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OET News
July 2015

Welcome to OET News! Summer has definitely started here in Portland having recorded the hottest June in history. I hope you have been staying cool and hydrated while at the same time staying active and enjoying the great outdoors. This months newsletter features an article about how great the human body works countering the cultural belief that the human body is filled with design flaws, fragile, and prone to breakdown. The articles titled "Form Follows Function" and "Bad Posture Equals Bad Running Form" both talk about how good form and technique are only possible if you start with good postural alignment and how many coaches and trainers miss this point setting their athletes up for failure and injury. Also included are a video of a fun full-body partner workout and a video where Pete Egoscue talks about infants, alignment, and the importance of being barefoot and crawling on childhood development. 
10 Design Perfections in the Human Body
Is the human body perfect or flawed in its design?
Our culture tells us that the human body is full of design flaws and is far from perfect. We are told by the media that our body is not pretty enough, strong enough, thin enough, young enough, and capable enough. We grow up believing we were born fat or un-athletic or flat footed or with a bad back or weak knees or hyper-mobile shoulders that are prone to dislocation. Experts tell us our knees are inherently flawed and prone to injury, our spines are a bad design, our necks are weak, and our wrists weren't designed to handle typing on a computer. Our culture tells us science is our only hope with its stem-cell injections, joint replacements, high-tech braces, and special creams, supplements, and engineered foods and the only way to get some longevity out of our flawed human bodies. 

I don't believe what our culture tells us. I believe the human body is perfectly designed. Read about 10 design perfections in the human body.
Form Follows Function
With imbalanced posture, no matter how much you focus on form, you will not be able to maintain good form because form follows function in the human body and movement.

Personal trainers, athletic trainers, strength coaches, and physical therapists love to talk about "good form" when performing movements from squats and deadlifts to pushups and crunches to jump shots and corner kicks to back-handsprings and triple-axels. They talk about keeping your back straight or elbows in or foot locked or full rotation. But do these trainers, coaches, and therapists understand form follows function? Read the whole article.
Full Body Partner Workout
Working out with a partner boosts your fitness and fun!
In this interactive full body partner workout, you will push, pull, and help each other to improved posture, flexibility, and function. Exercise is supposed to be fun and working out with a friend, partner, or teammate will guarantee a good workout and laugh at the same time. 
Pete Egoscue on Infants and Alignment
Learn why crawling is essential to healthy muscular development.
Pete Egoscue, founder of the Egoscue Method, explains how all babies are born with flat feet and we only develop foot arches with proper barefoot movement as infants and children. When infants are left to move and develop freely without intervention or disruption they will develop the strength, mobility, and coordination that creates an arch in their feet along with the strength to stand and walk on their own. This early childhood development is crucial to postural alignment and living an active and pain free life as adults. Learn more by watching this video where Pete Egoscue discusses breathing.
Bad Posture Equals Bad Running Form
Learn the right and wrong ways to change running posture.
Running coaches are always talking about "posture" nowadays. While I love that they talk about it, I do not like how they talk about it. Every running coach I have ever seen talks about posture as a conscious decision, something that runners should focus on while running, and something that takes effort to maintain. 

The problem with this advice is that posture should be unconscious - just look at any young child: perfect posture, movement, and running form and they never are thinking about how they are moving, they are just moving. All these running coaches have it right - that posture matters - but are going about it all wrong. Read more.
Your free 30 minute appointment includes discussion of your symptoms and goals, posture evaluation, functional testing, and gait analysis. We will then discuss the different therapy options that are available to help you reach your goals. 

Visit www.oregonexercisetherapy.com or call 971-279-2189 to schedule your FREE posture evaluation today. 
We believe that your chronic pain is not because of your age, genetics, past injuries, or activities you do. We believe your pain is because you have lost proper postural alignment. Correcting your posture will allow you to live the life you want to live and continue the activities you love to do, pain free! If you or anyone you know is suffering from chronic pain or injuries, encourage them to call me today - I'd be happy to help them. 

Sincerely,

 
Matt Whitehead
(971) 279 2189  
matt@oregonexercisetherapy.com
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