Hey… it’s Allyson at CORE and I am doing another video on how to take care of yourself…

This one is about when you’re in the kitchen at the sink and it’s also about your shirts because if you look… about countertop height we tend to lean up against that countertop and we get holes in our shirts… right here. So when you feel yourself lean against that countertop remember we’re gonna do three things to make yourself feel better today… okay

First, you want to lengthen your spine! So you’re gonna go up in your head like your ears are going up to the ceiling and that lengthens your neck. It’ll loosen your upper back. Then the opposite of that chain is your legs. You want your legs going down into the floor like your feet are growing roots into the floor.

So you’re standing at the sink… your legs are gonna go down and your head is gonna come up, your spine will get nice and long… Those are the first two things.

Now the last one, those shoulder blades. When you’re working in the sink you have a tendency to lean over that sink… bring those shoulder blades back into your spine and down that back so your shoulders are relaxed and down…

Okay, so as you’re working where you’re normally here (leaning forward) lengthen and bring those shoulder blades back and down and work here (standing tall)… your shirt’s are gonna last a lot longer and you’re gonna get a stronger more toned core…

You guys have a great day!

Call 512-215-4227 to learn more about how to stand tall…

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The post 3 Tips To Save Your Shirts At The Sink… appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Allyson Marshall is a Physical Therapist and Pilates Instructor at CORE. She has taken extensive training in a technique called Total Motion Release (TMR). I had the pleasure of meeting the PT that created TMR back in 2002 as I traveled from California to North Carolina for a manual therapy course at his facility. His name is Tom and we have studied with many of the same mentors over the years, so I really connect with his work, but have yet to take one of his courses…

Even though I have never formally taken his courses, I have watched his youtube videos and come to the conclusion that I love TMR. I have used the techniques myself for my shoulder while playing sports, especially in the dugout while playing softball.

So please continue on to read the transcript from the video above… this is her second blog on TMR, a follow up to A Quick Fix with a Twist…

[Allyson] So we’re going to look at the, it’s the arm raise, but we’re going to go backwards to six o’clock. So do your right arm… that’s what it looks like and then try that left arm…

[Marshall] Way more, goes back way more (on the left side)…

[Allyson] So easy, so we decided that right arm was the hardest on that and it was pretty different… okay and so what we’re gonna do is we’re going to treat the good side, so we’re gonna give you a little light weight and I want you to do 20 repetitions of that movement on this side, the good side, okay…

[Marshall] Just this…

[Allyson] Yep, now we’re gonna retest the bad side, just move and go back like you did before…

[Marshall] That feels better, way better! Why? Why? Why?…

[Allyson] Crazy… Try this out on your own and let us know if you need more explanation of the why like Marshall asked???

Do you have shoulder tightness on one side when you extend your arm behind you?

Is you kiddo a young athlete with a painful or tight shoulder hindering their performance or even worse, making them miss their sporting events?

Do you notice a tightness on one side of your body when compared to the other? The shoulder? Hip? Knee?

If you answered yes to any of those questions above, then it is time to take the next step… What is the next step? Maybe its a phone consult, or face to face Discovery Session with Allyson… Which one works for you? They are both Free!

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Call 512-215-4227 now to tell us your story… We will listen and go from there!

The post Secret Tip Exposed To Help Shoulder Tightness With Only 20 Reps appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

I’m Allyson Marshall at CORE Therapy and Pilates. I’m a Physical Therapist and I wanted to get a really simple tip for you guys to have in your hands as a physical therapist or to send to your doctors that is going to help a lot of their patients really quickly. Something for you to try in the office… simple…

A lot of us have people that come in with low back pain, they have a positive straight leg raise and they’re gonna have a positive straight leg raise side and then the other side needs to be good or feel okay. When you get the scenario you will always be treating to that good side. It’s an exercise most people are willing to try because it doesn’t hurt… so if, for example, you have a positive straight leg raise on your right that hurts, lots of pain and then you go in the left side, I can do that, it’s fine, then treat to that good side. Do two sets of twenty on that good side and when you’re done you retest the bad side. Look back at the one you had a positive straight leg raise on and see what happens… typically that’s going to be a whole lot better…

Those are the results we’re getting, so try that simple test. If, for example, this is too hard for them, you can do a bent knee. That’s another variation of this particular exercise you can try with people and then see on this side how that bent knee leg raises. So compare the same exercise on both sides and you’re doing a test, intervention and then retesting… so if it’s not better, that is not the movement for them.

A lot of times you’ll have people that have positive straight legs on both sides, this is not the movement for them. In that case you need to have a good side and a bad side to be able to do this particular exercise in this philosophy. So, next time you have somebody in with a positive straight leg raise, good side, bad side treat that good side, straight leg, bent knee and see what happens… retest…

This is something that physicians can try in your office, pretty easily and quickly, if it works and it helps, they can continue doing this… send them to us at CORE, we can teach them and give them some more movements that are going to keep helping that back pain go away. They get a little bit more complicated and if you think this might work but they have two straight leg raises, we can look at different parts of the body, different movements that will help their back feel better…

I just wanted to get this simple tool into your hands so you can try it and evaluate and try on some of your patients…

If you are treating patients with low back pain and this helps some, send them our way so that we can progress them through our back care program that has had lots of success with transforming peoples lives…

Call 512-215-4227 to learn more… or to schedule a phone call or telehealth call with a Physical Therapist from our team.

The post Attention MD’s and Health Professionals Treating Low Back Pain… appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Hey CORE family… it’s Allyson and I wanted to do a blog with just information on vertigo… I have gotten a lot of patients with vertigo and there’s several causes. It’s more of a extreme dizzy spell, not like when your blood pressure sort of drops when you stand up and you have to gather your wits for a second, it’s more of like you can’t stand up, you’re holding onto the wall to not fall over, that kind of dizziness.

You could have reasons like Meniere’s disease or maybe some shock or trauma to the head. You could have tumors and and big things, migraine headaches can set off vertigo attacks but what I normally see is called BPPV or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo… Benign meaning it’s a big deal because it’s happening to you but there’s not something super serious going on that needs surgery or anything and then it’s positional and it’s vertigo…

So what is happening with this, you have your inner ear, it’s these little circular canals in these different positions on both sides in your ears. They’re filled with fluid and they have small hair cells lining the inside of them. When you spin around several times that fluid starts moving and will bend those hair cells a little bit so the hair cells are saying ‘hey we’re going this way.’ It’s telling your brain we’re moving this way, so when you stop spinning, especially if you’ve done it for a little while, that fluid will still be moving around. So you’re stopped but you still feel like you’re moving… kind of like a teeny tiny version of a lazy river and think about that where the water is still going around bending that hair cell.

You have three systems of balance, one is that inner ear, those semicircular canals with the fluid and the hair cells. The second is your vision. You can see where the floor is and where the ceiling is and which ways up. The third is proprioception. You have nerves in your tendons and parts of your body telling your brain if you’re on your toes or if you’re on your heels, if you’re bent forward or sideways. Its tells where your joints are in space which is giving you feedback to say I’m balanced, or I need to adjust. I think my weights too far this way, I need to come this way. So when those three balancing systems aren’t working together… for example the fluid is still spinning but your vision is getting messed up because you know it should be straight, but your eyes start jumping, your tendons are telling you you’re still but that semicircular canal is not… so when they’re not meshing that’s when you have problems with balance and some problems with vertigo.

The kind of vertigo I normally see, the BPPV kind, is a crystal that they think is like a calcium deposit that gets lodged in one of those hair cells on the side of it. It kind of bends that hair cell permanently and that hair cell is giving feedback that I’m spinning… I’m spinning… I’m spinning and it’s not shutting off because it’s stuck there. So that’s the typical vertigo that I would see come in here and I hope that’s helped give you a little bit of an education of why this stuff is going on.

Do you or a friend need to get your dizziness assessed by a professional? It may be time to come in for our Free Discover Session to tell us your story. We can evaluate your condition, set goals to get you back to the things that this condition has got in the way of… Click HERE to APPLY…

Here is some more info on vertigo:

Definition: Vertigo is a sensation of feeling off balance. If you have these dizzy spells, you might feel like you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning.

BPPV. These initials stand for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. BPPV occurs when tiny calcium particles (canaliths) clump up in canals of the inner ear. The inner ear sends signals to the brain about head and body movements relative to gravity. It helps you keep your balance.

BPPV can occur for no known reason and may be associated with age.

Meniere’s disease

This is an inner ear disorder thought to be caused by a buildup of fluid and changing pressure in the ear. It can cause episodes of vertigo along with ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and hearing loss

Vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis. This is an inner ear problem usually related to infection (usually viral). The infection causes inflammation in the inner ear around nerves that are important for helping the body sense balance

Less common causes include:

Head or neck trauma – you would know if this happened.

Stroke or tumor

Certain medications that cause ear damage

Migraine headaches

The most common I see is BPPV. This comes on suddenly usually with a quick change in direction of the head.  Sometimes I have seen it after a severe illness like the flu or stomach bug where there has been a sharp increase in pressure around the inner ear.

The post Vertigo Explained appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

The post Try This One Stretch to Finally Improve Your Alignment… The Q.L. Stretch appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Hey… I wanted to talk to you guys today a little bit about headaches and migraines. I see a lot of people that suffer, not just a couple times a year but every week they’re getting multiple headaches and migraines. There’s some things that a lot of people don’t know about headaches and migraines that I want to tell you about today, just one thing.

First of all, understanding the idea that your head and the muscle and tissue in your upper neck it’s connected to your head but that’s also connected to your shoulders and your the rest of your ribcage, your lumbar spine, your pelvic floor, your hips and your legs. Your whole body is really connected and I think this is becoming more understood by the population.

I think that people that suffer from headaches think the problem is in their head so much and yeah there’s a problem but I have seen a lot of people get a whole lot of benefit and decrease intensity of their headaches and decrease how frequently they get headaches or migraines by getting into some movement throughout their whole body.

A lot of the work we do here with Pilates and some core strength work and so they sit a little different and they drive a little different and they sleep a little different. Getting some correct movement patterns with core stabilization into your life and then letting your arms, your legs and your head and neck move around that stable base will really impact in a very positive way your headaches and migraines. So I just want to start with that little encouragement if you suffer from those things… don’t stay away from movement… because it’ll actually help you out.

Call 512.215.4227 now to apply for a FREE Phone Consult with Allyson to tell her your story…

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Hey guys, Its Allyson at CORE and I was just going to talk to you about something that I see a lot. I thought I would put it out there so that you guys can learn from this if your not coming in here for treatment.

It happens a lot, people sit, they are sitting at a desk and they are trying to sit up really nice and straight. Some people don’t sit up nice and straight, and they are like this (slouched with a forward head) and they have a lot of shortness in the back of the neck at the top, its really tight. Then some people will sit up tall and maybe stand up tall, but they will put their chin up, which is also creating a lot of shortness, especially in those top few cervical vertebrae… so, its the same problem, you end up getting a lot of tension headaches, that start from these muscles between your skull and the first couple vertebrae, those little bitty muscles will get tight and the nerves that run through them will come around to the front of your head and you will get that headache.

If you think of your spine right here, going through your head and then this is half of the weight and this is half of the weight… it should be balanced evenly like a teeter totter over that spine. Look at some old pictures of yourself to see how your head sits on your spine. See if you got your chin up and your really proud, which is awesome, but try to bring it down just a bit and balance the weight in the back of your head and the front of your head, over that spine in the middle. Good luck with that…

Not sure if Physical Therapy can help your Headaches? Click HERE to apply for a FREE phone consult with one of our Therapists that each have 20 years of experience as a licensed Physio…

Are you interested in a postural assessment and evaluation, then CLICK HERE to apply for a Free Discovery Session »

The post Migraines? Headaches? Try To Balance Your Head On Your Spine appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Let’s talk about traveling again… I’m Allyson, Physical Therapist here at CORE… I wanted to talk to you about establishing some routines in your life. I’m kind of disorganized at home but I’ve established some morning routines and some bedtime routines that help keep the house picked up. I applied that same principle to physical fitness and just staying injury free, especially while you’re traveling. I talked in the last vlog about three essential things to bring on your trip.

Now, lets talk about a morning and evening routine…Part of your morning routine is going to be just breathing and you can do this in sitting or lying down. Take some breaths into the bottom part of your lungs here… (there’s another blog that Brandi did on how to breathe), breathe in and exhale just like you would in Pilates class. With every inhale, exhale think about some part of your body, pay attention to it…

Ask yourself:

• Do I need to lengthen my spine?
• Are my ribs flaring?
• Am I stable?
• Am I engaging my lower abs and my pelvic floor?

Do five breaths and then check in with your core… reach your arms down, you breathe in, curl up a little bit, hold this… don’t do anything to aggressive on your trip, you don’t want to get hurt. So you can do a little bit of that…

You can also do a roll up and keep those legs down and then stretch over… that’s a simple morning routine, do as many of those as you like.

Then at bedtime, go ahead and pick some kind of release work to do… If your neck and shoulders get tight or are tight, you can do your release work up in your shoulder area. If you’re doing your breathing and it doesn’t feel like you’re getting a full breath or it feels tight or restricted in your diaphragm, hip flexor, you know your release work from being here at CORE… Pick one and do it and then take some more breaths. You can do this in sitting or standing wherever you are, laying down like we did before and then if you’re sitting take your deep breath and just twist your spine a little bit one way, the other way… if there’s a tight side or restricted side go to the easy way and hold it for a few minutes and see if that tight side doesn’t loosen up a little bit…

Last but not least if you can get some kind of resistance work done and I like to do rotator cuff. You just take a band and pull out while squeezing your arms by your sides. This helps keep that scapula down…

So that can be an easy way to loosen up, move a little and enjoy your vacation more… it’s the whole point!

Do you need help establishing an exercise program for home or the road?

Are you having pain that is limiting your ability to travel?

Or, are you traveling regardless of pain, just pushing through?

If you answered yes, We Can Help!

Call 512.215.4227 to tell us your story…

The post Try This Morning and Bedtime Routine… Travel Series #5 appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Hey CORE family… it’s Allyson, I wanted to tell you some things you need to pack on your next trip. The first thing I was gonna talk about is a resistance band, it can be this kind (thera-tube) or the the thicker thera-band type. This is great to do lots of different exercises and movement while you’re on a trip and it packs really small. You can you can step on it and do bicep curls or work on shoulder abduction. You can do a lot of the things you do on the reformer with your hands in straps. Do some stretches like this overhead, we did that on a different blog. You can use this for core work if you attach it to a something that will not move, around a leg of a table or in between a door and the doorframe and you can use it to pull down with your obliques, get really creative with that… but that’s a great way to exercise when you’re on a trip.

If you like the craniosacral work and the reboot of your nervous system helps, this is how I make my own still point inducer… it’s two tennis balls in a sock and usually you use a longer sock and tie it off in a knot. You put this right about the level with your ear on the back of your head and just lay down on it for five minutes and that will help reboot your nervous system, calm things down… traveling’s kind of stressful …

The last thing you want to take is your gold ball that you got and do for rolling out, self myofascial release work that you’ve learned here at CORE to help decrease the tension in your back and your neck and your shoulders.

Those are the three essentials for your next trip and they all pack pretty small and light, so… still point inducer, gold ball and then some kind of resistance band for working out…

To Summarize: Your body will not be happy after multiple hours sitting in a car or on a plane. Accept that, do what you can to minimize the impact, then unpack your tools to fix yourself.

1. The gold ball – roll out your hip flexors, diaphragm, pectorals, piriformis. Spend more time on what is tight and less on what is not. Give yourself up to 5 minutes at each area.
2. Resistance band – Recreate Pilates exercises and moves that you like with the resistance band. You can do arm movements or leg circles with resistance band.
3. Still point inducer (two tennis balls in a sock) if the craniosacral work is helpful.

See you guys…

Click Here to apply for your Free Discovery Session with our Expert Physical Therapist to get a specific plan of care and your own individualized home exercise routine »

The post 3 Tools To Pack For Your Next Trip… Travel Series #4 appeared first on CORE Therapy & Pilates.

Hey, it’s Allyson at CORE Therapy & Pilates and I’m doing another blog on traveling. Spring Break is coming up and I want to talk about luggage… I just have this tiny little backpack but normally when I travel I carry a bigger Patagonia backpack that can you can either hold the strap or carry it over your shoulder… multiple ways to carry luggage helps…

When you’re carrying the luggage, if it’s a one-armed thing switch arms and try to do equal times on both sides… If you’re rolling the luggage, same thing, equal time on the right and the left. Then if you are lifting your luggage, what you’re going to do a lot of getting on conveyor belts through airports and overhead bins… before you lift anything really you want to take those legs, take a second and really get some tone and then screw them into the ground. Don’t be lazy…get your good core contraction we’ve talked about, bring those shoulder blades down…do all that prep work first and especially if you’re in pain… inhale, exhale, then lift… okay… Then you want the luggage to be as close to your body as possible, try not to reach over, bring it as close as you can and then lift.

It’s the same thing for the overhead bin, keep the luggage close to your body, push it up, keep those shoulder blades down when you lift it up… okay… let your shoulder blade sink down to push this backpack up…

Those are just a couple of tips for your traveling… I hope you have a good trip where you’re gonna go and those are good tips for just day-to-day life, picking anything up or carrying anything around…

Try to use both sides equally and keep the weight close to your body… alright, y’all have a good day.

Call 512-215-4227 to learn more about how we help people in Austin get ready for spring break every year…

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