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How to get rid of sciatic pain part two

Quick review:

We got to know the anatomy involved in and around the sciatic nerve in the last post specifically regarding the hip flexor muscle and the piriformis muscle. 

Remember this photo?

This cute little prifiormis is an external rotator of the hip. it looks pretty big here, so let’s give you some perspective on the actual size of that muscle. Here is the piriformis muscle as seen on Mr. Muscle Guy (for those of you who love spinning anatomy apps I use iMuscle2):

Guess what muscle is also an external rotator, but has lots more muscle fibers available to do the EXACT SAME MOTION? 

I’ll give you three guesses on what might be the answer. Here is a hint: It is one of my most favorite muscles, and I am sure you are really quite sick of me talking about it. I know several of my clients are…but it is such a great muscle! So powerful, so versatile, so handy to have on your brain’s radar of available muscles….

And when strong you look waaaay better in jeans! 

What muscle could I be referencing? Drumroll please….

The GLUTE! 

OH ya, the glutes are also an external rotator of the hip. However, they have a distinct advantage as they are about ten times bigger than the sweet little piriformis. There is simply alot more real estate to work with. 

More than that, if your glute is not working, guess who tries to take over the workload? 

That poor little piriformis. Poor little guy! Such a hard worker, and it just needs help from the big monster glute. Remember how I stated that lots of my clients claim that piriformis stretches don’t seem to have much staying power? Well, if you don’t RELEASE the piriformis and then ENGAGE the glute to keep the piriformis relaxed, you aren’t helping the piriformis as much as you could. 

Release and engage. 

Every body needs a nice blend of the two!

How do we release the piriformis?

Try this:

And how do we engage the glute to resume it’s role as the powerful primary external rotator of the hip? Try this:

Why I am a fan of walking sideways

You know I am a big fan of walking sideways. The reason? Look carefully at the photo of the glute above. The way the lines are drawn in the muscle is the actual direction of the glute fibers. Notice they run nearly parallel to the ground. That means that you need to move in the direction the fibers run to give them an easy opportunity to contract. I have all of my clients try it, but sometimes getting the glute to engage is a bit elusive. 

Then one day I was on FaceTime with my client Debby in Boston. She was also struggling to find her glute, and I told her to stand against the wall and try walking sideways with the back of her hip in contact with the wall at all times. She only a a short chunk of wall to work with- from the light switch to behind the door (which we had to close for more room). 

However, the wall as a frame of reference turned the corner for her ability to get her glutes to work! 

Here is an action photo of her working the magic of walking sideways on the wall! 

 

In Conclusion

My take on the sciatic nerve- there is no harm in eliminating the possibility that either the hip flexor or the piriformis is up to no good, and how to go about tackling the imbalances or tightness lurking in both. 

Caveat #1: When I get that nerve fired up enough to make it go zipping down the back of my leg, it takes me a good 3-4 days of solid chipping away at the muscle tightness/imbalances to make an impact on the symptom. 

Caveat #2: Understand that a totally numb leg is the most impinged the nerve can be, and if you are improving the symptom you might get the nerve to now back off to shooting pain, then tingling, then tooth ache, then gone. The problem with this is you think the shooting pain must be making the situation worse, and it hurts like h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Again, HANG IN THERE! You are making progress! I am sorry it hurts. I know exactly how you feel. 

Hang in there! You’ve got nothing to lose other than nerve pain! 

Let me know in the comments below how you handle your sciatic nerve symptoms, and what has worked for you. 

How to get rid of sciatic pain

Ever have a burning, tingling, tooth-achey, or shooting pain in your hip, back or back of the leg and wonder just what the heck is going on? Did you sleep wrong or eat something spicy? 

Or maybe you’ve just described the classic symptoms of sciatica.

Oh no! 

What does that mean, and is it forever? Sure feels like it sometimes…

Let’s learn about it quickly and then move onto how to fix it! 

Take a look at the nerve (in red here, perhaps to signify hotness!)  as it originates in the low back and travels down the back of the leg.

photo credit : https://runnersconnect.net/sciatica/

There are a few studies that point out that the nerve pain could be coming from a bone issue, or an actual damaged nerve, or a few other less statistically likely options. See your doctor to find out exactly where yours is coming from, but while you wait for the appointment, let’s take a moment and investigate what might be happening. 

There are two major areas that cause the majority of the impingements- right at the spine itself, and then the famous piriformis muscle in the back of the hip. 

Let’s look at the spine itself where the nerve comes out:

photo credit: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8221

Notice the little white bulge where the picture is labeled “herniated disc”. If you think of your discs as jelly donuts, it is as if the jelly has squished out in a little pocket. Unfortunately the root or base of the nerve is right there, and gets mad when the disc bonks into it. This is one way the nerve can get irritated, and create that burning, tingling, throbbing, shooting pain, or make it go completely numb. 

No fun no matter what!

What else might be problematic? 

photo credit : http://dailyvitamoves.com/sciatic-nerve-pain-relief-releasing-tight-piriformis/

Here we see the famous piriformis muscle. The nerve is in yellow, and travels behind or through the muscle itself. The thought is that this muscle clamps down on the nerve and creates nerve impingement symptoms in the rest of the leg. There are a litany of piriformis stretches out there, but most complain that the muscle tightens back down quickly. 

What then to do?

Remember that there is no diagnostic test to administer to you that will pinpoint muscle tightness or imbalance. So, in the absence of any concrete results along those lines, I invite you to play around with the potential muscular culprits, so long as it doesn’t increase any symptoms. 

I have blogged about sciatic issues before with an exercise targeting the hip flexor. https://justmuscles.net/fitness/how-to-fix-hip-flexor-tightness/.

The hip flexor holds onto the body of the vertebrae, where it is marked “vertebrae” on the second photo, and also on the transverse processes, which are little wings that stick out on the sides of the vertebrae making it a 3-point star shape.

In the second photo they are cut for illustration purposes. This muscle, especially if it is wicked tight on one side, could be the reason the disc wants to herniate or bulge. Try the very easy and relaxing supine groin exercise described in the blog. 

I once worked with a 20 year old SDSU football player whose hip flexor got so tight on one side that it SNAPPED OFF two levels of transverse processes. 

SNAPPED OFF. 

Nothing you can do about that. My first question to him was, “Well, what is the other hip flexor doing?” He looked puzzled. “I always suspect the opposite side is the bigger problem,” I said, which elicited more puzzled looks. 

If your knees can tolerate kneeling, I also recommend this Kneeling Wall position because it helps level out the hips and create equal workload for both hips on both sides, which was something Mr. SDSU needed badly. 

Kneel, with something cushy underneath your knees if they need it, where your knees and nose touch the wall. Here is the absolutely critical piece: MAKE SURE THE WEIGHT IS EQUAL IN BOTH KNEES. If it isn’t then you are continuing to favor one side over the other.

If necessary, force the weight onto the knee that isn’t doing as much work. This creates a platform where the hips are required to do the same amount of work, and you will feel your quads burn up to your hips. It might of take 4-5 mins, or even up to 12. Breathe. Hang in there! We want those hips level!

We will get to the piriformis next time, and join us for Part Two of How to Get Rid of Sciatic Pain. 

Let me know in the comments below how this helped you, or someone you love! 

How to pick berries without hurting your back

Look out for your back

Aaah, summertime. Time to go out and gather the provisions for the cold, harsh winter. 🙂

Berry picking has always been a favorite summertime excursion, and this summer was no exception. However, I couldn’t help but notice the basic position most people found themselves in while engaging in the picking of the berries. Ian demonstrates the basic position I noticed most people in below:

You have seen these people. They are leaning over, using their back for a fulcrum instead of using their hips. Then they stand up, and both hands go to the low back and they lean the opposite direction, to counterbalance the position they have spent the last five minutes in.

That’s no fun to have a sore back!

Distractions

Look at this cute tree frog that hopped on my foot!

Here’s his friend who hopped in my berry bucket 🙂

Get down to the ground in a squat

Remember the Sitting Rising test that I blogged about a little while ago?

Have you ever spent any time in Africa? These blueberry bushes were pretty low to the ground and so I found that it was much easier to go into a deep squat to pick them.

The Sitting Rising test has a component of a very deep squat in order to get to the ground. If you spent time in a village in Africa, you might not find a chair anywhere and you have to go into a deep squat in order to eat your dinner around the fire.

Therefore, in order to get two flats of berries picked you better be prepared to use your deep squat to make it happen.

Quick Tip

Watch the video below to get a quick tip on a great place to practice your deep squat, and let me know in the comments below how you like to pick berries!

How to get your outside hamstrings to work on a hike!

So you work like a dog all week, and then you want to take advantage of the weekend and get out into the great outdoors.  How about a hike? Sounds great! Let’s go!

The next hour is spent picking a spot, searching the basement for a light backpack, then realizing the CamelBack backpack would work great, then trying to get ice into the CamelBack, then grabbing some protein bars and fruit, then packing extra food and water for the dog or the small children or both, then looking for hiking boots, then realizing you’ll need a bigger backpack…. unpack the first and transfer into the bigger one, and oh don’t forget the sunscreen and bandaids in case someone gets a blister. 🙂

All of this, and with a few other details, you can finally get out the door with your various helpers and fellow hikers alongside you in this great adventure. 

Shoot, now it’s lunchtime. All of the travelers are beginning to grumble. No problem: we can stop and grab something along the way. 

Finally, you get to your trailhead. You begin to hike. You realize your sore calf and plantar fasciitis take a minute to flare, but they are going to get your attention in a big way very quickly. 

Darn, you forgot to warmup! Where did the morning go? 

Well, I have a solution for at least one of those muscles that might be impacting your calf and foot. 

Here is our favorite nutritionist Margaret, when she was coming running with me and realized she was in the same predicament….she hadn’t warmed up much. 

Here she is using a bike rack to do the very thing I demonstrate in the following video to get after…wait for it…your outside hamstring! 

View on YouTube

Have fun with this and let me know in the comments below how you warmup on the fly! 

How to learn to meditate AND how 5 minutes a day is enough

Do you meditate? 

Meditation has been proven to help many things, and one of the consistent common threads cited amongst successful people. However, I am personally daunted by the average quantity of time people report spending in meditation, and thus I have frequently decided to avoid it altogether. 20-30 minutes just sounds like a lot of time, especially on mornings when I have to get up at 4am.

I know it is important, but how do you fit this in? I like to say running is my moving meditation, and when I run I will list off my “gratefuls”…I am grateful for the ability to run, I am grateful for this neighborhood, I am grateful for this clean air to breathe, etc etc. In some ways this is the same idea, and better than nothing, but I think stillness is a part of the equation. 

A friend’s solution

One girlfriend of mine has a brilliant solution. 

Earlier this month I was invited to a ladies happy hour at my dear friend and former neighbor Ali’s house. Right as I was getting ready to leave she told me how she likes to tell people when they have an impact on her life, and in this case it was the introduction to the roller.

I assumed it was going to be a shoulder-related story, which is what we had worked on, but instead she told me that an unintended consequence of being introduced to the roller was that she had found a way to meditate. “Really”?  I said, wondering how this had unfolded. So I asked her to share her story via five quick questions. 

Laura:  What methods of meditation did you try before finding success with the roller? Why did you find yourself unable to stick with them? 

Ali:  I read about meditation and watched some videos. I tried sitting in a chair and I tried laying down. It was always very difficult for me to sit still. It was frustrating and I felt unsuccessful.  Then I just gave up trying for quite a while. 

Laura: Did the meditation on the roller happen by accident -or- How did you discover that you’d finally stumbled upon a situation that worked for you?

Ali: After I met with you I bought a long roller and was following the directions you gave me to lay on it and stretch my shoulders & to do the exercises as well.

I started using it in this way to just lay on it and stretch. Then the idea just came to me to try a meditation on it. It worked fantastically well.  I felt calm with just enough alertness by staying balanced on the roller.  I continue to experiment and it continued to be the perfect mixture of relaxing and being present to my body. 

Laura:  How is your day different when you meditate? What happens when you don’t? 

Ali: My day is different when I forget to meditate. I feel less calm and able to handle situations that pop up.  When I meditate in the morning I feel like I can be there for others because I’ve already taken care of my own needs. 

Laura:  Describe exactly what you do to set up those precious five minutes.

Do you eat first? Pack your lunch and get totally ready for the day?  Workout before or after? Light candles? Set a gong timer? Get up before the family? Etc etc 🙂 

Ali:  I get up and eat breakfast  and get dressed so I’m basically ready for work before I meditate. If I do it too soon after I wake up I fall back asleep.   I set a timer on my phone so that I can totally relax into the space without thinking about time.  

I have experimented with ocean noise in the background when I am extra stressed.  I have found this to be helpful.  My husband has already left for work before  I am up. It’s important for me to have a room where I can be alone to do this.  When I lie with the roller in alignment with my spine, I put my forearms and palms on the floor and bend my legs so my feet are flat on the floor. This position feels grounding to me.

Laura: Any other advice for the novice, or unsuccessful meditation person? 

Ali:  As a coach and educator I know that it’s essential to start  in a way that the learner can be successful on the first try. I started with three minutes. When you start small and you are able to be successful it gives you energy to do it again. 

In the past I was instructed to meditate for 30 minutes and that was a set up for failure for me.  My advice to anyone who has struggled with the same situation is to start small -even one minute -if that’s where you need to begin. 

There you have it- build on one minute.

That is where I am going to start! Give your shoulders and upper back some roller love at the same time, and voila, you have killed two birds with one stone.

Thank you, Ali! 

How to really, really get your hamstrings to work

I love to experiment in partnership with clients. Sometimes you just need to play around with various combinations to get the right mix!

Take a look at this progression with a client of mine with knee pain and missing outside hamstrings. 

I have covered this topic recently- the blog was titled: How to fix inside of the back of the knee pain and had a video of one way of addressing the missing outside hamstring. 

This is another way to get that outside hamstring to work. 

 

Knees + Hamstrings

First of all, know that I am obsessed with hamstrings lately- they seem to make such a huge difference to knees and hips when they are all working properly. By all working properly I mean all three hamstrings- there are three of them back there!

This photo above is of my client Lana attempting to beat her quads into submission by lying in plank on the roller, and then do a hamstring curl. 

Seems simple enough, right? 

However, we kept noticing one problem: her knees and feet loved to wiggle in all sorts of directions. We want them to TRACK straight ahead. The wiggle wasn’t allowing her outside hamstring in particular to engage and was causing the other two hamstrings to cramp. 

Sidebar: do your hamstrings cramp?

This may be why – you are down to two working actively rather than three.  

Our goal was to perfectly track the knees and feet, and not allow all this wiggling and rolling around. If it happens on the roller, it happens also when she stands up and walks around. 

So, we decided to band up various body parts with the Perform Better mini bands 
We started with just her feet, but noticed that they both turn out, as does her right knee. 

That wasn’t right.

Then we tried banding her feet and her ankles. Feet looked beautiful- totally tracking straight ahead- but her knees were still sliding apart. No bueno. 

Then we tried banding her knees, and her feet. That worked beautifully! Knees tracked straight ahead, as did her feet. 

However, the next time we got together, we tried all the bands with just her feet and ankles and noticed we were back to square one- her feet weren’t tracking nearly as well as I had thought. What was the problem? 

Oddly enough: No shoes! 

I love to workout barefoot as much as possible. But the lack of shoes in this case was allowing the feet to wiggle apart again. The shoes allowed the feet to have some kinesthetic sense of each other and gave the feet some width and tracking guidance. 

Additionally, it was much easier for Lana to put her shoes on, band up her knees, then band up her feet and put her feet together WITH shoes on, and know what they were doing in space.

Notice once you climb onto the roller, you are looking away from your feet and it can be tough to know exactly what those feet are up to. Eliminating all of those variables allowed us to focus back on her hamstrings, and *viola* all three hamstrings kicked in again. 

How to really, really get your hamstrings to work

Let me know about your hamstrings in your comments below. Are all three working? Poke your fingers in the outside area of the back of the leg and see if you can feel all three!

How to weight train with a mere 6 exercises

I am frequently asked how I like to strength train with weights. 

First of all, I think everyone should be in the perpetual pursuit of lean body mass. That obviously can be created in lots of formats:

• Dumbbells
• Machines
• Body weight
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Crossfit, etc.

Its all about cables

What’s my favorite? Well, if I am going to throw weights around, I generally use cables.   

Cables have this fantastic way of letting you accelerate the move, and also decelerate with a bit of resistance. That is hard to re-create with plates or dumbbells or bars….gravity is usually the prime driver there. Further, I am not a big fan of most machines since they tend to have you sit or lie down and rob your body of the natural stabilization and functional work you could be doing. (Just the sitting in and of itself becomes problematic!) Additionally, the machines rarely allow for variations in the direction you can move, thereby making you strong in only that one vector.

Dumb bells are great, and I have fun working out with them too, which we will get to in a future blog. 

Look for the pictures

Do the machines you use at your gym have pictures on them to demonstrate various exercises? 

Look for pictures depicting someone standing. 

Then try it standing. That is an easy tip, and the very first thing I direct my clients to try. It’s not easy, but just takes a bit of practice to get used to. 

The rule of thumb is more “pull” exercises than “push”. The ratio should be around 3:1 ideally. You get plenty of push muscles engaged in your daily life- you need more pull to balance them out! 

6 exercises for weight training

Check out this series of six exercises on the Freemotion Cable Weight system with my client Lauren. We simply make sure she gets in some variation of lunge or squat or one foot to allow the lower body to stabilize for the upper body. That, coincidentally, is how it works in the real world! 

Exercise #1

Chest Press in Lunge

Press forward, and then as you decelerate the move allow your shoulder blades to collapse together. In the lunge: weight on the front heel to engage the glute, and then feel hip flexor stretch on the back leg/hip. 

Exercise #2

Lat Pulldown in Squat

Pull straight down through shoulder blades. In the squat be sure to try and feel your hip flexors.

Exercise #3

Squat to Overhead Shoulder Press

Break down in Squat, and then press hands overhead. I get asked all the time, “where do i press- here or here or here?” To which I answer, “yes- all of those!” Work those muscles in as many angles or vectors as possible. 

Exercise #4

Row in Lunge

Pull handles towards you, and feel it in the middle of the back or the lower edge of the shoulder blades. Stay out of high rows into the neck area.

 

Exercise #5

Bicep Curls in Squat 

Face away from the machine, and bring your fists to your shoulders in a bicep curl. Don’t let the machine pull your shoulders forward, rather, keep them rolled back.

 

Exercise #6

Tricep Extension on One Foot (for balance and core work!)

Stand on one foot like a flamingo and feel the glute stabilize for you as you bring your elbow to your side, and then kick or extend that arm back feeling the back of the arm. 

Let me know in the comments below how you like cables and if you’ve tried standing up when you lift weights! Notice we just hit all the major muscle groups with six exercises and got a lot of great hip/leg work done too. Kabam! Done! 

How do YOU stay fit while traveling?

Bring a jump rope? A foam roller? Running shoes? 

I bring all of those things, but I like to do some strength moves while I am away, too. 

Sometimes you are fortunate enough to encounter an outdoor fitness circuit. I had previously blogged about one near me, but this one we tripped over while out walking the Marina Green in San Francisco. Surely you have meandered through a city park, and noticed perhaps along a scenic walkway a fitness circuit with stations every hundred feet or so. 

This is much like that. However, I like the simplicity of the “Fitness Court”. In a very compact space, your goal is to do 7 moves in 7 minutes, so 1 move per minute. 

Everybody can do that! 

1. Here are the 7 move categories that the NationalFitnessCampaign.com decided were most important for their Fitness Court: Core
2. Squat
3. Push
4. Lunge
5. Pull
6. Agility, and the final category that makes me laugh because the title is a bit vague:
7. Bend. 

You can see that they have several options pictured for each of their fitness categories to suit many levels and abilities. This was also a nice built-in feature. It made it relatively easy to get seven moves done in essentially seven minutes. 

To test the ease of execution, I subjected my daughter Sarah to the seven moves.

Don’t have a Fitness Court handy? Try the suggested substitute instead for a minute!  

1. Mountain climbers

Here she does mountain climbers for the core exercise.

SUB:  If you don’t have a bar, just put your hands on the floor.

2. Squats

Sarah jumped up on the box and did squats for one minute.

SUB: the box makes it fun, so climb up on a chair seat if you need elevation, otherwise, squats on the floor work fine.

3. Low pushups

On the bar for the Push station.

SUB: Try pushups in a corner or through a doorway instead. 

4. Lateral lunges

With her foot on the low box.

SUB: Try a hearth or flip a garbage can over and wedge it against the wall. 

5. The Pull station

This is probably the trickiest to replicate without something to hang from like Sarah.

SUB: However, notice that the picture of the pull station includes pulling yourself up from a squat position- so scoot up next to a sink, throw your hands in the sink, and puuulllll yourself up from a full squat using your upper body- no pushing from the floor with your feet. 

6. Agility

Sarah chose the painted agility ladder to try; there was also a dot drill painted on the ground.

SUB: pretend you have the letter “x” painted on the floor, and hop forward and backward on the tips of the “x”. You can also cross your feet midair for style points! 🙂

7. Bend Station

Near as I can tell, anything goes at the Bend station. You just need to bend. I had Sarah center on a low box and lift her torso and feet off at the same time.

Honestly, I would like to see some twist in one of the stations, and I think this is the most obvious category to add that in…. so try a twisting motion, and don’t forget to neutralize with cats and dogs (cow for all you yogis) or a quick baby crawl afterwards. 

Take the seven categories and add your favorite move to each…you just have to remember to hang in there for the full minute. 

You can do it!

Let me know in the comments below your favorite travel workout tips…thank you! 

How to accelerate your foam rolling regimen

Vibration Training

Have you ever heard of a Powerplate or vibration training? 

The concept of the Powerplate originated in Holland with a Dutch Olympic track coach over 35 years ago. If you had to pick one word to sum up vibration training on the Plate it would be “accelerate” because the machine moves in three planes: up and down 70%, side to side 20%, and back and forth 10%. That accelerates anything you do on the ground. That is a terrific feature, but I think it’s best feature is that it increases localized blood flow by 30%. 

Rumor has it that Clint Eastwood used to just put his foot on the Plate before golfing to increase his proprioception. The Chicago Bulls use them in their training, and the list goes on and on. 

Dislike the foam roll?

My favorite use of the PowerPlate is for clients who really don’t like to foam roll because their muscles are so painfully tight. It is that increase of localized blood flow factor that helps ease the tightness …faster. I put the roller on the plate, and they zip up and down on various muscles, and then we have snuggle time. 🙂 Snuggle time is when they sit on the ground and snuggle their low backs up against the edge with a pad for cushion, and let the machine work it’s magic. 

Snuggle time always sparks comments from envious onlookers. “I want my trainer to give me THAT workout!” said one woman to a coworker of mine. We just laughed. 🙂 

Not all vibration trainers are the same, and not all work in three planes. However, the cost of the Powerplate is a bit expensive for home use: you can drop 10K on the model we have at Club Sport Oregon. Not to mention the fact that they take up space and are really, really heavy. Fantastic for an institution, but not practical for most homes. 

So how do you accelerate your rolling in a more cost effective way? 

Check out the HyperIce foam roller

It is a vibrating foam roller, 11″ in length, and has three speeds. They also make a sphere that works really nicely as well. I have tested both on a bunch of clients, and most clients said that the vibrating roller was comparable in result with the Powerplate. There were a few complaints:

• The Hyperice foam roller is 2″ shorter than my other favorite 13″ Trigger Point foam roller, so that makes it tricky to roll both quads at once.
• The Hyperice is a bit of a “rougher ride” because the frequency and amplitude on the Powerplate is shorter, making for a smoother vibration.
• Hyperice is not as intense but effective.

 All clients liked the foam surface of the roller and the rubberized surface of the Hyperice HYPERSPHERE

They reported you could feel the vibration in your hands but not so much that it bothered your hands. 

One big advantage being able to hold both the sphere and the roller in your hands is that if you don’t like getting on the floor, you can easily hold either in your hand and sit or recline and roll tight spots. The sphere in particular was fabulous for shoulders and smaller places that are a bit awkward to access with full size rollers. Both feel fantastic on the bottom of your feet, and if you had an -itis lurking in your lower leg (plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis for instance) I would definitely target those areas. 

I made a video showcasing all three, so watch and enjoy, and let me know in the comments below what your experiences are with vibration technology! 

Want to know how to make reading in bed more comfortable? Watch this video, or read the transcript below…. 

 

Hi! It’s Laura Coleman with Just Muscles, sitting here reading in bed. Sooo luxurious at the end of the day to pull open my favorite Ken Follett novel and read. Unfortunately, because most people get a lot of sitting and forward hunching stuff, then sitting and reading isn’t always comfortable for everybody, nor does it make your back feel good even though you are propped up by a bazillion pillows. 

My secret weapon for you to try!

I take my favorite Trigger Point roller, and I slide it behind my back. This is the perfect size (13″) and I put it right in the middle of my back. I just slide it back there and lean against it, so actually I am sitting a little more upright and I am breaking loose some of those tight spots in my back that have sort of accumulated over the day. Really, this makes reading in bed far more comfortable, and not so ergonomically horrible because I’m not all curled up in a ball making my back tighter and madder. 

That’s your quick fitness tip for today.

What do you think? Give it a whirl! The key is that particular foam roller.  It is hollow on the inside and therefore very firm. Pure styrofoam rollers don’t work nearly as well as they tend to bend under pressure, but try it anyway.  That is better than nothing!  

Let me know in the comments below how you like yet another way to use your foam roller. They are indispensable!