Mobility exercises for your shoulder joints are essential for preventing shoulder pain and tightness. The shoulder joint is prone to injury and chronically tight muscles. Without mobility training it is easy to end up with shoulder pain. And shoulder pain isn’t fun! I have torn both my left and right rotator cuff muscles (the supraspinatus tendon on both sides) and suffered shoulder dislocations during my years as a contortionist. Now I do daily shoulder mobility training and strengthening for the rotator cuff. This keeps my shoulder pain at bay. I do still stretch my shoulder extension, but I ..read more

A dedicated Pilates practice can be a powerful tool to increase spinal health and flexibility, particularly when Pilates-method breathing is included. I struggled with back pain starting at 9 years old. I am hypermobile and my spine was like a Red Vine in the back of a hot car, all goo and no structure. I was able to touch my butt to my head, but not stand up straight. My backbend at age 36 was still pretty bendy My posture was my primary struggle, cutting short my foray into gymnastics as a child and forever frustrating my dance technique. I just couldn’t hold myself up well, and it resulte ..read more

The diaphragm is a large muscle that bisects our bodies at the base of the rib cage. When it is relaxed it forms a dome shape that arches up inside the ribs, and when it contracts it drops down, pulling air into the lungs. It is our primary breathing muscle, yet many of us struggle to improve diaphragmatic breathing. We can gradually reset this relationship by understanding diaphragmatic breathing and how it works, and by using seated exercises and self-massage to change the way that we breathe. What is the Diaphragm Muscle? The diaphragm is the top part of the soup can of core muscles that ma ..read more

As long as we are alive, we are breathing! So it is very useful to understand how breathing affects both our posture and our spinal flexibility. Many different muscles participate in the breathing process, and breathing is one of the few physical functions that is both automatic and under our control. While there is no wrong way to breathe, taking control of our breath and learning to strengthen our central breathing muscles like the diaphragm is a great tool to improve many aspects of our physical and emotional state, including posture and spinal flexibility. How We Breathe Affects our Postur ..read more

There is one hip flexor muscle that often contributes to lower back pain: the psoas. The psoas muscle is hard to find and easy to annoy. It is not just a hip flexor, it is also a spinal muscle and the only muscle to bridge the upper and lower body. You can learn more about the location of the psoas and how it relates to the other muscles of the torso by checking out these posts on core anatomy and hip anatomy. How the Psoas Hip Flexor Causes Lower Back Pain Because of its attachment points all along the inside of the lumbar spine, when the psoas muscle isn’t properly supported, strengthened ..read more

Everyone knows that running and flexibility exist in opposition to each other. Right? Ask any flexibility coach about cardio cross-training and the vast majority will tell you to stay away from running. Ask any runner about flexibility training and most will groan and treat it as a boring and unpleasant but necessary evil to keep them from turning into one big, gristled tendon. Convention will tell you that running makes you inflexible and flexibility training and being highly flexible or hypermobile makes you unsuitable for running. But what if, by focusing on impeccable running technique, pr ..read more

What is your core muscle group and how does it work? Practically every fitness program known to humanity talks at some point about “core muscles” and how to strengthen them. But what are your core muscles? Meet the team of muscles that works together to create mobility and stability throughout your body. A lot of programs focus on the rectus abdominus muscles (known as the six-pack) but the six-pack is really just a supporting player. The core muscles aren’t just on the front of your body. They make up a shape like a soup can with a top, sides, and bottom. The core muscles are constantly in dy ..read more

A strong flexible psoas muscle is fundamental to a healthy back and mobile, balanced hips. The psoas attaches all along the lumbar spine in the lower back then swoops down under your internal organs to attach to the top inside of the femur. It is the only muscle connecting the upper and lower body, and it has multiple jobs including spinal support and movement, hip stabilization, and internal rotation and flexion of the thigh. The Iliopsoas Despite its extremely important role in our mobility (the psoas plays a part in anything we do from the waist down) it is often neglected. Part of this i ..read more

  Earlier this year I made a post called 4 Tips to Get More Flexible Without Stretching, and the #1 item on the list was to improve your posture. This post offers a deeper dive into posture, how some “fixes” can actually create back pain, and a checklist with alternatives. We all know that hunching over like a buzzard is not good for us. The “tech neck”, rounded back, forward-thrusted head, and drooping shoulders characteristic of our modern lifestyle is obviously problematic. But how do you fix it? What should you do instead? The most common “fix” that I see is to thrust the chest forwar ..read more

The humble lunge is a staple of flexibility training designed to target the front of the hips. With lunges, small details in alignment and positioning can make a huge difference in outcome, and we can use that to our advantage. Understanding how lunge alignment emphasizes different muscles in the hips can help you target the muscles that really need the stretch. Get to Know the 6 Primary Hip Flexors First, let’s define our terms. There are multiple hip flexors, but six of them do most of the work and are our primary focus when we talk about stretching. These are the psoas, iliacus, pectineus ..read more