage you to check out local Awareness Through Movement classes.  Please also check out my classes in Everett, WA.   

Attachment and Pain

A few years back I went to a Russel Delman's workshop called "The Embodied Life."  He is a well known Feldenkrais teacher as well as a Zen medication teacher.  One thing I learned from the workshop has stuck to me even today is that attachment is the source of our sufferings. What this means is that when our mind gets stuck in the past or the future, we're not living in the moment and start thinking about all sorts of things that could hurt you.  For example, a man who was once a star football player sustained a career ending injury that caused him to live with wheelchair for the rest of his life.  He who still identifies him self as a star football player cannot acknowledge who he is now.  He's depressed because he's lost his identity.  His mind is attached to his past.  He's psychologically hurt and will continue to feel this pain until he accepts the fact that he's not a football player now and accepts who he is, which means his mind is no longer stuck in the past.

When it comes to physical pain, this attachment or association happens.  Let's say you hurt your back when you bend over to pick up something from the floor.  Your nervous system recorded such an event.  Your back has healed after a little while and you can bend over again without any pain but are conscious of the trauma.  Several months later you hurt your back again doing the same movement.  Your nervous system now made a note that bending over movement hurt your back and attached/associated these two things (bending over movement=pain).  Even after a while your back pain is easily triggered by simple bending over movement though your back has healed just fine.  This is actually fairly common.  I was working with one lady who had multiple shoulder surgeries, and she couldn't do hardly anything with one arm because of pain.  Everything hurt.  I was explaining about one shoulder movement and she suddenly screamed and said that as soon as she imagined doing that movement her pain level jumped.  Her nervous system attached/associated any arm movements with pain so well and became so sensitized that imagining doing arm movements was enough to trigger pain.  I had her imagine arm movement several times, and that consistently increased her pain.

 Pretty interesting stuff, isn't it?  The brain is so powerful.  To reverse this process, which unfortunately takes longer, you have to teach your nervous system to detach/disassociate these two.  One way of doing this is to create new options for movement.  In new movement options the nervous system hasn't made any attachment/association yet, so you'll have a pretty good chance to move into the position that you wouldn't be able to with the old pathway that the nervous system associated with pain. When the nervous system "sees" that you somehow got to the position without pain, it starts to question the validity of the statement it's made in the past.  This is a very simplistic way of explaining this phenomenon, but I think this is one of the reasons why people with chronic pain have a very good luck with Feldenkrais Method.  It's really helping their nervous system to rewire itself and change how they feel.  Let's learn to let go of your habitual ways of moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking with Awareness Through Movement class and have free choice in your actions.