by Patrick LeRouge | Oct 30, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks! Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can you find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I help people that need to live an active life, eliminate pain with self-care techniques.
Today we are going to be talking about neck pain in the morning. I was just talking to some ladies just now and they were mentioning that they use a neck pillow, yet the pain doesn’t go away. It’s not about the pillow. You have to realize that we are doing something consistently that is opposite from what our body wants to do. You are asking your body to do something different, in a harsh manner, for a long period of time. This promotes your body to protect itself. So when you wake up in the morning, your neck is stuck in a different position and your body is not going to do the normal actions that it is used to when the neck is straight. You have to realize where you are and how fast you want that neck curve to be lowered. That is the first step to take. The body doesn’t need your help all the time, it already knows what to do, and you just need to structure it in the right way. Realize where you are before you go ahead and buy yourself a pillow. You want to start buying things that will progressively get you better. So get something with a smaller curve that is going to influence your body in a subtle way. However, it’s most important to see what you are doing the rest of the day that promotes a curvature in your neck. You have to coax your body into doing something right and then follow it up with your self-care work that is all day. It has to be all the time and in incremental steps otherwise you are going to recycle yourself and cause your body to use the device that you’re using as a protective mechanism. You have to do this consistently and it has to be in small bite-size, incremental steps.
That’s all this is about. It’s a balancing game. How much more can you balance, little by little? Once you start doing that, your body is going to consistently increase the balance and your range-of-motion will get better because now your body is structured better. You’re not doing enough neck-balancing work throughout the day, to allow that neck pillow to do what it was designed to do. Don’t put all your power in your neck pillow. The neck pillow will help you at night, but throughout the day, you need to be doing trigger point work or neck stretches. Are you teaching your body to restructure itself? That’s where your focus needs to be. It’s not all about the pillow. You are not waking up at night because of a bad pillow. Everything else you did outside the pillow, didn’t line up with why you are using that pillow in the first place. Hopefully, you enjoyed that one and if you did, please share it with others. If you aren’t part of this newsletter, please sign up because I’d love to answer all of your questions. Until next time! Bye!
by Patrick LeRouge | Oct 10, 2014 | video tips
What’s up everybody! Patrick Lerouge here with Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can you find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I’m a restorative therapist that helps people that need to live an active life, eliminate pain for the long-term all through self-care. We are going to be doing our weekly tip today and our weekly tip is all about the following: what is a trigger point?
This is a subject that I’ve recently learned many people don’t understand, so I’m going to break it down in more detail for you. In order to do that, I’m going to start by explaining the structure of the muscle. First we are going to take any muscle and cut it in half to look at the cross-section. The muscle has the outer fascial layer with various muscle bundles inside and within each of them, there is a muscle fiber. This is further composed of muscle fibrils. I want you to realize this is a chamber device so your muscle bundles and fibrils go in and out as the muscle contracts. Sometimes the fascial layer doesn’t allow the muscle tissue to slide. This is called fascial work. However, trigger point work is when the muscle tissue inside can’t contract and gets stuck in a locked position. So as the other areas of the muscles start to slide, that particular contractile unit gets stuck and it bunches up. That is what a trigger point is. I will give you an easy definition: a trigger point is a muscle tissue that is no longer functioning properly. That’s it. It’s bunching up so it’s not contracting properly.
For trigger point work, you have to understand that this one spot can do damage to many different areas. This can decrease the functionality of the whole muscle tissue. It will start compensating by asking the other areas to do more work than they have to. This becomes a cascading approach. So once you start to compensate, you are asking the other muscles to do more work they are not supposed to be doing, which will in turn make them fatigue faster. Understanding what is the bigger picture of the trigger point, lets understand what a trigger point does.
When the muscle starts to add more compensation patterns, we have to get the core of this whole problem to start giving up. Now we have to start doing trigger point work by touching this area with a ball, a hand, or any other device. You will know when you hit a trigger point, because it refers pain to a different part of the body. The pain will never be in the exact spot because there are many different referral points for the trigger point to go to. It also does not have to necessarily refer pain. A bound part of the muscle tissue can be considered a trigger point. How do you deal with a trigger point?
You can deal with it by pushing and holding it, which will result in a discomforting sensation or referred pain. The other thing to do is the ‘milk’ the trigger point so you work the trigger point in the direction it moves within the muscle. You will hit the point and roll across it in the pattern of the muscle. Two ways you can clear a trigger point are to either hold it and let it relax, or move it through its natural range-of-motion. If this helped, pass it along. Keep on sending me ideas for you guys to learn from. I love you guys for it and if you are not part of the group, please sign up! I’m always giving out different self-help tools. See you in the next one. Bye!
by Patrick LeRouge | Oct 2, 2014 | video tips
What’s up everybody! It’s Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. Today what I’m going to be talking to you about is the natural progression of the healing cycle. This is going to be kind of fun because it shows you the big picture and gives you an idea of what naturally happens within the body. What happens when you break a bone or sprain an ankle? Your body is going to go through a specific set of events to heal itself.
So, for example, when you break a bone in your leg, the body will first completely stop the area. It will block everything around it, so it will protect that area for all it’s worth. You are not going to be able to move that leg, because it does not want any more damage done to it. With a sprained ankle, the same concept applies. It’s going to stop the movement there because it doesn’t want it to do any more damage.
Next, it’s going to flood the area with blood, causing swelling. In a sprained ankle scenario, it still swells, but to a lower degree. That area will get full of pus and now is the time when it starts to do its work. This is where everyone starts to make their mistake by messing with their injurey. What you have to realize is that during the first few days of this process, you are going to have to allow the body to do what it needs to do. It may feel uncomfortable, you will have pain, and you are going to want to do something with it, for example packing it with ice. Yet the reason why it’s swelling it because it’s trying to repair itself. However, when you have a swollen ankle, you do want to contain it by keeping your shoe on. Get more blood flow to run through it by walking in whichever way is comfortable for you. Yet don’t take off your shoe, because as soon as you take off your shoe, it will get more swollen and that area will get bigger because now it has room to breathe. With a broken bone, you are going to have to let your bone set itself. That is why they cast you, to give the bone time to repair itself. With the sprained ankle though, you can now start learning instantly how far you can move it. At first it will be very small movements and eventually within days, you might get it to work a little bit better.
So now in the next phase, your body is rebuilding things. It will show you more heat, different sensations, and will be doing miraculous things. Healing is not a fun place, it’s a combat zone since things are dying and rebuilding. Now that you know it’s a war zone, you are going to expect things to be going on down there. With a broken bone, it’s to the same degree, but the more you are aware of what’s happening with your body, the faster your body is going to heal. So with a bone, you will put a cast on it and then ‘set it and forget it’ and let it go through its motions. With an ankle, you do the opposite and slowly start to work with it, which in turn is what can make it heal faster.
Now that it is rebuilding more, at this point, you can start actively doing more rehab based work. When you have a broken bone, you can start walking and putting small force on that bone, in incremental steps. Yet due to the cast, it’s harder to know where you are in the healing process, because you can’t really feel anything. So be very careful unless you are used to doing it all the time. As you put more weight on it, you will teach your bone to do things and it will construct itself incrementally.
In the last few phases, this is where your bone will start to heal more and you can put more weight on it. In the end, you’re going to have a really clean bone, although it will have scar tissue. It’s important to understand that if you do rehab work in the beginning stages, it can cause more harm here because the body has not completed its repairs. This is why knowledge is power, folks. Once you start realizing where you are, then you can start navigating. So now you can do work on it without having any fear. The more you play with it, it will start to get better and better. Yet with each one of these phases, comes a different timeline. With a broken bone, it will be a little while before you get it functioning again. With a sprained ankle, it could be a couple days or hours depending on how frequently you make it move, on your mindset, and how much you trust yourself.
It can move through the healing process relatively fast, you just need to know where you are on the whole scheme of things and you can make it go even faster. Imagine getting injured, and being able to get back into your activities again very quickly. Getting hurt is actually a good thing, if it’s done properly. If you know where you are, you can make it even better, because now your body is reconstructing and it’s doing so based on what you tell it in that particular phase. If you break something on a muscular level, it’s going to bind and try to protect itself. Yet it needs to move, contract, and communicate and in order to do this is must be worked with. The healing process has it’s steps, but the timing is all based on your mindset and the things you believe can do. Once you know this, you can speed through any injury because you know the healing process. This is true for a toothache, a migraine, and anything! It’s going to first lock down the area, then rebuild itself, there’s a loading phase, and then the end result where you can move again. If you loved this tip, share it. If you are not part of the family, please sign up. I would love to answer your questions. Until next time! Bye!
by Patrick LeRouge | Sep 25, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks! Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. Today we want to talk about Giving Away Your Power. I see this constantly as I’m working on a new patient or a new client. They want me to fix them, because they think I have more knowledge. Yet what people don’t realize is that they actually have more knowledge.
You know yourself better than anyone else in the world. What you have to realize is that you can’t get from Point A to Point B, because you don’t have the steps. I may have the steps but you have the knowledge which means you have more power than I do. I consistently battle with my clients to empower them to do the things they need to do to learn about themselves. That’s what this is all about. You have a huge choice every time you enter a situation. A good example is when people give power to their doctors. You have tendonitis, so you go to the orthopedic surgeon. You have to go because you need the information to see what treatments are needed. He will then give you 6 weeks to recuperate. You can now make the choice to get better yourself before this 6-week timeline or give him your power and follow his rules. Your body knows how to heal you just need to believe in yourself to get your power back. You’re not broken, you just don’t have the steps. Take back your power and realize that you have what it takes to make any situation get better. It’s just your job to figure out the steps. It’s not going to be easy but if it was, everyone would be doing it and living a pain-free life. You just have to find out what works for you. You go to doctors and therapists by asking them what is going on and what is missing. Even if you have a broken bone, your body is not broken and can still function highly with a broken bone. You just need to find out what you’re capable of and that takes practice and work.
So remember, you always have a choice whether to give up your power or reclaim your power. Have your therapists work side by side with you. Start looking inside yourself and realize that you can do it. It’s really easy because our body heals naturally. The hard part is realizing that you trust yourself. You will then start regaining your power, one experience at a time. You will realize it can do more and more, because you are fighting for it. Don’t give your power away, fight for it. If you find a therapist that says they will ‘fix’ you, run away! They can make you feel better at that moment, but they won’t always be with you. Start learning all the things you need to do, to make yourself better. That’s a powerful person! That’s what I’m looking for and what you are truly capable of! If you know someone who needs to hear this message, send it to them. This is one of the biggest messages I can give people. You are powerful! Until next time! Bye.
by Patrick LeRouge | Sep 18, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks! Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. Today I want to talk about something that is pretty fun. Are you present during your rehabilitation process? This is a fun topic for me, because you can interpret this in many different ways. So what does being present mean?
When you go to someone to get help, don’t just sit there and zoning out. This will not help you and you won’t get much out of the session. However, if you walk side by side with them, you are going to start learning what your body is really doing. To be present, you have to stop everything. For example, when you go to a massage therapist and you go to sit down on the table, clear out all the noise. You need to pause and then listen to what is going on. Then clarify by paying attention to what your massage therapist is doing. How does it feel as your muscles are being worked on? Trust your body and what you are doing to be present. When you are running outside, stop all the distracting noise. It is you time. Listen to what’s truly happening. How does your knee feel as it’s running? Then clarify by seeing how it needs to move instead. Finally, trust your body to take you to through that process. You will be surprised how just that thought change will shift the way you feel. This applies to all rehabilitation processes.
No longer can you solely depend on someone for improving yourself, you need to be part of the process by being present. This is because the body is designed to defend itself against anything external. So be present on what’s happening and keep an active role. Don’t ever let anyone take your power away, because then you are diminishing your self-worth. That’s not worth it, because then your body is going to give up. Remember this: whatever you tell yourself – is right. If you think someone else needs to fix your pain, then someone else will need to fix your pain. Yet if you think you can improve by yourself with some assistance, then this different type of thinking will change your attitude. So please stay present during your rehabilitative process. If you liked this tip, please share it to others. This is important in getting people to look within to see what it is they need help with. Until next time! Bye.
by Patrick LeRouge | Sep 11, 2014 | video tips
What’s up folks! Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. Today what we are going to talk about is: why you are in pain. If you are in pain, you are subjecting your body to more stressful stimuli rather than more relaxing situations. You are doing more negative than positive things to your body, so it’s now withering away. You can try to rationalize it, but truly your body is an adaptive, organic system. Your body can change into anything. Yet it can’t change, when it has fallen apart due to a high amount of stress. This holds true for positive or negative stress. Your body focuses on either the ‘rest and relaxation healing’ or the ‘fight or flight’ response. The brain talks with the body through hormones so if your hormones are out of control, you are on one end of the spectrum. It is important that you realize where you are on the stress spectrum. So let’s talk about what stress is.
There are many different kinds of stress and everybody knows about the negative aspects of stress: fatigue, emotional stress, headaches, and behaviors. All of this can easily be found on the Internet. Yet what I want to focus on is the positive stresses that we have: when we love what we are doing. For example, I love working and I can easily work 15 hours a day. Working makes me energized, yet that does not mean that my body does not interpret it as stress. These things add up as well. You have to focus on the positive as well as the negative. The positive stress is something that you have to do. So we have to understand what we are doing on the negative side. What stress are we putting on our body that we can get rid of? The more you can get rid of these stressors, the better your body will perform. That’s the key. Can you get rid of what’s stressing you out? Are you willing to get rid of it? So many people want to change, but aren’t willing to change. When you are training, you have to do this in a balanced state: mentally, emotionally, and physically. This is all about balancing out the systems.
Keep up with what’s happening inside your body. If you can clean up in 20 minutes, instead get your body to calm down by sitting in a quiet room reading or relaxing for those 20 minutes. These things are going to bring your stress level down. This gives your body more energy to heal, so you can start going through your positive stressors more, instead of your negative stressors. Try doing something that is physically relaxing. While in pain, your body is going through more stressors than relaxing situations yet your body heals in that relaxation state. If you are in pain, I guarantee you are not doing enough on that relaxing side of the spectrum. That’s how simple it is. If you like this tip, please share it with others. If you are not part of the newsletter group, please email me to join the list and be part of the family. Until next time! Bye.
