 And welcome to Move It Matters on ThinkTechHawaii.com as we enter sports and fitness injury prevention month. Today, we'll be going through the most common sports and fitness injuries associated with poor postures and lack of strength and flexibility in your body. I'm your host, Christine Linders, a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist in physical therapy. My mission in bringing you the show is to teach you the best evidence-based techniques to help you and your body feel your best to enjoy the activities you love without pain. Two questions. Can faulty postures and lack of flexibility in certain areas of your body be setting you up for injury in your sports and fitness routine? The answer is yes, and you'll be learning expert tips today to alter those postures and regain flexibility to prevent those injuries from occurring. Also, what other types of pain are in your life right now? This pain I'm referring to could be a physical pain, a dissatisfaction with some aspect of your life, your job or your body, or simply something mediocre in your life that's troubling you. Here's what I mean. We have two types of pain in life, pain that is nagging and dull that we tolerate because it's not bad enough to take the risk or the time to take care of it. Sore shoulder, a nagging bad habit, or lack of motivation to get things done. It bothers off, but not enough to take action to make a change. The other type of pain is more severe and sharp, a recently sprained ankle or a new back injury, or a newly broken relationship. With more acute types of pain, we're compelled to take action. Ice that ankle, see a doctor about her back injury, or try something new to distract the pain of a recent breakup. Does this pertain to you and your body or where you are in some aspect of your life right now? If it does, I'm here to help you take that action, make that change and achieve your goals without injury. I'm happy to introduce you to two women right now who have. I'd like to warmly welcome my two guests, Michelle Sherman, Beach volleyball player and surfer and works as a dental hygienist and Katie Olja, holistic health coach. Thank you both so much for coming on to movement matters today to share your successes with our viewers. Hi, Katie and Michelle. How are you guys doing today? Extremely well. It's a beautiful rainy day. Good. Good. Well, thanks. It's a perfect time for us to do the show. So for the viewers, Michelle was having neck and shoulder pain and she noticed it after work and she's a dental hygienist, so she spends a lot of time. We've all been to the dentist spends a lot of time kind of hunched over using those fine equipment in a very small space and so is interfering right with your ability to play volleyball sports and surf and play volleyball. And when my pain was enough, it motivated me to get some help with it, which is which is great. So I saw Michelle and we were looking at, okay, so why is this happening? What are the injuries? And we noticed that from being so hunched over, she was starting to develop that forward posture in her upper back and also her shoulder, her right shoulder, her dominant arm, her hitting arm was pushed way forward. So when you hunch forward and in previous stocks, I've mentioned how the humorous the shoulder bone sits on the shoulder blade in the socket. And so when you slouch forward, that ball moves forward on the socket and your biggest restraint that's a muscle and a tendon is your bicep tendon. And then another one is your supraspinatus tendon, which is a rotator cuff muscle. So when you are forward or always using your right arm, like doing what she has to do for work or someone that has to reach for a mouse clicker or something like that. Or talk on the phone all day long that creates a message to the bicep tendon to hold the ball on the socket. And so you start to get pain when it gets bad enough. So we came up with some exercises that I wanted to show for you. So in video number one, this is my favorite. I tell everyone to buy a foam roll. I would just roll the blanket at home because my foam roll is living in Connecticut and I have one at work. You want to lay on the roll so that your tailbone and your head are on the full roll because you want to keep your spine safe. I was using a pillow because it wasn't long enough for me and put your arms out into the T position so they're directly at shoulder height. Your arms might not meet the floor when you do that. I love this one because when I'm at the gym in between sets on the row, I'll just lay back on the bench. On the row and I will just stretch out my arms. Sometimes use some five pound weights or even two pound weights and let my arms hang to the side and stretch all of these tight ligaments and tight muscle and fashion really releases a lot of pressure for me. Oh, that's great. So Katie, do you have any tips like that that you've used or had any of your clients use over the years? Yeah, so really I focus on strengthening. So in addition to, you know, loosening all that stuff up, you really got to strengthen your back muscles because when you're always hunched forward, your chest is going to be tight and your back is going to be kind of elongated. And so really focusing on widening that opening that all up, you can use the cross ball in your chest. Yes, I have an image of that. Yeah. And really when you're focusing on back to just make sure your shoulders are always pulled back. So when you're doing that strengthening motion. Yeah, there's one. So the lacrosse ball is behind my shoulder there. And you can see that's going to help kind of loosen that stuff up. So all those muscles and everything that's pulled forward. When you're leaning over, just being able to open all that up, open your shoulders up and all of that kind of fun stuff. It really helps with posture as well. It's great. And I think the one that you were talking about too that we don't have an image of is putting it in the front, right? And doing the same photo, but yeah, but like rolling that out on the front. So along with the strengthening, we have video number three, which this is strengthening without a TheraBand or without a cable cross that shows you pulling the band straight down. I always tell people with this one, it's really important to lift your chest and squeeze your blades first down and back and then pull the band to your hips, but not beyond because you don't want your elbow to go beyond your back because then it's pushing the humorous forward again. And in the in the video just before that, there's one where it shows something that you can do if you are sitting at work or if you are like Michelle, you're hunching over or like me and I do all the time at work. I just pull my shoulders back and that's without a band. But Katie, if you were in the gym working out, I mean, it's great ones that I've done in the gym to like holding a cable cross to stimulate this motion. Is there other ones that you love like that are favorites for this? Yeah, for posture specifically, I really love bent over row. So if you're, I don't, I wish I made a video of this one, but if you're on a bench and used single arm row, those ones are great. So I'm kind of demo for you here basically pulling back. But when you do this specifically if your arms are rolled forward or your shoulders are rolled forward, just making sure you open that chest up really wide first and holding that position while you row and that's going to really strengthen those muscles and actually help you with posture. Yes, that's such a great tip. That's such a great tip. The get your shoulders back first. I actually had a friend who was starting a fitness routine and she was telling me that the trainer that she was working with didn't want to get into the heavy weight so much right now because they said you need to focus on scapular retraction. We need to get that first before we start loading those muscles. So yeah, so now let's talk a little bit about, you know, we mentioned surfing and volleyball in the upper body, but let's talk about people that are just doing a general fitness routine. They're, they're walking, they're doing the elliptical, they're starting to do running or things like that. I like to focus on lower extremity fitness because I noticed that people with tight hamstrings, tight calves tend to get problems like low back pain, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, anterior knee pain, which is like patella tendonitis in the front of your knee. And so Katie, you have a great picture of rolling out your calf. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what just kind of you went through last week? Yeah, so for anybody watching, I work out probably six times a week. So for me, I have been working out and all that fun stuff. So for me, I get kind of overuse problems because if I'm slacking at all doing my mobility or stretching, I will get kind of an overuse injury. And so what was happening to me last week is that my calf and my Achilles were so tight from running that it was actually pulling on the nerves of my feet and it felt like my foot was going to break when I walked on it. So not fun at all. I had to take a day off. And so what I'm doing here, if you want to show the picture again, basically when I put that ball right on my Achilles, it puts it pushes on it to where it's almost like a massage like when a massage therapist pushes into a knot. So that's what it's doing there. And I'm just flexing and pointing my Achilles. And then the one in picture, in the middle picture, you can see it's a little bit higher up. So I'm also getting my soleus and my gastrocnemius up there in my calf. And really just working out this huge knot that I had in there. So what kind of ball is that? It's a lacrosse ball. Oh yeah, well, you were going to finish. I interrupted you. You were going to say and... Basically, it just worked out that knot and I have no pain today. So that was four days ago from not being able to walk to being totally fine. I love it. So I was talking to Michelle earlier about the things that you can use and I asked her, you know, have you ever had Michelle any Achilles pain or plantar fasciitis and you were telling me... I had tightness all in my right side of my body, all the way down my hamstring, to my calf, to my Achilles. And I just sit on my bed, my one leg up and I use my knee and I rub my Achilles right on the knee. And I focus so much on my upper body that I do forget about the lower body. And just last week I did a lower body routine and I was amazed at how much tension was released in my back and even in my tight muscles and my legs. So I think my next goal is to balance my workouts because I've been doing a lot of retraction, a lot of scapula work, but I really need some balance now. Excellent. No, that's good. And I was thinking of all the cheap ways that you can release your calf, your body, your shoulder, your hamstrings. And so we were talking about the lacrosse ball. Michelle's talking about crossing her legs and using her knee. I've used my fist. I used to tell people on the East Coast when I was living in New York, do you have a rolling pin? Grab a rolling pin and sit there and flex your knees. Your calf is like not tight and then roll up and down and then pull your foot up like Katie's picture showed. And pull your foot up and down and use a rolling pin or something, whatever you have to try to release that muscle. Because as Katie showed, you just get, you get rid of it when you focus on getting the proper mobility and the proper fascial and tissue tensions. I actually have had a very painful achilles after coming out of the boot. I fractured my ankle in November playing Beach volleyball. I was actually playing with Michelle. It was an awesome game. I'm sure we would have won it had that not happened, right? But I was using, I was loosening up my calf and one of my patients let me borrow her fascia blaster, which is another tool that is she's actually black is using it for a different purpose. But physical therapy and massage therapists for decades have always tried to come up with tools to save their fingers when you have to get up into an area. And I actually really love the fascia blaster for my calf. I've used many different tools to try to play around with myself. I use my hands on my patients, but when myself, I try these different things and that worked really well because it has these prongs that kind of go right on either side of the achilles. And when your achilles gets inflamed, the scar tissue forms in a haphazard format. And that really helped me. So let's go to video number five, where I show a hamstring stretch. I think Michelle, you were referring to getting a lower body workout, having all these muscles releasing and then your low back felt so much better. So you just want to make sure that when you do this hamstring stretch, you could do it a variety of ways. You just want to make sure both your feet are pointing directly towards the wall. You don't want to have one foot turned out or turned in. So look down when you're doing this stretch, make sure that your feet are pointing straight towards the floor. And then the previous video where I'm lying on my back is a hamstring stretch. This is a stretch that I like to show anyone who has back pain because your back is safe when you're laying down. And if you try this, if you have back pain, you're not going to get your legs straight like that in most cases because there's a direct association between tight hamstrings and low back pain. So ladies, we have about one minute to the break. And then when we come back, we're going to talk about mindset and attitude and all that. Is there any final words you want to say before the break? I guess I'll just add on to your low back pain. Another really common cause of low back pain is actually tight hip flexors. So for anybody who sits all day long, they a lot of times will get back pain. We can show the picture after the break, but I do have a picture of the cross ball in the hip flexor. And that is a really great way to release your hip flexors. Oh, that's great. Okay. Well, so for our viewers, I'm talking with Katie and Michelle, holistic health coach, beach volleyball and surfers who have successfully achieved all their goals and gotten back into play in their sports, doing mobility and flexibility and mining their posture. Stay tuned. We'll be back in a few minutes. We're going to be talking about how you too can change your mindset and your attitude to get whatever you need out of your fitness and sports goals. I'm Winston Welch, host of Out and About. It's a show that we have every other Monday on Think Back Live here. We explore a variety of topics that are really interesting. We have four organizations, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country and world. We've got some amazing guests on here, like all the shows at Think Back. So if you want to catch up on stuff, tune into my show every other Monday and other shows here on Think Back Live. It's a great place to learn about stuff, to be informed. And if you have some ideas, come on my show. Let's talk about it. See you later. We're back. We're live. This is Movement Matters. I'm Christine Linders on ThinkTechHawaii.com. I'm speaking with Katie Olja, holistic health coach, and Michelle Sherman, beach volleyball player and surfer, about how to prevent injuries in your body so that you can achieve your fitness and sports goals without pain. So we're just wrapping up talking about the different upper body stretches, strengthening exercises, posture, and lower body flexibility and mobility and workouts that you can do to release the tensions in your back and be able to decrease pain in your body. Katie and Michelle, do you have anything else to add on that subject before we dive into mindset? So just what I was saying before about releasing the hip flexors, I do have the photo here. I'll just show you on my phone. Okay, so you can see here. Let me get it right in the screen. So that's just me laying on the floor. Yep. And so right in here, you can see if I can point to it. Oh, there it goes. Okay. Oh, there it goes. So you can see whether the cross ball is right in my hip flexor. Let me get this here. Yep, that works. So right in my hip flexor. Yep. Okay, so just laying on your stomach, literally putting it right in your hip flexor and you can flex and release the quad. And that's going to basically put that right into that pressure point and release your hamstring and release a lot of low back pain. That's a great stretch. And I lunge and I use the mirror to align my hips properly because usually my right hip is tilted down and I'll use a mirror lunge and use a few weights to kind of stretch that out. It's really a great stretch. That is a great stretch. So I have done both of those and it's funny. I was just doing lunges with a patient yesterday at work and telling him when you do the lunge, I have them drop the back leg straight down while they're standing straight up. And so he was saying, am I working the back leg or am I working the front leg? Because the stretch that you get in the front of your quads and a little bit of your hip flexor when you do that is it can be immense if you're tight and he sits all day long. He's a principal. But another thing too with that lacrosse ball that you mentioned, I've done that before, is if bending and flexing your knee for sure is awesome, but I also will rotate my foot in and out. So I'm like, this is my knee. I'm bending and flexing my knee like Katie was saying. You can also rotate it side to side like that just to go crosswise on the tendon and you can do circles with your legs. There's so many three dimensional ways you can move your body because our muscles do work and they function three dimensionally even though when we're doing some weights and exercises, we can be doing one or two dimensions. So those are great. Those are great tips. So now Katie, let's talk a little bit more about what you do because I know Michelle and I and all of my friends, all of my patients, we all talk about these things. You're frustrated. You can't get to that next level. Something's holding you back. You're afraid. You're tentative. You don't know where to start. What do you do? Yeah, so this is actually part of the reason I stopped being a personal trainer and moved more into the holistic health space because I noticed so many people, whether they have fitness goals or financial goals or business goals, whatever it is. They typically have something that they just can't get past. And so I would see that a lot with my clients with weight loss goals. They actually would hit a certain point and not be able to progress past it. And so I would run into sports as well. And so what really it came down to was they had either a limiting belief that taught them that they were not capable of succeeding past that point, or they had mindset issues where they just didn't think right or they had negative thoughts that would hold them back, things like that. And so really what I started to do was take fitness, nutrition, and add in mindset and add in like belief work to really help people get to the next level. I think that's awesome. Michelle, have you ever needed any mindset work? I'll throw myself under the bus in a minute. It's very depressing and long term pain is very depressing. You can start to believe that it's not going to go away, but these problems don't start overnight. It takes a long time to feel this extreme pain and it takes a long time to rehab into recovery. So I think just knowing that it's going to take a while, but recovery, rehab, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage, keep with it, take your time. Don't expect results overnight. And that mindset can go a long way. Those are great words. You're giving me goosebumps right now. I have chicken skin. I think that's so true. It can take a long time. I used to tell some of my patients, the cliche, Rome wasn't built in a day. There's these layers of issues and biomechanical faults that we need to correct. And I think the thing with the keep with it, you can do it. You can change your mindset. If you want to improve, you need to improve. This is our body. This is my body. And in order for me to make my body better, my mind better, I need to work on me and my body. And a lot of it is that mindset, that belief of knowing that you can do it or identifying the self limiting beliefs of something you were told when you were younger or teased about. I know I was teased when I was very young because I was 5'11 at 12 years old and the guys were about 5'4. So I was Amazon woman and they throw paper airplanes at the back of my head with the sick figure Jane swinging on the vine. And I was really self conscious about it. And I didn't really know any better, excuse me, because it was me. But some of myself limiting beliefs became evident later in college when I was, I guess, starting to date. But I didn't think I was dating. I just had a million guy friends and my friends were like, don't you know he's interested? I'm like, no, he'd never be interested in me. And all of my self limiting beliefs were coming from being teased by boys exclusively in 7th grade, 8th grade, freshman year. And then of course by junior year they're all 6'3 and I had no problem. But by then my self limiting belief that I didn't even know was there until some of my friends hit me over the head in college and said like, what are you doing? I'm like, no. But they were interested in me and I couldn't see it. I couldn't see it. And so when you want to make a change, if you want to stop drinking Diet Coke or get to the gym 5 or 6 days a week in your case or do your physical therapy exercises, right, Michelle? I mean, it's hard. My patients have a hard time with, wait, I just, I can't find a way to remember. Like, Katie, do you have any tips? Like if someone's saying to me, I can't find a way to remember. I know I need to do these things. They come back four days later. And I know I should be doing this, but I just can't, I just can't get myself to do them. Help. Yeah, I think one of the biggest issues is that people think that they have to be motivated to do things. But I actually don't really believe in motivation, because the problem is you'll get excited to do something. You know, like excited to get better. It's excited to heal these problems. And then the motivation wears off very quickly. And so if you don't have discipline or routines or habits put in place, then you're going to basically stop doing it as soon as you don't feel like doing it. So really, I would just encourage you to set up routines and set up like, if you need a reminder to set a reminder on your phone, you know, twice or however many times a day. And just know that it's not going to feel great all the time. And if you want to heal and you want to get through that stuff, then you just kind of have to keep going, even when it doesn't feel great. I play tricks with myself because with my diet, sugar really spikes my mood and then I drop hard. And that's also a mindset thing, but it's also a physiological thing where sugar actually makes me feel bad. So, you know, tricks like don't even buy it, don't put it in the house and, you know, stick with it. Like you said, determination, not motivation, just discipline. Discipline is a big word. And I like how you said the determination, not motivation. And Katie, you don't even use motivation anymore because that's right. We get all gung ho at the beginning of the year to get fit, go to the gym, but that fizzles out very quick. That's why gyms are super busy like in January and February. And people that go to the gym don't like those months because the machines are taken. Now, I listen to, and then discipline, I listen to Darren Hardy. He does a daily morning blurb on YouTube, which is so inspirational and it's for like entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirits. And he's tagline is better every day. And he talks about the habit of listening to his video every morning to jump start your day and how it's so important to have that discipline like work out in the morning or whatever you do, eat this breakfast, whatever you do, get on a routine, get on a discipline because when we learn to brush our teeth as kids, we got in a discipline. So we do it every night. There's that habit that you form in being disciplined that becomes harder because we're humans, we're habitual. It becomes harder to break, but when you're having trouble baking through those boundaries, which you see way more than me on a different level because that's what you do for your profession. It's important to try to get people to get on a routine. So I will work on my patients. Thanks to you all. Yes. If I can just add to that real quick. So when we're talking about mindset to your thoughts actually become like engraved into your brain. So dive in really deep into the science here. But when you think things habitually, like if you think negative thoughts habitually or you think, you know, that you're not capable or things like that, all of that stuff, it actually becomes a neural pathway that is going to impact your actions. And so that is like a very tangible way to recognize that mindset is so, so, so important. And even just shifting mindset from being like, Oh, I can't do this to saying I can and I'm able is going to have like a dramatic effect, not just in specific goals, but just in your overall wealth, like well being and stuff like that. I love it what the mind believes the body achieves. I've said that so much to people and you explained it so beautifully in that term there's a. Dwayne wire wrote a book there's so many books on it like the power of intention, keeping your words your words the landmark forum talks about vocabulary using the right vocabulary the can versus can't will versus won't. There's those those words that you need to say to get your body to perform to get your mind to perform and I think that's something that I'll definitely focus about so we got to wrap it up ladies. Thank you so much for coming on the show to join me to movement matters and think tech Hawaii calm and thank you to our sponsors and underwriters for allowing us to be here with you today. Stay tuned in two weeks as we talk with Dr. Daphne Scott a sports physiatrist for the hospital for special surgery in New York City about common athletic injuries prevention and treatment. I hope we helped you learn something today. If so please subscribe or send us a review and as always life is better when you listen to your physical therapist aloha.