Category Archives: Blog

Way too many folks suffer from an elusive electric pain down one or both of their legs and sometimes low back and butt known as sciatica. Sciatica can occur any time there is an impingement on the sciatic nerve which starts in the lumbar spine (low back) and travels all the way down the leg. This is our largest nerve and is responsible for a large percentage of the total enervation of the lower leg.

When this bad boy gets compressed or agitated, you better believe it will spell problems for you. There are generally two types of sciatica. Nerve root compression is the more serious variety and occurs when there is an impingement stemming from the vertebra, often times being a bulging disk. If this is the case, see a professional for advice.

The most important question with any ache, pain or not so fun random shot of electricity down our arms or legs is why. We do not ask this question nearly enough, or at all, and it is pertinent we change that paradigm. If we are sitting on our butts or moving dysfunctionally the majority of the day, it’s only logical our bodies will begin sending distress signals. Releasing the tissue around the sciatic nerve is only the beginning. From there, we absolutely must reeducate ourselves to move in such a way that every moment is progress instead of just keeping pathology at bay.

In this video, you learn how to relieve compression on the sciatic nerve around the posterior hip. This is called pseudo-sciatica or piriformis syndrome and often times is the culprit for the electric pain we call sciatica. By easing the tissue around this area, it will create space for the sciatic nerve to move freely and will likely help ease the electric pain you are experiencing.

Alrighty, these bodies of ours are facing an epidemic and it’s up to us to save the physical species. I know, I sound like a ranting conspiracy theorist with too many cats but hear me out. There was a time not too long ago that our daily survival was dependent upon our ability to move functionally and then the “luxury” of machines replacing this necessity opened the Pandora’s box of physical pathology.

Pop quiz, our hearts pump our blood away from the chest, yes. How do we get that blood from our feet back up to the heart to be recirculated?

Answer-You have to MOVE!!!

That’s right, the contractions of our muscles are responsible for the return or veinous flow of blood, lymph and every other vital fluid in our body. What happens to a body of water when it stops circulating? Stagnation occurs and life desists. Guess what, we are mobile bodies of water and the key to vitality in these organisms is a variety of MOVEMENT.

The gym often times tricks us into dumbing our movements down to basic isolation machines which involve no stabilization. This is like permanent training wheels. Our bodies crave connection and communication through the whole system and to deprive them of this basic right is to degenerate the species to tic-tac-toe when we are meant to play chess.

By making everything so neat and sterile, we are dulling down our tactile and kinesthetic awareness. The health of our body/mind thrives on complexity and we must provide it with the raw materials on daily basis to adapt to an organic environment if we want to progress. When we pick up a heavy rock or jump from stone to stone up a river bed, our bodies are experience an electric storm of information which in turn demands evolution at a cellular level. Feel the grit of the rock in your finger tips and the contour of each stone on your feet and recognize the amount of information that is being transferred in this experience.

Now go to the gym and jump on a machine. Notice every one has the same texture rubber handle and is perfectly fit to your hand, the ground is completely flat, the temperature never changes and you don’t even need to support your own weight while moving because you have pinned yourself into the padded seat. Which scenario will develop every aspect of you as human being more? Is there any contest? I didn’t think so.

Another example, with the power of the internet, we can travel the whole world in a single evening! It absolutely is an incredible tool. With great power comes great responsibility and we must recognize what is happening to us at a deeper level when we lose this tactile diversity because everything we are experiencing is a product of pressing a button. This will severely dull down our ability to sense ourselves and the world and lead to mental/physical pathology. Detachment from our bodies and those around us is becoming entirely too “normal”. Let’s get our faces out of our cell phones and into the dirt. Let’s take our shoes off and dance with others. Let’s breath deeply and not be ashamed to march to the beat of our own drums. Normal is broken and it’s more than ok to be different, I promise…

We must recognize our movement as an expression of who we are at a cellular, emotional and physical level and by tapping into this medium of medicine we can create sustainable, integrated change in the direction of our choosing.

Ok, hopefully by now we have learned that balance is the most important aspect of everything that matters in life, yes? You guessed it, that includes your body. Ding Ding Ding, well done! What are we not doing when “working out” on a simple machine at the gym? You guys are good, that’s right, we don’t need to balance ourselves when we are pinned into a machine isolating muscle groups for superficial development. This my friends is the beginning of the end for athleticism and muscular integration. Every time you step into that machine to do something you should do free standing, you are poorly investing your time at the gym.

But Aaron, I can do more weight when I’m in the machine so it must be better, right? Way wrong, you can do more weight because you do not need to expend energy on maintaining balance and integrating through the whole body. Thus, you end up piling “dumb” muscle onto a frame that is not built to support it. Ever notice certain body builders moving like there is a stick in their butt or the fact that you will never see a traditional body builder frame in the UFC, ballet, martial arts, or even strong man competitions. So what the heck is point of piling on “dumb” muscle not built to communicate with the rest of the body? I’m still waiting for a logical answer on that one.

Let’s play with adding balance to all of our workouts and general daily lives and I promise you will reap the benefits of physical/mental intellect (that’s right, working the body complexly will work the brain the same way), more fluidity in every thing you do and more sustainable strength and muscular tonicity. Life is a dance, not a bicep curl…

Ok, first of all, we need to look at conditions such as plantar fasciitis as a product of poor movement choices and not afflictions from crumby genetics.

The reason arches drop is because the foot has not been trained to support weight properly. Plantar fasciitis is a product of prolonged repetitive stress on the plantar fascia (tissue supporting the bottom of the foot) from a non-supportive foot/ankle complex. Think of the arches like circus tents and each guy wire (ropes attaching to anchors in the ground) need to be tensioned equally and not too tight or too loose. When this balance is found the tent (your foot) can endure almost any storm but if just one is too tight or loose, the whole system is compromised.

We need to take the necessary steps (pun intended) to support our feet; they have muscles too and if neglected, problems will arise.

Jumping is a fantastic means of developing arch support, as long as you are jumping with good form. Make sure the arches are supported by

• Keep your knees either over your feet or rotating outward (notice what happens to your feet when you rotate your knees inward-collapsed arches)
• Feet facing straight ahead
• Weight evenly distributed around outside of foot and toes. Imagine a a tripod of support from your heel to pinky and big toes.
• Explore raising all your toes off the ground and holding tight for 30 seconds
• Play with bring just the big toes off the ground while following the same guidelines mentioned earlier
• Now bring just the four smaller toes off the ground
• Now the pinky toe and big only off the ground

Jumping rope is a great option is develop support as well. Follow these guidelines and jump rope for 5 total minutes per day and or jump up onto a box at least 30x times per day and you will have the foundational support necessary for a strong healthy structure.

We need to ask our selves one question before performing any exercise; what am I training for?

If you truly explore that question and still decide to sit in a machine and perform a mechanical, isolated, linear and non-integrated movement; this blog is probably not for you. I’m writing for everyone interested in developing sophistication in their body (and mind) and pre-habilitating the system so when that raining day comes where you take a fall; your body has been trained to be stable from a variety of positions. Life happens and when it does, it won’t look like a bicep curl machine, I promise.

I encourage you to take these movements as examples and guides but not as law.

Our movement is very special and individual to each person. It represents how we feel in the moment and sets the stage for how we will feel in the future.

This is not to be taken lightly and should be embraced every moment. The shoulder joint is incredible complex and by isolating only one movement, we will miss out on its full capacity. When performing the push-up, explore various angles of hands and feet, try bringing one arm or leg off the ground, crawl, twist and turn all while maintaining stability and integration through your whole body. Remember to engage the booty and keep the shoulder blades hugging the ribs, this is life training…

We likely can agree that subconsciously, we form opinions on others within seconds of meeting them. How does that happen? I’ll tell you, body language guides our feelings about others and more importantly ourselves. Studies show our communication is about 55% body language, 38% tonality and a mere 7% remaining for spoken words; this is huge! If you are a business lady, family man, educator or generally like feeling good; you absolutely need to pay attention to this.

“Hunching over” has been biologically integrated into our systems as a defensive or already defeated position.

The stress hormone cortisol has been shown to increase and testosterone decrease just by standing like this for a short period of time. Imagine that, the opposite happens when we stand upright in a “victory” position. Look at any person after they win a race; its the same every time. Even a blind person that has never seen this gesture, will do the exact same thing. Their chin is up, chest open, shoulders back, they tend to find a stack from head to toe. Hmmmm, kind of exactly what we are shooting for when integrating our structures; what an incredible coincidence (sarcasm).

I would like us to play with this and notice the mental/emotional shift that takes place when we change our structure, even if you are only acting. This is a technique used by actors to embody their character. You need to embody the movement of the emotion to completely feel it. If you’re curious why your low on energy or haven’t been able to create all the things you’ve envisioned, it’s time to take a look a bit deeper. You can’t just read yourself into gaining confidence. It’s time to make tangible structural changes in your body which fit your the way you want to feel.

Read more by joining the “Movement” and receive a FREE 10 part Email series “10 Easy Steps to a More Functional Body/Mind”. Drop your info below you will receive nothing but valuable content on developing an even more optimal version of yourself!

We need to recognize structural alignment and support is not found through passive body work alone.

Passive bodywork acts as a catalyst for change and the follow through of reactivating your system from a new pathway is what makes the change yours.

Sounds a lot like changing thought patterns too, Hmmmm……..

Think of the bodywork and foam rolling and all the wacky things we do to improve ourselves, as working to rewrite our movement software; activating your body via integrational and functional movement is like pressing save on the document. The work will be lost if we don’t know how to save it into the system.

You see the changes we are seeking will never be ours until we actively take them.

We are a society hooked on pills and receiving a chiropractic adjustment or passive massage is generally a temporary relief without the guidance on how to keep the changes we are paying for. It’s time to take control of ourselves and put the time into writing our dream movement software.