back – Page 2 – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

Exercise of Life

We can exercise, which I highly recommend, but it’s hard for one hour a day of exercise to unravel eight hours in a chair. Even if your day isn’t spent in a chair, however you spend most of your time will start to be reflected in your body. In addition to making specific time to move every day, considering your body in space throughout the day can help you feel better in your own skin. Check in at different moments. If your back hurts when you are doing something is there a simple change you can make to relieve the pain? If you neck hurts can you make a subtle adjustment? Exercise yes. But make movement and noticing your body during simple movement the exercise of life.

Try to notice your body in the following scenarios:

When you brush your teeth, do your shoulders crunch up to your ears?

While washing dishes does your pelvis bump up against the sink?

When you bend over to scrunch your hair, do you tuck your tailbone?

When […]

Exercise of LifeMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:49:03-05:00

Could My Bed Cause Back Pain?

A made bed in our house is a very rare occurrence.

No matter how old you are, when your back hurts you feel ninety. Joe Pilates said, “If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old. If it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.” I don’t normally suffer from back pain, but a few years ago, I had an ache in my low back that wouldn’t go away. Nothing calmed it. This was especially frustrating since I teach Pilates and I pride myself on knowing what is going on in my own body. I understand a lot about what causes pain and how movement can help unravel it. I stretched, massaged it, and did exercises. They were the right things to do, but nothing helped for a prolonged period. Nothing stopped the chronic pain.

I’d been dealing with the problem for a couple months when I went to visit my best friend Julie in Chicago. Before my arrival, she mentioned taking a bike ride or doing a program that was like P90x. I told her that was […]

Could My Bed Cause Back Pain?Maggie Downie2018-02-14T16:52:02-05:00

Your Posture Matters More Than You Think

Posture: 1. A position of a person’s body when standing or sitting. 2. A particular way of dealing with or considering something, an approach or an attitude.

When talking about the body, we tend to discuss definition number one—the actual physical position of our body. And while that’s important and does relate to our physical wellbeing, the second definition is directly linked to the first. Think of mopey Eeyore. He’s depressed and you can see it in his whole being. His body sags. His head slumps. He’s miserable, and you can tell before he even opens his mouth.

Yet walk into an interview or any stressful situation after assuming a power pose (think Super Woman) and studies show you will have more confidence and perform better. You can actually alter your hormones and the way you feel by changing your posture. Next time you have a big event go into a bathroom stall (where no one can see you) and make yourself larger than life—pushing your hands up to the ceiling and puffing your chest out or stand tall and firm with your hands on your hips for two minutes. Posture matters—for how your feel physically and emotionally. It also matters for […]

Your Posture Matters More Than You ThinkMaggie Downie2017-12-29T21:40:40-05:00

Bucket Seats: the bane of my existence

I hate bucket seats. I find it particularly irksome that a bucket-seat office chair would claim to be ergonomic because it goes against everything I’ve read or learned that would be beneficial for back health. So if your office chair or your car seat it a bucket seat (and it probably is) listen up. There is no way to sit in that seat that is beneficial for your butt, back or hip flexors.

If when you sit in a chair your knees are higher than your hips, you can give yourself all the back support you want, but it won’t cut it. Bucket seats have a carved out butt groove (the technical term) that force your hips to sit lower than your knees.

Check out that yellow line going from my hip socket to my knee. Which end looks higher to you?

Ergonomically for the health of your hips and spine, when you sit for an extended period you want your hips higher than your knees. Just imagine sitting on the […]

Bucket Seats: the bane of my existenceMaggie Downie2019-07-17T17:31:53-04:00

Dinosaurs Didn’t Drag Tails

Just Say NO to Tailbone Tucking!

Dinosaurs didn’t drag their tails and neither should you. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure when I was a child pictures of dinosaurs depicted their tails on the ground. Even the T-Rex was pretty upright with a tail on the ground. But it turns out, dino tails didn’t drag. At least one of the reasons science now leans this way is because for all the dinosaur tracks out there, they haven’t found a lot of tail drags. It doesn’t seem too hard to believe. Dogs and cats don’t drag their tails on the ground.

But we shouldn’t drag our tails either. Now, we don’t have tails, but we do tend to tuck our tailbone under, especially when we sit at a desk all day or drive in a car. Even when we stand many of us push our pelvis forward in space, ultimately tucking our tailbone—an unhealthy position for our low back, hip flexors and pelvic floor. So next time you’re sitting down, or if you are sitting now, try to untuck your tail bone and sit up […]

Dinosaurs Didn’t Drag TailsMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:12-04:00