 Thank you for spending your Friday night with me today. Appreciate it. So before I get started, I mean he introduced me on my student physical therapist at Mount St. Mary's University in Los Angeles. I'm up here doing a clinical rotation. I thought I'd make use of my extra time at night and try to help out, I guess. So before I get started, I am not an EMAM or a chef by any means. These slides and these tips are just strictly from a biomechanical and anatomical perspective. I did get all of my slides kind of checked out by a few different EMAMs and chefs and stuff, but again this is coming straight from a biomechanical perspective, okay. I just want to put that out there so I don't get in trouble a little bit later. So basically the way this talk is going to go is I want to kind of go down the chain of the body and kind of talk about a few things that I've seen is, you know, growing up in the community and now that I have the knowledge of what proper movement and proper body placement is, some things that I feel like are kind of like red flags that I like to bring up. So essentially that's what ergonomics is, just proper form when you're doing different things. So I am still a student, so objectives, you guys probably familiar with the slide before every slide when you guys are in a classroom. This is the stuff I kind of want to get done. I actually kind of did that already. I'm going to give you guys good news, the benefits and I'm a very research-oriented person. Everything I say, hopefully, there's been research done behind it. So I'm going to tell you guys, I mean we all know the benefits of prayer spiritually and you know, it's all good from that perspective. I'm going to give you guys the research behind prayer, like there's some new research that has come out that it describes the benefits of prayer. So that's the good news and then the bad news is everything you guys are doing well, or not you guys, but all of us together as we're doing well. And then we're going to go over the neck, shoulders, upper back, knees and then the feet and then I'm going to show you guys what's wrong, how to correct it and I'm going to have some final thoughts and then we can do a little bit of a Q&A afterwards. There's only two things I ask from you guys in return for this time is make to offer me and my family and everybody and the second thing is I have a few surveys in the corner over there. This is my first time doing a talk like this. So all of the feedback is super beneficial. So if you guys could fill that out on your way out or during the Q&A section or whenever you guys have time. So without further ado, let's get started. So first I want to kind of go over what is physical therapy. Physical therapy essentially are movement specialists. So they look at how you move and they can tell you what the wrong things or the right things that you're doing while you're moving. That's to put it at a very basic level, not to a physical therapist. So if you guys have been to rehab and then you've dealt with physical therapists and then there's also the preventative portion of physical therapy is what we're doing right now. So you all view not necessarily are injured right now, but just if we do things correctly and we start making corrections now, we can prevent damage further down the road. So this is good for you, for all agents because it sets good habits from the start. So benefits of prayer. So there's some really interesting like research studies that have been done in the last 10 or so years. So there's one that show it was a research study done in India. I don't remember but the exact author have the references at the end of the slides. But basically what they did was they followed a group of people that who prayed 5 times a day. And essentially what they found was there was a significant increase in me. They looked specifically at the knee joint, knee joint flexibility and long term structural health of the knee. So already we're on the right track. We have better knees than everybody else because we prayed 5 times a day. So it's a really good thing continuing to pray 5 times a day. It helps joints which seems like it's pretty intuitive, but just having that research backed up to it, encourages people more to get into it and do it properly. Another one I thought was pretty interesting was so the number one killer of men and women in America specifically is the root of the problem is stress. And what is stress caused by it? You have a few different, you know, I'm not going to go into the physiology of nervous systems in your body, but basically you have a nervous system that causes stress. So what they did was they put electrodes on people that were, they felt were devoutly praying. And what they found was this specific nervous system which is called the autonomic nervous system was significantly turned down basically. It's like the fight or fight system. That's what causes stress. And they found that people that were adhering to prayer and that were sincerely praying had a significant reduction in this system that caused stress. So you can extrapolate that information and say that, Hey, prayer reduces stress, which reduces risk of stroke, which reduces a bunch of other things. So there are physiological benefits to prayer. So, if you know, it's a little, it's a little bit of fun, happy, happy Wednesday. So now I'm going to go over a little bit of anatomy. I'm not going to get too crazy. Basically, as you can see, so this is the spine. Okay. So I want to make some, some stuff very clear because there are questions that asked me that different portions of the spine are, this is exactly how they're labeled in the human body. So we have the cervical spine, which spans to just about above your shoulders from the base of your skull to the shoulders. Then you have the thoracic spine, which covers the back of your chest where your lungs are, right, like in front and behind your lungs. And then you have your lumbar spine, which everybody has issues with their lower back. And that kind of spans all the way down to about where you start feeling your hips come out. And then you have your sacrum and your, right under the sacrum, I didn't label it there because it doesn't really matter to be honest with you. It's your coccyx, which is right under your sacrum. So these are going to come back with the lips to remember these. I made them color coded so you guys can get a little better. Okay. So the first, first, first, first. I don't know if you guys pay attention, but next time you guys go out and you see people praying, look at their neck posture. Forward head posture is extremely common. So, but extremely common does not mean it's okay. Essentially, so I have some numbers there for the engineers. For every inch forward that your head is, you add an additional 10 pounds of force to your cervical spine. And the average, what's it called? I have it up there. The average adult presents with two inches of forward head posture. So what does that mean? An additional 20, 20 pounds on your neck, just because your, your musculature is not adequately placed. So again, like I said, 90% of the population is affected by this. So this is the issue. How can we correct it specifically in prayer? And this can be translated to many other things. In prayer, when you're standing in prayer, you begin your prayer, actually before, before, before all that, before all that. Everybody before they start prayer should always take a nice, big, deep breath before you begin your prayer. A way to relax all of your muscles, especially in your neck, because think about, think about, everybody just take a deep breath right now and think about what's moving when you're taking that deep breath. The trap, your shoulders, your chest is moving, your back is moving. So if you take a deep breath and all that musculature has calmed down, it gives you a good, good way to kind of get in, start getting into these corrections. So it was recommended to me by one of my chefs that when you're describing this to people and you're doing these lectures, is always start with a nice, deep breath before you start prayer. And you'll see, you'll see, it's going to be, I mean, once or twice, if I can make that big difference. But in the future, it should start helping and start relaxing some of the musculature. So what the common, most common thing that I've seen is when people are praying, they have their heads down like this. This is terrible for your neck. And like I said, remember what I said, to every inch forward, it's 10 pounds down your neck. How many inches? So the way we base this from a like a movement analysis perspective, the bottom of your ear should be aligned with your shoulder. Okay. So this would be relatively, no, I can't release, I can't see myself. So you guys can kind of tell me. This should be relatively low. So imagine if you're all the way down here, how much extra force is that onto your neck? Five inches. Five inches, boom, right there. So 100 pounds of extra pressure on your neck. And how, and you're doing that five times a day and multiple knockouts per day. So imagine how much stress that's causing you on your neck. And the problem with that is not just, not just the stress, but where does that stress go? This position, you have no muscles assisting your neck. You're relying solely on ligaments. Ligaments are very, very poor healers. They do not heal very well. Muscles heal very well quickly. That's why, you know, when you work out, you have that, you know, you have that feeling after what do they call it? They call it a, a source. Yeah, source. That is your muscles tearing and rebuilding. So your muscles are quickly, that's what they're, that's what they're made to do. They're made to be torn and rebuilt, torn and rebuilt, torn and rebuilt. Your ligaments are not very good at that. So when you're down here, it's easy though. It's easy to kind of hang out down here because you're not doing anything. You're relying on passive structures, active structure of the muscles, passive structure of your ligaments and your tendons. So a strategy that you can, you can start using and you can start, you know, educating other people is when you are praying, instead of tilting your neck, you tilt just your head. Your eyes should align where you're, I should be aligned to where your forehead is going to be going. So instead of me going like this and then my forehead is going to be going, going over there, I'm all the way up here. My neck is looking good, but I'm tilting my head and tilting your head is a good way. So that's, that's, that's another strategy to relax your neck. That's a strategy that a lot of people use. You have headaches, a lot of people would stretch the little tiny, tiny muscles of your neck. So you add your head back here and then you just tilt your head down and that's it. And that's where, that's, that's, that's where your head should be placed and your neck should be while you're praying. And this is not just, I'm going to mention a little bit later, but it's not just when you're standing. Also when you're sitting, your eyes should be aligned to where your forehead is going to go, not to, not, not down and like hanging out on these structures. So just, that's just something to be aware of as far as the neck. Shoulders. So I'm going to ask all of you guys to stand up. I'm going to show you guys a quick way, quick way to kind of, kind of gauge where your shoulders are, where your shoulders are. So I want everybody just to relax. Don't, don't, don't, don't move your shoulder. So take, look down, don't move your hands at all. Look down and look at your hands. If your hands are facing, your palms are facing fully backwards. That's what rounded shoulders are. Your shoulders should be straight like this instead of like, because if you, if your shoulder, if your palms are facing backwards, your shoulders are too round. So everybody, take a look at your hands. See where your hands are. If your palms are facing directly on your side, you don't have to do anything. Keep doing what you're doing. Well, most people, their, their, their palms are facing, you know, even mine, they're facing a little bit backward. So that's exactly what rounded shoulders are. Your chest is rounding this way because your, the musculature in the front is getting tight and those are easy muscles to get tight. So you guys, you guys just sit down. It's just kind of an easy way to sit, kind of check yourself. Like if you guys, if you're walking and any, and you notice that your, your, your hands are kind of going open up your chest just a little bit. So, uh, basically what, how this happens is internal rotation of the shoulder. What is internal rotation? So this is, let's just say neutral right here. This is neutral, neutral position of your shoulder. Internal rotation would be this way. External rotation would be that way. So to correct something being inside this way, move it out, switch it up, move, move your, should move your arms out and rotate them out externally. I have to have some, some tips for you guys. So one thing, another thing that I see a lot in prayer is when, uh, I mean obviously this is different for men and women because there's positions of prayer, but, uh, for the men specifically in, in what I mean by, uh, try to avoid having your arms in an L straight. This is an L straight. This is terrible for shoulders. Having your arms out like this is terrible for shoulders. You need to relax your hands. Your hands should be relaxed on top of each other and open your chest. So everybody, I want you, I want you to kind of get over exaggerate that round shoulder and then take a deep breath. It's harder to take a breath because you're closing the area where your lungs can expand. So if you open up your chest and your chest open and your, your, your arms are relaxed while you're praying and you're activating the muscles in your back while you're praying and you see like now, now my shoulders are more aligned to each other. And even for the one, if you're up here, sorry, if you're up here, you can relax your shoulders. You can relax your traffic. So up here, you're, you're, everything here should be relaxed. And then you activate the muscles in your back to kind of pull everything backwards just to get, get it a little bit more, uh, in line with everything else and you'll feel your breathing will get easier. Uh, your shoulders, if you have any shoulder pain, it will, it will, it will decrease because you're putting a lot less stress on your shoulders. So this, again, this is important, especially in, uh, standing library because how often are you, how often are you doing this? You're doing this. If you're praying five times a day, you're doing this. So the next one, uh, kyphosis. What we call it kyphosis is, so an interesting, interesting thing about this is the things that we spoke of before are almost associated with this. So this is something that will be instantly corrected if you do everything else. So there's no, you will never have straight shoulders, but you're back around like this. It's all associated with each other. All the muscles are pulling onto the same bones. So if you correct one, you'll correct the other and you'll correct, you'll correct all of them are interrelated. So making corrections at different ones will help make corrections of the other ones aligned to it. So, uh, again, excuse me, same issue with the cervical spine is the more forward you are, the more force you're applying to that, that, um, that part of the spine. So same, same, same, uh, same, same thing applies. So that's why, again, just correct the other things and this will be corrected as well. Um, so this is probably the most important one, hip and pelvis movement. Um, so most people are on the, um, not, I mean, obviously this is a little bit exaggerated, the one all the way on the right, but most people are in that position where their pelvis is tilted too, too posteriorly, which is backwards, right? Pelvis is tilted backwards. Again, it's another thing where you're just relying on the ligaments in your back. Where we want is that kind of the one all the way on the left. So, uh, so again, like again, long-term long-term damage, you're relying on passive structures, you're not using your muscles with, it's a lot easier. That's the problem. So, like, so, uh, a lot of people right now, I can, I can probably tell you 99% of the people here are sitting posteriorly, probably. How do you know if you're sitting posteriorly? But I mean, obviously these seats are a little difficult to kind of sit, you know, it's a little difficult, but what you can do is the, you have these, uh, bones in your bottom. They're called, you know, they're, the lame and stern is the sit bones. There's two bones in your bottom. The best way to kind of, if not for you to teach other people is have those two bones all the way in the corner of the seat. This is not, this is not directly related to prayer because there's no situation where, where, I mean, it, it, it, unless people are sitting while they're praying, but have them all the way in the back of the seat and then that forces your body into this position where it corrects that, uh, that pelvic posture. Um, I, oh, sorry, I forgot something huge. It's when you're, uh, going down in prayer like this. So, a lot of the time, this is a bit, this is the biggest one, this is the one I get questions about all the time. So, I'm going down in prayer, you see people bending at their back, which will, I mean, for the younger people, yeah, I think it doesn't feel, feel 10, 15, 20 years of doing this. That's, that's a recipe for low lepping. You should be bending at your hip, not your back. How do you know you're bending at your hip and not your back? Your hip is attached to your hamstring muscles. When you are making the core, your hamstring muscles should be the limiting force for you, from you collapsing. So what does that mean? You should be, you should be feeling a stretch in your hamstring when you're making the core at every single time. So if you're feeling anything in your back, you're doing it wrong. If you're feeling anything in your, um, any, I mean, if you're feeling any, any, uh, numbness and tingling down your legs, you're doing it wrong. You need to, you need to correct your posture, but essentially the easiest way to kind of put it is your hamstrings should be the ones that are taking the force of the movement. So when you're going down and you, you feel your hamstring stretching and then another, another point added to this as well is, um, take your time in prayer. There's a spiritual, you know, benefit of prayer, but also like we're learning right now, there's a prayer is a five times a day stretch or more than five times a day stretch to your hamstrings. You're, you're, you're lengthening these muscles that are hamstrings are easy. Mine, I can barely move them, but, uh, you're getting a, you're stretching your hamstrings, stretching all the muscles in your back. And so after you, after you leave or you finish a prayer, not only do you feel good spiritually, you feel good physically. Like you, you, you've done a little bit of a, a stretching session and then now you're leaving, getting ready to go out your day, especially Fegin. It's perfect. How many people stretch in the morning that early at five o'clock in the morning? I mean, unless you're like, uh, somebody who lives at the gym, you're not, nobody doing that. So if you, if you have this thing where you constantly searching five o'clock in the morning, you're stretching at night before you go to bed, you're stretching. It is a great opportunity to take care of your body. Uh, so again, we don't want to be the guy on the left where we're bending all at the back. Again, think a hamstring stretch. You should feel it at a hamstring. You should feel the, the, uh, what's it called, um, the stretch in your hamstring. Again, like I mentioned before, uh, the, uh, correct neck correction can also, is also important in sitting and, uh, depending on, so this is a little bit more of a controversial topic, depending on how you sit during, uh, uh, during prayer, uh, there are different ways. Like I mentioned, always you should feel like your, your, your, your back should never be rounded. What is a rounded back? I'll give you, I'll, I'll mean, I'll show you guys. So I'll show you guys first. This is what a rounded back is. So depending on how you pray, but a rounded back is essentially like this. This is a rounded back. Your back should be straight like this. So a normal curvature of this body. I'll show you guys another, another picture of this body so you guys understand what the curvature should look like. So it's you guys. So a rounded back would be something like this. It should be, should be over here like this. This should be normal. And then you are using muscles to maintain that posture. What you get is the whole point of what we're doing. We don't want to rely on ligaments because right now, you know, and there's no, there's no age limit for this. There's no age limit for this. There's not a single bit of research and as much research as I've read that says there's this age limit for this type of stuff. There's no age. Obviously there are medical issues and conditions and stuff that would limit this. But if you are a healthy person, none of these should be limited. So this is a little bit of a smaller, smaller topic. It's just the pointing of the feet. I've been asked this question so I added this slide in. There are a few people that, so what I mean by the pointing of the feet is naturally as anatomically we have about a, I mean it varies from person to person, but we have about a 15 degree rotation of the feet. So nobody's feet are going to, I'm not going to say nobody. Most people's feet are not facing straight forward. We have a little bit of a rotation. Everybody has a little bit of a rotation and it varies from zero to 15 degrees. What happens is if people are forced to forcing, forcing your knees and forcing you, so, so when things, one thing you guys have to understand about the body is if you do something at one part of the body, it's going to affect the whole chain upward. Your body is a chain of joints. So one chain, one, one movement down here is going to affect your knees. It's going to affect your hips. It's going to affect your, it's going to affect your back. It's going to affect everything. There's no, I mean, unless you're like moving your fingers like this, but like for the most part lower joints all affect each other. So being aware that naturally you have that rotation of your feet, your feet don't necessarily have to be straight forward. There is that rotation. So from what I've been told by, by some shoe is it's all, the feet, the feet placement is about comfort. Where you feel comfortable to put your feet, that's where you should lead them. So don't feel obligated to keep your feet forward and then you have knee issues in the future. But they're not necessarily, you won't necessarily have any issues with your feet or forward, but it's just something to be, to be aware. Your feet, your feet don't naturally point forward. So some final thoughts I had, again, just to reiterate, I am a student. There's a lot of things that I don't know. This is just based on information and classes that I've taken and help from some professors that, down at my university that helped me put this together. And again, this is coming from a biochemical perspective, not a religious or shediah perspective, although again, for those that came late, I did get it kind of reviewed by some studio and just stayed away from any controversial topics. There's no normal body. There is a range of norms, but there's no one normal body. So not everybody will fall into the categories that I've mentioned, but there are corrections that can be made for everybody. Your norm is different than his norm and he's different than his norm, different than his norm. Everybody has a different body and just being aware of that and being comfortable with where your body placement is, that's the number one thing. Be understanding where, like what works for you, what doesn't work for you, is going to be your key to success in actually kind of preserving your drugs, preserving the body. Something is better than nothing. So doing this one, one, in one day, in one week is better than you doing it zero times. So just to kind of emphasize and reinforce this issue is there's a study done for individuals that don't exercise. So the American Society of Sports Medicine, whatever it would be, is a study. Basically what they showed was people who had never exercised before, the most beneficial exercise they can do is one time, one time a week, no, no, sorry, one time a day, twice a week. One time a day, twice a week, consistently, is better than you doing it four times a day, once a week, and then that's it. So make small changes. You're not going to correct every single thing on this PowerPoint in one sit. Correct one thing, master one thing, move on to the next thing. And if they don't apply to, then move on to the next thing. So just being aware that something, one small thing, one small correction that you make will be extremely beneficial for you in the future. So again, something is better than nothing. That's, if you took anything away from this, this talk, it's not. So that's all I have for you guys. Sorry, I was kind of over the place. Again, this is my first time doing a community lecture like this. So I'm opening it up to any questions. And if you guys want, I have business cards over there. If you have any more, if you have any questions that you'd like to ask a little bit more privately or be around and any feedback with you, again, with you. So, okay, so that's sort of the question. So the safest way I get, so again, it depends, depends on the person. But so from such that it's exaggerating, exaggerating the movement and using momentum has been the strategy that I've understood, but I'll double check, I'll double check and look into that because I was focused more on the static position just because I felt like those were some things that can be corrected, by the way. But that's a really good question. And I'll get back to you on that. So again, yeah, so, so for that one, it's a little bit of a dicey issue just because there's different ways people sit when they're praying. So for example, if you do pray, I know there's, there's some people that pray, they're unable to pray with the, you know, the way of the sonnet where it's your, you're kind of on the side, but if you do pray like, so let's just say you're praying like this. Okay. So instead of your sit bones being on top of your heel or behind your heel, which again, gives you that rounded, rounded back posture. So if you put them behind your heels, you auto, you don't have to do anything. You force the spine into that position. So it forces this, this, this, the lumbar spine to be in the most neutral position. So that's what I meant by that. So that's what that's why I didn't go too deep into it, just because it's a, again, everybody sits differently. So I feel like that information would be difficult to portray. Also, this is an exaggerated photo. I couldn't find a perfect photo of somebody doing, doing the, so each, so again, in, from a biomechanical perspective, where, where you feel the pulling of your hamstrings is where you need to stop and hamstring stretch. So if it's not the first time, so let's say your hamstrings are stuck at this, but I'm not parallel. I'm not parallel with the floor. But this is as far as I'm going without bending my back. So continuously working on this and getting lower and lower and lower. That's, that's what the goal is. So not everybody can get into that position. No, yet. So, so ideal in a perfect world, you're a board. You're a board. Yeah. But this is just like for it. I was talking, so when I was referring to this, I was referring just to the hip in this, in this particular photo. So it's exactly like he said. So the, the further up that you are when you're, when you're in the pool, when you're down is it's going to put more pressure on, on to the hamstrings. But again, we want, we want the hamstrings to stretch. We want them to be longer. We want them to accommodate them because we want to be using them. So it's like he said, in terms from a, from a perspective, yeah, you want it to ideally in a perfect world, you want to be a board. You want to be, you want to be straight out like this. And then, and then you shouldn't, again, in this, and in this position, it puts your hamstring at a better mechanical advantage to, to use them when you're in the pool. Let's say you're in a position on the knees. Yeah. So, yeah, of course. So I was, I was having a conversation with Adam yesterday. And one question I would ask was hand placement when you're doing the board. So a lot of times what people will do is they'll be pushing on to their kneecaps, which is easier. Again, it's, it's, it's an automatic response from your body, especially if you're doing something so often, you're pushing down onto the kneecaps. That's pushing bone onto bone, which is not, but we never want that. We never want hyperextension, which is fully extending out and you're having your bone on bone, because that just puts you more at risk for arthritis. And especially pushing down. So from what I understood from talking to some shoe is your hands should be grasping your kneecaps, not pushing on them. They should be, their fingers should be open and they should be grasping your kneecaps just to avoid any extra pressure because again, knees are, are, are very, very delicate joint and they're easily injured and they're really difficult to come back. Correct. Yeah. Because you're at, it's an additional pressure. So if I'm down here pushing, I'm pushing down onto my, it's again, it goes back to relying on passive structures versus actually working. So it's just, I mean, essentially to boil it down, it's laziness. Like where we get lazy, we're just, we're just, okay, it's a lot easier than me focusing and putting myself in a curve. So, so technically I'm not allowed to, because I'm still a student. So it would be, it would be, I don't know, I'd get in trouble if I was prescribing exercises to people there that are going through the different medical conditions, but all I can, what I can say is, especially for our, like, let's go back to this, this point right here. Something's better than nothing. If you can do it one time and then the rest is sitting, that's, that's, that's, that's you moving it around and you're avoiding, uh, keeping it in your same position. Because, because that's essentially what the issue is, right? So you're, you can't go down to because of your knee following. So if you're able to do it, oh, like this right now, okay, I will talk after. So what I would say, this is a, this is a fine line across right here, but what I would say is these, these positions, these corrected positions, they're corrected. The reason why they're better for your joints is because they lift the pressure off of your joints. The brightest is, you know, there's no, there's no protection of your joints. You're going one on one and there's a lot of grinding and all that kind of stuff. So if you do exercises similar that are mimicking these and that are, are increasing or like strengthening the muscles that are lifting the, uh, lifting the pressure off of these joints, it would make it easier. But again, I mean, see a local physical therapist. I'd love to have her coming. Appreciate you guys. He's, he's, uh, like, I mean, my business cards are over there, if you guys have any questions, uh, and then, oh, um, and then the, uh, feedback forms are out over there. I can, I can provide this slide. I have no problem providing the slides. I'll give it to you brother in the air and you can post them off.