Relieve Low Back Pain | Reduce Low Back Pain | Canada's Leading Authority in Human Movement | Dev Chengkalath

While sitting and standing (think squatting) may seem like the most rudimentary task, it’s by far the most improperly executed activity that most of us do everyday.

Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the next person beside you, or within eyesight, to sit down (I’ll go over the standing part in tomorrow’s post).

Slouched Sitting Postures: Over time can lead to injury.

I’m not just saying have a cursory look.

Rather, I’m asking you to actually observe them going through the full cycle of this basic human movement.

What do you see?

If you look carefully, you’ll see some very interesting applications of physics at work.

Gravity in all its glory will accelerate those gluteals at 9.81 meters per second squared until the firm (or plush) surface of whatever seating receptacle becomes a barrier to any further downward gravity-assisted movement of the buttocks.

And this is usually where it gets really interesting.

For those of you out there who don’t spend your days observing people and how they move, you might not notice or even care. But for the rest of us physical therapy types, this is fascinating.

This is where imprecise compensatory repetitive motions come into play.

As soon as those glutes start their heavily gravity-assisted travel towards the seat, the “plop” is almost inevitable. You know the plop I’m talking about. It’s that free-fall into the chair when muscles are turned off and gravity does all the work.

Now as soon as those glutes hit the seat and no further downward motion takes place, for most people (and especially those with low back pain) there is a subtle loss of  lumbar spine stability.

What does that loss of stability look like?

Well, this loss of motor control can be seen with the posterior tilt of the pelvis (think of this as tucking your tailbone underneath yourself) coupled with the rounding of the lower back and the forward carriage of the head (see above photo for slouched spine postures and forward head/neck position).

This wouldn’t be so bad if it were corrected right away. In fact, this correction is imperative to relieve low back pain!

Ideal Sitting Posture: Easy to find, hard to hold.

However, the major issue is that once this slouched posture has been achieved, it tends to be maintained thus becoming a prolonged posture (which coincidentally  is one of two components of overuse tissue trauma, the other being repetitive motions).

So how do you fix it?

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll go through a detailed breakdown of the sit  (and then the return to standing) and how you can fix it using the three part approach outlined in my previous post re-capping the causes of low back pain.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

We are all students of life. Or so we should be.

Here’s a list of 10 things I learned (or re-learned) this week as they pertain to physical therapy, human movement and sometimes even life.

1. Human anatomy hasn’t changed, but our understanding of it has. The interconnectedness of the body is astounding and we’re just really starting to realize how this plays a much bigger role in physiotherapy, injury rehabilitation and performance training than previously thought.

2. Surrounding yourself with people who are passionate (and much smarter than you) is a great way to get inspired. And getting inspired is a great way to become better at your craft.

3. Always try to learn something new from every situation encountered. Once you learn it, apply it often so that it becomes internalized. This is also another great way to improve your craft.

4. Know your anatomy inside-out. And I don’t mean just the origins, insertions or innervations. I’m talking about functional anatomy, force couples, co-contractions, synergists and antagonists. Although knowing these won’t unravel all the mysteries of the body, it sure will help when trying to diagnose or treat complicated, multi-factorial and confusing cases.

5. Seek out the cause of the dysfunction, don’t just settle for treating the source of the pain. I wrote about cause vs source previously, but it’s always good to be reminded to differentiate between the two. Our current medical model often stops shy of actually discerning the root cause, while we look to deal with the source. This is not only short-sighted, but leads to poor long-term outcomes.

6. Always question why you do what you do. Don’t be happy with the status quo. But don’t complain either unless you’re willing to be the one to step up and initiate change. As Gandhi once said: ” Be the change you want to see in the world.”

7. The body is an amazing piece of biological machinery that can adapt to the most extreme conditions, incredible stresses or seemingly impossible challenges we place upon it. The mind, however, doesn’t always possess the same fortitude. Fortunately, this can be corrected.

8. Straight from the mouth of Shirley Sahrmann: “You get what you train.” To expand upon that elegant statement think about how you spend your days? Slouched? Slumped? Flexed? Why are you in pain? Think of it this way, your body is constantly under training, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. How are you training your body? That is the importance of the everyday.

9. When considering all that you know, it’s quite amazing to realize how much it is that you know you really don’t know.

10. I have the best job in the world as a physiotherapist in Toronto. I’m free to think critically, I’m constantly challenged and I love what I do. How many people can say the same?

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

A fraction of the immense knowledge that this incredible physical therapist and educator possesses.

I am once again fortunate to have spent the last couple days learning from her and will post some of the biggest take home points within the next couple of days.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

I think almost everyone can relate to the good movements that went bad in the above YouTube clip.

Just think back to the last wedding or family event that you attended and perhaps a little bit of your extended family member’s magical moves may come back to you.

That being said, those aren’t exactly the movements I was talking about in the title of today’s blog.

This weekend, I’m fortunate to be attending a very special seminar put on by the one and only Dr. Shirley Sahrmann in the incredible Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I realize that to many of you out there, her name really doesn’t stand out or mean a whole lot.

However, to those involved in human movement, she is considered one of the greatest minds in the industry.

Keep in mind that Dr. Sahrmann has been a practicing physical therapist for over 50 years.

Now take a moment and let that number sink in a bit.

FIFTY YEARS!

And over that time she has amassed a seemingly infinite wealth of knowledge about how the human body moves and how to fix the problems that invariably crop up using only a few simple movements and applied kinesiology.

Her series of courses are based on her quintessential textbook The Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes  and I would say without a doubt her book and courses should be an integral component of any injury rehabilitation practitioners continuing education agenda.

Day one complete!

And I can say it was an enlightening experience.

I’ve taken many notes and over the next few days will try to synthesize them into easy to understand, applicable bits of knowledge to help those movement impairment based aches and pains.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

Quadruped Rocking.

This is one of those exercises that almost anyone can do without much difficulty. It takes very little time, doesn’t require any equipment and as most of my physical therapy client’s say “it’s easy”.

If you’re suffering from low back pain, give it a try the next time you’re slumped on the couch watching TV and a commercial comes on (please note sarcasm here…if you’ve been reading any of my posts, you should not be slouched when watching TV!).

As an added bonus, when executed properly it’ll improve your posture, activate your core and help stabilize your shoulders.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath