by Patrick LeRouge | Jan 15, 2015 | video tips
Pain Is Not Random:
We’ve been trying to get clear lately, but you’re still in pain…now what? As we get into the nitty gritty of things you have to recognize that pain is not random. It’s not! It’s inevitable. Let’s take a look at this quote “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. What that means is our bodies are always going to be talking to us and pain is one of the ways the body communicates.
What do we do with that information determines if you are going to suffer. If we get a pain in our body and we just say, “Here it is again! Oh my God. Oh my God”, this is just you pouting and complaining about it and acting like a child, rather than doing something about it.
So what we’re going to discuss is pain-it is there, but it is not random. What you have to realize is when your body is communicating with by expressing pain it means that there’s more stressors on the body than there are healing aspects; things that get the body to calm down. Whether it’s a rolled ankle, a fall or a chronic pain that nagging all the time. You need to take away stressors and add in more healing properties. Such things as, meditation, gentle yoga, movement based yoga, chiropractic sessions, anything that helps you perform. Maybe even some weight training or movement training. All these will help, as long as it doesn’t tax you out or add any extra stressors where you’re hurting from it. That means your body is not going to respond to it well, but if it’s nice and easy and you take baby steps your body is going to start using it consistently. It’s all about understanding that you have more stressors in line that healing qualities. The more stressors you have, the more healing you need, that’s all it is. When it comes to pain your body is like a bank and the currency is energy. The energy goes back and forth within your body based off stressors. The more stressors there are, the more you’re pulling out energy just like money coming out of the bank and the more money is coming out of the bank the more energy is coming out. You have to slow that down!
We all have accidents….let’s talk about a trauma injury; an actual serious fall. Now, depending on the fall, if you don’t have enough money-energy-to back up that fall, then that’s your issue. Pain, again, is inevitable. Before your body decides to start really working with healing the trauma, you have to replace all that money back in the bank, all your energy must be restored to your body. Otherwise, it is always going to try to start holding itself and then you’re stuck in fight or flight mode. Let’s say you hurt your knee….you can’t just focus on the knee, saying, “Oh my God, my knee hurts, my knee hurts”. You need to do more activities that will get you breathing; give you energy. Then you’ll start saying, “All right now I can deal with the knee”. You’ll be able to respond to the knee so much better. It will be easier to deal with it. That’s the name of the game, not, “I’m going to get energy that’s going to magically heal it”. How you respond to it, not react to it.
You have to start recognizing where you are in the whole scheme of things and realize that pain is not random. Pain just doesn’t happen; if you wake up with a crick in your neck, it wasn’t from you pillow or the way you slept. You lost the amount of energy needed to consistently heal or you didn’t eat the proper amount or type of food that would give your body the resources it needs to heal the cellular debris to get the muscle tissue to work better so it can actually heal. Or, you just never got out of fight or flight in the first place before you went to sleep and your body has been running overtime all night and eventually just pops! It can’t give anymore and hold this awkward position that you put yourself in. It always boils down to having more stressors than healing properties.
Just focus on removing stuff when you’re in pain. We’re talking about physical, mental and emotional facets. A lot of people just look at physical pain and they see physical issues and think, “Oh, I jogged wrong”, “I walked wrong” or “I hit this” or “I hit that”. I am a firm believer that it’s all a humongous conundrum of fun. Become conscious of the fact that every stressor has to go through an emotional aspect, followed by mental and then a physical aspect. If you have chronic pain, those aspects are streamlined in and you’re consistently triggered on the emotional and mental bearing and it’s giving you manifestations in the physical. Our mind is a very adaptable beast and it hides things from us so you wouldn’t even notice the emotional drain in energy. For so many ailments I see in the human body, you won’t notice the emotional drain in energy. If I can get that to clean up or you can manage it better, then you’ll heal. Point blank!
Take Away:
Pain is not random. Take it apart, find out what’s happening within yourself. Find out and then start realizing that you just need to add more healing forms and remove some stressors. That’s it! Then you’ll start mapping it out easier and easier; start noticing that it wasn’t the night sleep that did it, it was the whole day that did this or that to you. That is what you have to focus on.
by Patrick LeRouge | Jan 8, 2015 | video tips
Time management is huge! We all know that it’s important and that we need to find a better way to manage our time.
What I want you to focus on is not how to have time management, rather to recognize what the hell is filling up your day! That’s it. That’s all I want you to focus on; how we can go through so many different things in a day.
How does this help me eliminate pain you ask?
Once you realize how much stuff you’re doing and cramming into a day, two things will happen:
- You’ll say, “Holy crap! Why, oh why am I putting up with all this stuff?”
- You’re going to realize the reason why you’re falling apart. It’s no wonder you feel like crap and are exhausted at the end of the day.
You need to understand what’s on your plate at any given moment. You have to grasp the fact that your brain is going to try and accomplish everything with a very little amount of energy that the conscious brain actually puts out. You have to comprehend this. To start seeing and tracking what’s happening in your day try this:
- Get a daily scheduler and for one week write down each day what you do at what time, each and every thing; from what time you get up, shower, when you ate, what you did while you were eating, etc. Writing it all out will help give a snap shot of your day.
You’re going to do this for a good seven days straight. The more data you get, the more understanding you’ll have. Then you will begin to notice a pattern. Some people say, “My day is always random”. It’s never ever random, ever. We are creatures of habit, whether we like to admit it or not. We’re going to go through ebbs and flows of how we work out our day, but I want you to do is take note of that.
- Figure out what is priority out of everything. What is going on there?
- When can I fit in 10-20 minutes of self-care?
Takeaway:
To better manage your time, try writing down everything you’re doing throughout your day for one week. Then, out of that figure out what’s priority. After that you’ll be able to prioritize all your tasks per day and designate specific times to get them done. So you can get a lot done in one day, that’s great! Remember though, that’s not what we’re focusing on. We’re focusing on the recognition of what’s filling your time. Last, but not least, try and squeeze in a little time for some self-care! We have start looking at ourselves. Make yourself number one and start doing more things for yourself. Notice that you matter. You are number one! Say to yourself, “You know what? I am number one. What can I do to recharge my battery?” That’s huge in the whole world of self-care and allowing your body to heal. Getting your body out of its fight or flight response and doing something for yourself is not selfish! I see parents a lot of times thinking that this is a selfish act, that they should be doing more with their kids. You just have to realize that you’re number one. That’s it.
by Patrick LeRouge | Jan 1, 2015 | video tips
New Year’s Resolution:
This a brand new year and we’re going to have some fun!
We are going to start off the brand new year with The New Year’s Resolution. We’re going to do something for ourselves whether it’s losing weight, quitting drinking, finding a new job, or going back to school. What all these have in common is you. You are the one thing that stops you as well as starts to get you really moving forward.
So when it comes to a New Year’s Resolution, start focusing on the different aspects of what you are able to do.
My challenge for you this year is the following: I want to get to know myself better.
In other words, why aren’t you losing weight? Why aren’t you quitting drinking? What is the role you play in that? That’s my resolution to you.
When it all comes down to it, we are our own worst enemy and we have to figure out why.
There are easy ways of starting the process of getting to know yourself.
The one aspect that I really want you to start getting in on, is sitting with yourself. Keep in mind it is one of the hardest ones to grasp.
1) Sitting With Yourself
Just sit and contemplate — This is what I’m actually thinking. This is what I’m actually saying. This is what I’m actually doing.
Once you start breaking that down, you start to notice more and more the habits that you do which stop you from losing weight, for example. We always say that we don’t have the willpower to stop eating junk food at night. Yet, if you start watching the things that you say and the things that you do, you’ll realize it makes sense why you weren’t hungry at nights. This was because you didn’t eat dinner at an appropriate time, or you ate a horrible dinner.
Your brain can say, “What is something quick that I can eat, but is also somewhat healthy?” It will try to find the smallest, easiest things. If you’re a parent, you have your kids’ snacks all over the place so it’s easy to grab one of those.
We are setting ourselves up. So the name of the game I really want you to focus on is how to know yourself.
I want to you to get to know yourself by spending 10 minutes a day looking inward seeing what you are doing. It’s not about meditating but it’s all about thinking about what you are thinking. Really take note and see what is actually happening. Is it positive or is it negative?
Just start gathering data about yourself. Don’t think about doing it for 3 weeks as a quick technique. Instead, start thinking of how you can incorporate it into your life and start by doing it for 3 months.
2) Write It Down!
Once you write things down, they become real. They get right there in your face. So spend 10 minutes a day, tracking what’s going on in your brain and looking at what you’re doing.
For example, are you rushing again while you’re driving? Ok, so you are rushing again. Everyone will say you shouldn’t do that. There is no right or wrong stance on whatever you do. It’s just an observation. You won’t know what you’re doing until you actually look at what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If you notice you are rushing a lot, you have to calm things down and have better time management.
3) One small step at a time
It’s relatively easy to make humongous changes when you focus on one small step at a time. Focus on that and forget about all the big things. Remember, we are always talking about the bigger picture, because these steps add up.
So start watching what you do, so you can see your future change before your eyes. Losing weight no longer becomes this huge ordeal, and you can look at it and say, “Ok, what is my one step I need to do?”, “Let’s not have a dinner that is horrible and let’s have it at a reasonable time.”
After this, it’s just a matter of tracking it and doing it.
This is a brand new year! This is your time to shine and you have to shine right!
Takeaway:
This year, try focusing on how to sit with yourself and really dive deep. Think about what you are thinking and doing and also the reasons behind them. After you make the observation, always ask yourself why. Once you’ve identified all these things, make sure you write them down! This will make it more concrete and real! If you find you are facing something that looks daunting, just break it up in to smaller steps and deal with it one step at a time. This allows you to face bigger challenges because from that angle, they do not look so intimidating. Remember to shine for this upcoming new year!
by Patrick LeRouge | Dec 11, 2014 | video tips
Are you dipping into your savings account, without even knowing it?
The body has a certain amount of energy reserves that we dip into consistently. We don’t realize this though, because we are just living our lives. So just living life, costs us an energy load. The only time people recognize something is wrong, is when their energy gets depleted. This is when we start to get sick, our brain gets foggy, or we get tired.
The best analogy to use for the fluctuation of energy is money. People are very sensitive to this topic and they understand the concept of a bank account very well. This is how I get people to recognize the energy that they are using.
So let’s start off by referring to our energy as a bank. This only goes so far, but we only notice it when we go into the ‘negative’ state. In this state, when we are sick, we try our best to get out of the low energetic phase to get into the positive energetic phase, yet we are using so much more energy to do this. This is energy that we don’t have access to. So without recognizing it, you borrow energy from tomorrow to pay for today.
When you enter ‘sick season’ without storing more energy beforehand, you become susceptible to actually getting sick. Once you get any symptom, the body has to use energy to get rid of it, so it has to work hard to achieve this. If you don’t have enough energy supply for this to work, you end up going too far into the negative energetic levels and as a result, it will take a long while for you to get back out.
You cannot afford to have your energy levels plummet for a long period of time, where you are sitting in bed for a week. So here are a few steps you can take to prevent this from happening:
- Inventory
When you get sick, take an inventory of everything that is happening in your life. Where is your energy load from the start being focused on? Make sure you are using the right amount of energy for certain things. Whether you are going for a walk, working out, or going to work, all these things can be good for you, but they might be depleting your energy more than you want or need.
- Foresee Future Events
Recognize what will take your energy away, in the future. You want to make sure you have allotted your energy for these possibilities so you are not going below the standard energy level.
- What Gives Energy?
Pinpoint the things that instead, give you more energy and make you more active throughout your day.
By doing these things, you can understand how to fill your bank account back up with energy so you don’t fall apart on yourself. In turn, this will prevent you from getting sick all the time because you will have enough energy to pull yourself out of the trenches, when you see the symptoms.
Takeaway:
What’s going on in your life? Make sure you are taking an inventory of the things you are doing that might be depleting your energy. Is there anything in the near future that you can see might be drawing energy from your bank account? If so, make sure you prepare for that by allotting energy for certain things. Finally look for the things that give you energy and focus on that to help you get out of the low energetic valleys when you feel sickness is coming.
by Patrick LeRouge | Nov 27, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks, its Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I help the super athlete eliminate pain for the long term all through self-care, with the belief system that the body can heal anything. All we have to do is work at it! What we are going to talk about is the wide web of the back, back pain, and back fascia. Fascial units are starting to become more popular and be more understood. So today, I want to give you more clarity on the back fascia.
On a diagram of the back, displaying the fascia and muscles, you will see a white area on the bottom. This is called the back fascia which runs the length of the lat and binds to areas underneath that. If the majority of the lower back does not want to move, in other words you experience low back tightness, your lats and erectors will not work very well. Your glutes will also not work very well. All these different areas are going to start locking up. So we have to help you learn how to start getting this fascial unit to open. What I want you to notice is the lat that has a curvature and the way you stretch that particular muscle will be crucial to managing your back fascial pain.
So we have to get you to learn that the back fascia is widespread and as it spreads open, it stops you from moving. You can start foam rolling, doing trigger point work, stretching, or using heating pads to focus on clean movement. It is important to have the intention of looking at it and seeing the fascia open. There are so many muscles that interact with that back fascia that you can easily catch on the next tightest thing, yet you want to focus solely on that. So when you are on your back and foam rolling, your core needs to be completely aligned and you have to be off of your spine, slightly lateral. If you are on your spine, your body is going to protect itself from you and you won’t be making any improvements. Even if your core is tight and rolling softly and slowly, your body is still going to protect itself.
When you are doing your trigger point work, it is all about contractile, so you’re going to be hitting muscle tissue that is correlating with that. You have to get the muscle tissue to contract properly so you can get it to move.
The stretch will utilize the rotation of your back as well as your lat. Yet you need all three components for a muscle to work properly. You need it to move, contract, and communicate. If you only stretch, the muscle will never fully work properly because you are not working on the other two things. The way you are going to stretch your lat is in a seated position where your elbow needs to touch the opposite knee. First you will slightly twist your torso, then align your elbow with your knee as you extend your arm and very slowly go down until your elbow is touching your knee. You will start to feel the fascia in your lower back to open up. For the length of the back, you can hold a door jam and just sit down. Once you think about getting your butt to hit the floor that is when your lower back starts opening length-wise. This is going to be key because calf pain will start to diminish along with upper back and shoulder issues. So if you have any questions, don’t forget to email me. If you aren’t part of the newsletter, get on because I am giving pain-free solutions and loving every second of it! See you next time! Bye.
by Patrick LeRouge | Nov 20, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks, it’s Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I help the super athlete eliminate pain for the long term all through self care, with the belief that the body can heal anything. Today we are going to be talking about the triceps. It is a simple muscle to understand, since its main function is to extend the elbow. However, this does not mean it’s not a common area that binds and stops massive movement. The triceps attaches at the back part of the shoulder and at the bottom part of the elbow. The sites where the muscle ends attach to, are common areas for pain to be held and where movement is slowed down. As you know, everything is about movement, so if something does not move, the body will compensate and make another part move that is not supposed to. So what we are going to focus on today is how the triceps gives you common pains. Today we will focus on the triceps and the shoulder. The triceps compounds on the shoulder, because that is where it attaches.
If you were to look at a muscle diagram, you would see that the triceps attaches right underneath the shoulder and at the bottom part of the scapula. So as you extend your elbow, the triceps will stabilize the shoulder as well. Many of the movement points are closer to the elbow, so you will get a lot of elbow pain. People with golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow should understand that the triceps plays a part in those conditions. This is what I want you to focus on: how the triceps plays a part in the elbow and the shoulder.
At the shoulder joint, the triceps attaches right underneath the scapula, that means if you can’t get that triceps to open, the scapula won’t do the specific ranges of motion it needs to. Everyone understands that if you have more propulsion in your arms, you are going to move faster in your run. They think it’s just about the pecs and shoulder joint, but if you can’t extend with your triceps, you won’t be able to get it completely open and you won’t be able to push forward. This will hinder you from running faster. So your triceps plays a key role in getting you to do that. An easy way to determine if your triceps is working well, is by scratching the middle of your back. All the joints are able to rotate and give your shoulder, total range-of-motion, playing a key role in how the shoulder moves.
Now I’m going to talk to you about the common mistake that everyone makes when stretching the triceps. Everyone thinks they should lift their arm, try to reach for their back as far as they can, and stretch sideways, yet this is not correct. By stretching sideways, you are grinding your shoulder joint and bypassing the triceps, as you hit the joint capsule. The best way is to make your arms parallel to your torso as you lift your arms and reach for your back. Then just go as far down your back as you can, always keeping in mind to keep the arm parallel to your head and not moving sideways. Once you get this movement down, you will feel different fibers in the triceps stretch. Another way is to put your elbow against a wall and slide down. As you slide down, the elbow stays right where it is and the triceps move straight up.
If you can get the triceps to open up, it will give you forward-moving power for running or walking. Your triceps muscle will stabilize the scapula with a proper range of motion. Additionally, this will roll the T-spine, allowing your body to rotate itself. You can see now how all of these functions are affected by the triceps, so focus on getting the triceps to start lengthening. If you enjoyed this tip, please pass it on. If you aren’t part of the family yet, come on in and I can drop pain-free solutions in your lap! Until next time! Bye.
