SM: Chronic Upper Cervical Pain/Postural Strength: Phase 4 (3-26-18)

Phase 4 :Reply to your email

  • I will try to focus some movements that provide the resistance that you describe focusing on some progression into a looking up motion….Look for updates in BOLD
  • I will still leave some of the movements from last week as options to attempt to engage surrounding structures
  • Daily Sequence: Complete everyday
  • Light movements that I call “Daily Sequence”
    • This is a sequence that is all about light movement and muscle activation
    • It is meant to improve mobility and possibly serve as a warm up, cool down, or a light sequence in the morning or at night to improve mobility
    • I will continue to give you some alternative options over the next few weeks to include in this sequence
    • The goal is to isolate 4-5 movements that you feel are most effective in moving parts of your body that are stiff/painful and feel that they improve mobility/stiffness
    • You will do one set of 10-20reps for each movement so this sequence should be very quick and user friendly
    • There is something called the “5 Tibetan Rites” that had a great impact on me
      • Basically, these monks for thousands of years did this sequence, some calling it “The Fountain of Youth”
      • I do not necessarily hand out the 5 rites, but I do believe that everyone should have their own personalized version of 5 movements that are not incredibly challenging, that move areas of their body that they do no move enough in their daily life
      • This sequence should be brief and take only 5-10 minutes at the most
      • I do my own 5 rite sequence before bed each night and I do it as a warm up pre workout/wrestling practice/jujitsu
  • Strength Circuits
    • These are meant to challenge you with the goal of creating fatigue or tension in muscle without overloading painful structures
    • Your goal with this is to feel muscle tension and hopefully fatigue
    • Each movement will have a time goal or a rep goal, once you achieve that goal with no negative side effects, you are ready for a new challenge
    • When your body fatigues, you may start to get pain and that is your cue to stop
    • Pay attention to what you feel later that day and the next day
      • Mild pain is alright as long as it goes back to baseline within 24 hours
      • If pain is more severe you have a couple options
        • 1) Ice right after to minimize inflammation
        • 2) Try to decrease the intensity of the exercise by not going through as much range of motion or not pushing so hard
          • In my mind, most exercises can be made painful or not painful by the way that you go about it
          • Example: If I give you a squat variation, there are many ways to decrease risk of pain
            • Don’t go as deep into the motion, do it slower, keep weight more on the heels, hold an isometric position squat without moving in whatever range is least painful, do only 2-5 reps
          • Have the mind set of getting through new exercises making it super easy just to find a safe zone…you can always increase the challenge from there
  • Strength sequence: Complete everyother day