The Hip Hinge, A Beginners Guide to Preventing Back Injuries

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Hip hinge and prevent back injuries

When it comes to protecting the lower back, there is no movement more important to learn than the hip hinge. The hip hinge is a term used in fitness and rehabilitation circles to describe bending at the hip instead of rounding the lower back. It’s taught in gyms as a precursor to exercises like the Deadlift and Squats. It’s kind of used like movement prep as hinging at the hip is a part of both of these exercises.

Now this is the important bit. The hip hinge doesn’t just belong in the gym. It’s a part of normal human movement. Every time you bend forward, you should bend at the hips and avoid rounding or flattening your lower back.

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Why your turned out duck feet are trashing your body

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Standing with duck feet

Duck feet is a term used to describe out-toeing (flat turned out feet). In their normal alignment, your feet should be parallel with each other and pointing straight ahead. This may not seem important, but as I have said before, the human body is very much like a house of cards. Bend or remove a card and the whole structure becomes unstable.

Will duck feet cause your knees to explode or prematurely end your life? Does turning the foot out very slightly matter? No, of course not. If however, you stand like the guys in the picture above, you will slowly wear your joints out. It may also impair your sporting performance and increase your likelihood of injury.

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Body Alignment: What does perfect posture look like?

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Body alignmentBody alignment refers to the position of our joints relative to each other. Simply put, its the way our body parts are stacked! Checking static standing posture is a way of assessing the body when in a semi resting state. I have written this article to provide an idea of what perfect posture looks like. This article is not however, a guide showing you how to assess yourself as this is pretty tricky to do yourself (more on this at the bottom of the page). It will highlight some of the key things to look for and provide some pictures to help illustrate some of the body’s landmarks.

Human beings are designed to move. When it comes to health and performance it’s movement that matters. Checking static body alignment is important as the position of our joints often dictates where a movement begins and ends. This in turn effects how efficient and safe that movement is. Read more

Why your injured muscle won’t heal & your rehab exercises don’t help

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How to ruin your shoulder & stretch nothing

Too often, injuries just don’t seems to get better. For a lot of people, the pain subsides for a while, then comes back with a vengeance like a bad movie sequel. The injured muscle in your back that just won’t heal no matter who you see. Your dodgy rotator cuff injury that still hurts even though you diligently perform your shoulder rehab exercises every day.

Does any of this sound like you? If so, then this is the article for you.

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Prevent injuries using abdominal bracing

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Setting the core using abdominal bracing

‘Prevent injuries using abdominal bracing’ is the first article in the ‘Essential Knowledge’ part of this website. This section of the site aims to teach you some simple techniques that are vital if you want to stay healthy, prevent injuries and correct or maintain your posture.

I want to make this clear from the start, when I say essential, I mean essential. The information I am going to share with you in these article is vital. If you don’t learn and practice these techniques then you have no chance of correcting your posture, getting rid of back pain or preventing injury.

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Injury treatment: Who to see to get help with injuries

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Injury treatment, Who should you see?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So you have a problem…who should you go and see to get help? Well obviously that depends on the problem you have. Working out who to see for injury treatment can be difficult. There are just so many different practitioners and well established disciplines out there.

I am often asked by my clients questions such as “What’s the difference between a Chiropractor and a Osteopath?”. To which I often answer “About $7-$15 per session around here!”.

The purpose of this article is to loosely explain a little about each discipline so you can make the appropriate decision on who to see.

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Why sitting is destroying your posture!

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Sitting is detroying your posture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first article I have written for this site and yes… I have chosen the most commonly talked about obvious topic. There are two main reasons why I chose to talk about sitting first.

  • Firstly, sitting is without a doubt causing more postural problems for people than they realize.
  • Secondly, when I looked around the net the vast majority of articles seemed to be over simplified, or trying to sell so called ‘ergonomic’ office furniture or back supports.

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Sort Your Posture Out: The Mission

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The primary goal of this site is to help you try to sort out your posture before you experience pain or damage yourself.

Although the chances are that you found this site because you already have!

In which case I will provide some tips on; who to see, what to ask, and what you can do about it.

I will also try to:

  • Help you try to identify what went wrong in the first place.
  • Help you to work out how to restore your posture.
  • Help you to learn more about how your body works.
  • Show you some exercises & stretches that may help.
  • Dispel a few myths.
  • Babble on about anything else I find interesting!

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