Category Archives: complete body care

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posture correction week 9: correctus interruptus

I am off work for 2 weeks.

I can’t work out for 4 more.

Which means that by the time I re-visit my posture correction program with Rob, we would basically have to start again from scratch.

So we decided to cut the program short and do our final analysis this week.

I feel bad about the way this program went…not only am I bailing 3 weeks early (which, at 3 visits/week, is huge), but I have spent the last 5 weeks hungry, and weak, and tired, and in pain and crying.  So where I was giving it my best effort at the time, it was far my best.

Rob was continually modifying my workouts to something that I could actually do, he was forever making concessions for my lack of energy and strength and, even though he probably felt like he wasting his time with me, he never once made me feel bad about it.

But you’re not here to read my complaints and excuses, you’re here to see my results!

{before/after}

There are subtle differences in this before & after – in the before both my right hip and my right shoulder are slightly lower than the left and the after seems more level for both.  I also seem to be standing a bit taller – the after picture is set a bit higher, but if you look at the grid on the wall, my head is higher than in the before picture.  But, my centre still runs parallel to the actual the centre line – which means that my right side is still noticeably dominant over my left.

{before/after}

In the profile view, there is a definite improvement in the alignment of my upper body – my head and shoulders fall more in line with the centre.  And its hard to tell because my elbow is blocking it, but there is less of a sway to my low back – which means that my hips are no longer tilting forwards and down (you can even tell this by looking at the waistband of my shorts).  Unfortunately, my darn hips are still popping forward!  I think they are closer to the centre line than when I started, but still not where I hoped they’d be.

And my measurements:

Calf > before – 17″  after – 17″ = no change
Thigh > before – 24.5″ after – 24″ = down 1/2″
Glutes/Hips > before – 42.5″ after – 41.5″ = down 1″
Stomach > before – 37.5″ after – 36.5″ = down 1″
Chest > before – 42″ after – 42″ = no change
Arm > before – 14″ after – 12.5″ = down 1.5″
Neck > before – 15″ after – 14.5″ = down 1/2″

I have to say that I am very surprised by these results – I thought for sure I would see improvements in my posture and little to no change in my measurements.  And it turned out to be the opposite.

I am disappointed by the lack of outward, visual change in my posture, because I feel like I’ve made huge leaps towards correcting my alignment.  I feel like I am standing taller and walking taller.  I consciously straighten out the curve in my lower back and lean back into my heels – and yet, to look at me, that isn’t really coming across.

Maybe if we had done regular checks on my alignment, we would have been able to adjust my workouts depending on what part of my body was showing the greatest resistance/least improvement…

Maybe if we were able to finish the 3 month program…

Maybe if I were able to do more, to push harder, work out without crying…

Regardless of the “what-ifs”, Rob has given me a number of tools that I can incorporate into my daily workouts (when I can, once again, have daily workouts) that can help me continue towards proper alignment.  And I’ll be seeing him for massages and training, so he will be able to remind me to tighten my core.

But, thankfully, we are done with the video camera.

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posture correction week 8: what I’ve learnt and putting it all together

I am 3/4 of the way through my posture correction program with Rob and I thought I would do a self assessment of what I’ve learned:

~ I prefer almost dying on a treadmill to jumping rope

~ I am kind of tense. All over.

~ 2 years of pilates has taught me absolutely nothing about strengthening my core

~ As a trainer, Rob is extremely patient and encouraging

~ As a massage therapist, Rob is a sadist and knows no mercy

~ I am really uncomfortable being videotaped

~ After breaking down, sobbing, in the middle of a gym, everybody that witnessed it will be really nice to you.

~ I really like the big ball.  Until it slips out from underneath me and I fall on the floor.  Then, it is evil.

~ It is physically impossible for me to correctly*: raise my arms above my head, do a back squat holding weights on my back, keep my toes pointed straight, not curse during a massage.

*though Rob is working very hard to help me rectify these problems

Now that I’ve learned all of that, and Rob has worked with me to correct the alignment of both my lower body, and my upper body, as well as strengthening my core – now we have to work on putting it all together.

Which is more difficult than it sounds.

I thought that since I have improved on the individual areas, having them all work together would be a piece of cake.**  But it’s not, and Rob keeps reminding to use a sequence of movements to stand in alignment:

1) Put my weight in my heels, and tilt my pelvis back.

2) Tighten my core, to push my back flat and reduce the curve of my low back

3) Pull my shoulders down and back

4) Visualize initiating a crunch to prevent sticking my chest and ribs out

Easy.

Except when I tilt my pelvis, my knees bend.  And when I tighten my core, I curl my upper body forward and in.  So I pull my shoulders back, my low back sways and my butt sticks out.  But when I push my back flat, I curl my upper body forward and in.  And when I try again to pull my shoulders back and down, and my low back sways and my butt sticks out.  And as all this re-correction is happening, my head is jutting forward and all my weight has shifted to my toes and I have to start all over.

But, as always, Rob is nothing if not determined.  And he has given me different exercises to open up my chest, strengthen my back, and keep my hips in alignment.

All to keep me from further resembling this:

yup…that looks about right

**Seriously…where is this cake??

And now, a few words from the Taskmaster, himself:

Do you need to catch up on my past sessions with Rob?  Just hit the links below:

The Setup

Posture Correction, Week 1

Posture Correction, Week 2

Posture Correction, Week 3

Posture Correction, Week 4

Posture Correction Week 5

Posture Correction Week 6

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posture correction week 7: i’ve got a hunch

Just when I thought the hardest part of my posture correction was going to be getting my hips in line with the rest of my body, we started working on my shoulders.

And I realize that my hips were a piece of cake!

For the last couple of weeks, every training session and every massage has focused on getting my shoulders to fall back and away from my ears.  When I leave the gym, or the massage table, I feel better – great, in fact.  But the next time I walk back in through those doors, my shoulders have reverted to their naturally curved inward and shrugged position.

And it is really becoming quite irritating.

It seems that every exercise Rob asks me to do is not only difficult, but bordering on physically impossible.  Between the tingling and numbness in my hands, to my sore wrists, to my difficulty breathing, I just can’t seem to do anything!  But it’s that chronic hunch of my shoulders that is creating all of those other problems that are making the exercises to correct the hunch so difficult.

Sore wrists = tightness in my shoulders.  Tingling and numbness in my hands = tight muscles in my shoulders impinging the nerve that goes down my arm.  Difficulty breathing = tight muscles in my chest keeping my diaphragm from expanding fully.

So the best way to help all of those problems is to correct the tightness in my chest and shoulders which will also bring my shoulders into proper alignment, but I can’t fix that posture because all of those problems are preventing me from doing the work required for the correction.

It’s a never-ending loop of poor posture, pain and frustration.

And after we do a particularly painful uncomfortable exercise or stretch, and Rob tells me to move my arms and shoulders around – to shake them out and notice any differences - the thing I notice the most is just how good it feels to allow myself to re-curl into my preferred hunch.  And just like dating that bad boy high school, it hits me that doing the wrong thing feels so so right.

It’s a good thing Rob is determined – or I’m sure he would have given up on me as a hopeless case weeks ago.

Instead, he just keeps coming up with new ways for me to do the work required to stretch my pecs and strengthen my back without hurting my wrists or making my entire arms fall asleep.  Ways that make me believe that this might actually work, that I might not be a hopeless case after all.

By the time I leave after my work out and my massage, my shoulders feel a bit closer to where they are supposed to be.  I feel straighter, and taller and in less pain than when I walked in and I can actually notice an improvement.

Then I open the door and a cold blast of wind hits me and I unknowingly huddle over to protect myself from the chill.  I climb into bed and curl up into a ball on my side.  I go to work and hunch over my keyboard and lean into my computer.

And all that good work is erased.

So it seems that in order for me to maintain a properly aligned posture, along with working with Rob several times per week, I need to quit my job, move to Hawaii and lay on the beach all day.

Do you need to catch up on my past sessions with Rob?  Just hit the links below:

The Setup

Posture Correction, Week 1

Posture Correction, Week 2

Posture Correction, Week 3

Posture Correction, Week 4

Posture Correction Week 5

Posture Correction Week 6

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posture correction week 6: i don’t need a trainer, i need a f#@%ing shrink

Since we are now halfway through my posture correction program with Rob, I was going to do a mid-point check on what I learned, the ways that I’ve changed and how much I hate being video taped – but then something had in last night’s session that I need to dwell on.

I cried.

Right in the middle of a full gym, trainers and clients all around me as I held my head in my hands and sobbed.

Sobbed.

This was no dainty-lady, single tear rolling down my cheek as I suffered in silence.  This was an all-out, quivering-chin, bloodshot eyes, heaving breath ugly cry.

During my workout.

I am losing my fucking mind.

And since this blog is my poor-man’s therapist (and Rob wants me to be completely truthful about my experience), I am going to try to work this out here.

Possible reasons for my meltdown:

I really don’t like working out - I know this isn’t it because I actually like working out, and since I started my sessions with Rob, no matter what else is going on in my life, I have always enjoyed my time in the gym.

I had difficulty breathing -

the stretch was similar to this, except I was leaning back, over a ball. While Rob was pulling my arms up, I was resisting by trying to pull my arms down, curl my body up and pushing my head into my hands 

We were doing a stretch for the muscles in my neck and it was really uncomfortable.  The more I stretched, the more uncomfortable I got, and then I was having hard time drawing a breath.  But I often hold my breath when I am working out anyway, and I certainly wasn’t oxygen deprived so I just tried to push through inseatd of saying something. 

My head filled with bad memories - Years ago, when I went to school to learn massage therapy myself, we were warned not to be surprised if a client starts to cry during a massage.  The instructor talked of  ”muscle memory” and how it’s not just about learned/practiced behaviours, but also that our muscles hold memories that we may not even be aware of.  Sometime massage can trigger the release of those memories.

Apparently training/stretching can too because, laying there, I was filled with memories of a much younger me fighting against my brother as he tried to crush my windpipe/choke me/smother me with a pillow.

I was frustrated – I feel like I’m working really hard and I worry that I am not getting the results that both Rob and I were hoping for.  I worry that my hips will never not tip forward, and that my shoulders will forever be hunched forward and sit somewhere up by ears.  We are constantly finding things that I simply can’t do and I worry that Rob is finding working with me a big, fat waste of time.

And now there is a possibility that I’ll be called in for surgery before we are done the program.  Which makes all the work we’ve both put into this all for nothing.

I’m sick – The last 3 weeks, I have been in near-constant pain with never-ending nausea.  I eat a cracker, I feel sick.  I take a sip of water, I feel sick.  I move, I breathe, I think, I feel sick.  So I have developed a fear of eating or drinking anything because it will only make it worse.  I am weak and I am dizzy and I am sad.

And now, in addition to having a gallbladder “packed with innumerable stones*”, I am battling a bladder infection and my period is right around the corner.  Which, I believe, is the holy trinity of female stomach ailments.

**this is a direct quote from the ultra-sound report

I am starving! - See the aforementioned near-constant pain and never-ending nausea.  By the time I showed up for my training session at dinner time, I had consumed 4 bottles of water, a bottle of cranberry juice and 3 sticks of Rockets candy.  The last 3 weeks, I have been living on soup (never more than half a bowl), peanuts, ginger-ale, the occasional bite of actual food and sugar.

Lots and lots of sugar.

Apparently loving to eat and being afraid to eat really messes with my head.

I just want to eat real, actual food!  Without it hurting me.  Tuesday night, I told myself that it would be OK if I ate my burger - it was grilled chicken, and mine didn’t really have much goat cheese…so how bad could it be?  At 3:30 in the morning, it was bad.  

Really bad.

But, regardless of the reason, I feel like an idiot.

Rob was great, though, almost successfully hiding his mortification as he rubbed my back and told me it was OK.  And when my breathing was almost back to normal, he moved on like it never happened.

And then, when we were done, I went to the change room, cried for another 10 minutes, and then scurried out of there with my head down in shame to avoid making eye contact with anybody.

I still have over a month in my program and I have no idea how I’m going to show my big, blubbering face in there again.

Have you ever had an untimely (read: embarrassing) emotional outburst in public?

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posture correction week 5: i’m ready to join the circus

On the Tuesday after my hospital visit, I went for the first of my bi-weekly workouts with Rob.

I had really  not been looking forward to my workout – I was still sore, and I was tired and I was starving because, at that point, I wasn’t really able to eat or drink much without getting violent stomach pains.

So all I had to eat before my afternoon workout was 2 bites of an oatmeal bar.

At 9am.

But part of what makes Rob such a great trainer is that he modified his plan to better fit my needs that day.

I got to sit down and lay down and roll around on the big ball.

After I got all bend-y, Rob decided to focus his attention on my upper body – my arms, shoulders and chest – in order to allow my shoulders to fall down and back the way they are supposed to.  Unfortunately, my shoulders really like to hunch forward and hang around somewhere around my ears, so he had his work cut out for him

There was a lot of active and PNF stretching.

Trust me – this is much more work than it actually looks.

It looks deceptively simple…it looks like I’m barely doing anything at all but I was as tired and sore after, as I would have been if I were lifting weights.  But at the end of it all, I saw real,  measurable results.

Flush with success, Rob decided it was time to tackle my weak, jelly-fied abs.  He had me do isometric exercises while maintaining proper alignment.

Again?  So much harder than it looks!  My loose, flabby core was burning with effort of holding my back straight, and I was so happy when Rob brought the ball back.  A nice, easy stretch was just what I needed.

But Rob had other ideas…

For more humiliating videos of my workouts, check out Complete Body Care’s YouTube channel

Apparently I can only balance while wiggling my fingers…

Then we moved to the massage table, where Rob continued to punish work on my upper back, pecs and shoulders – it was all pretty standard.

Until he stuck his thumb in my armpit and made me cry.

My latissimus dorsi was really tight – which is odd since it’s the “swimmer’s muscle” and I don’t even know how to swim – and my serratus anterior was just plain angry.

We* did a couple more active stretches to try to get those muscles to release some of their tension, and by golly, there was slightly less pain with every stretch.

When I climbed off the table my shoulders were actually falling (somewhat naturally) back and there was little force, on my part, to keep them there.

Progress!

Hopefully next week he doesn’t put me on the trapeze…

*you like how I said “we”, like I wasn’t the one doing all the work while Rob just sat there chilling with his thumb in my armpit 

Do you need to catch up on my past sessions with Rob?  Just hit the links below:

The Setup

Posture Correction, Week 1

Posture Correction, Week 2

Posture Correction, Week 3

Posture Correction, Week 4