Category Archives: Exercise and posture

Jaw Tension

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Jaw tension (Bruxism) is the term given to chronic tightening of the jaw muscles. Jaw tension can give you headaches, keep your partner awake at night as you grind your teeth and  generally give you a tight, angry looking face.

Gum chewing produces and worsens jaw tension, your jaw muscles (masseters) don’t need this sort of exercise. The masseters do need to be stretched though, regular stretching exercise can help alleviate jaw tension. Whenever you yawn your masseters stretch, exercises that mimic yawning are good for your jaws. Giving your jaw muscles some circular, mild massage with your finger tips, can help relax your masseters.

The most common cause of jaw tension seems to be stress related, getting angry about things, particularly things you feel constrained to talk about can trigger it. The next time you get really cross about something ask yourself if your jaws feel tight, until you make self observations like that you will not realise whether you react like this or not.

Worry, anxiousness and intense mental concentration can cause tension in the jaws too, our facial muscles react constantly to what is going on inside our heads. Alot of people adopt the strangest facial expressions when deeply engrossed in something, grimacing and frowning can happen for the same reason that  clenching does. Pained expressions can cause you pain (and they won’t make you look pretty either).

There are also those who party pretty hard and long with drugs like ecstacy, ice and speed, these drugs can cause alot of jaw tension. This cause of jaw tension can wreck your teeth while you are still young.

Jaw tension effects your voice too, particularly if your jaw tension has a restrictive effect on how wide you part teeth when you are talking. Speaking with a barely open mouth muffles the natural resonance of your voice, people have much more pleasant talking and singing voices when they do not suffer from jaw tension. Jaw tension causes one to mispronounce words more often too.

A dentist once told me that about half of all his patients suffered from jaw tension, apparently it is that common. With so many good reasons why it is better not to have jaw tension it is such a shame to put up with it when you don’t have too. Soft tissue therapies (osteopathy, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture ) can help loosen your jaws and speech therapy can help you retrain your jaw muscles by making you more aware of how you use them.

Jaw tension can give you the worst headaches and grinding your teeth in your sleep can create stress between you and your partner (and prematurely wear your teeth out). Some of the nicest and most tolerant people I have known are also the worst jaw tension sufferers because they hold it all in on the inside.

People who don’t care about offending others rarely seem to get jaw tension.

Work out your Work Out II

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One of the most frequently exercise-neglected areas of the body is your abdomen. The abdominals help hold your spine straight and your digestive organs in place, they serve a very important function. Young women with good abdominal tone fair much better in the labour ward than their flabby sisters, good abdominal tone helps your digestion and the cosmetic appeal of a flat belly on men or women is so obvious it hardly needs mentioning.

Sit ups and crunches may still be the most commonly used abdominal exercises but they are not best practice and are likely to cause or worsen lower back pain. They do not work the most important abdominal muscles, overwork your hip flexors which are probably already too tight and are bad for your posture. With the weight of your upper body rocking vigorously backwards and forwards over your lop sided hips, the SI (sacro-iliac) joints become even more off-centre and can cause chronic lower back and hip pain.

A lot of people give up on their abdominal tone because the only exercises they were brought up to believe in just give them back pain. One way you can help your abs is to suck your belly in and tense it several times through the day and hold it there for a couple of minutes each time, you can do this even sitting at your desk at work. Doing this will help keep your back straighter too.

Erik Goodman’s Foundation exercises are amongst the best I seen for abdominal core strength, they have the advantage of being mainly executed in the a standing position making them more accessible for older people and exercise multiple muscles simultaneously, you can see some of these demonstrated on Youtube.

Chin ups (Pull ups) are another good example of multiple muscles being strenuously and symmetrically put to work at the same time, your lats, biceps, upper back, wrist flexors and abs are all engaged with this exercise that only requires an overhead bar to support your body weight.

Walking or running up stairs can be a convenient whole body way to fit short burst of exercise into your busy day, you don’t need to be in a gym to exercise.

Swimming is an exercise that works multiple muscles simultaneously though obviously not nearly as conveniently. Cardio unlike stretching and strengthening requires more time dedication but can be easily accommodated by walking or cycling to work and back.

Some stretching exercises work numerous muscles at the same time too, if you want to make exercising more compact and time efficient you will find some good examples in Self Massage & + 40 Fitness.

work out your workout

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If like most people you do not have a huge amount of spare time on your hands making the most of the time you do have is important, this applies to working out too. All the exercises you do should have a clear purpose and part of that purpose should be about minimising harm.

We are all a bit different, the work we do, new and old injuries, joint conditions, congenital deformities and the way stress affects us can make exercises that are easy for others hard for you to do. Sharp pain is a definite warning to back off any particular exercise.

The look you want to achieve and what we specifically need or want to do well is an important consideration, as is your muscle type. Some people get bigger muscles than others using the same exercises and this applies to stretching and cardio too. 

Squats for instance can give you increased thigh strength, if you lift or are naturally a bit week in your thighs squats become more important to your needs. Squats generally help you lift things better, even if is just your own backside getting on or off  chairs which becomes increasingly harder for many as they age or put on weight. Squatting down too far (past 90 degree knee flexion), can damage your knees, the greatest value of squats is supporting postural strength. Squatting with your knees bent more acutely than 90 degrees is a common exercise hazard many fall into.

The pressure inside your knees increases greatly when you fully flex your knees under your own body weight and much more so under extra load (pushing against a weight). Squats are safer if your knees are good.

If you have had a knee replacement full squats simply are not possible. It is fine to do full knee bends when you are not weight bearing as with leg stretches but under load it is a different story.

Another exercise that has a high risk factor is the shoulder press, if you are a footballer needing to reinforce your collarbones for front on tackling, shoulder press (and other exercises with similar actions) can help protect your upper body.

The trouble with shoulder press type exercises is that a)- any history of neck trauma like from a whiplash injury from a road accident can create a weakspot that might give way under stress. b) shoulders do not work efficiently when your hands are supporting weight above the height of your shoulders or behind the centre line of your body and c) Some of the muscles in shoulder press such as your upper trapezius and supraspinatus are always working against gravity anyway and are more likely to need stretching.

It is ok to workout hard but workout smart too.

Exercise and Weights

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Resistance Training (weights) can be a very useful path to better strength fitness if you do it right. Firstly, Form (correct posture) is paramount, doing any activity with poor posture is bad for your circulation, makes you more  prone to injury, wastes energy and it just looks all wrong. Exercising with weights using poor form  magnifies the consequences of bad posture greatly.

Resistance exercise should be performed with a straight back, if the weight cannot be lifted evenly (with right and left hands) it is too heavy for you and if you have to change your posture during your lifting  you may injure yourself. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve how you should look when lifting, exercising in front of a mirror may help you.

Even if you think you know what you are doing remain open to criticism and different ideas, it is possible that there are better ways to exercise than what you are accustomed to. A major warning sign with resistance training is sharp and restrictive pain, you may be lucky enough to “work through it” for a while and not injure yourself  but not all exercises work for all people.

Always work the agonist and antagonist muscles evenly, this means that it is best for you to have muscles of equilavalent strength opposing each other, eg.- your bicep bends your elbow and your tricep straightens it, exercise both. Acquaint yourself with muscle anatomy it is  interesting and easy to understand once you learn what the individual syllables of the words mean.

The best evidence of good strength condition is not huge muscles, it is a symmetrical upright posture, an even upright posture shows a good strength and flexability balance between your agonists and antagonists and the right and left sides of your body. People move with more ease, grace and coordination with good strength balance.

While it can be useful to watch yourself  in the mirror to ensure good form be mindful not to fall into the trap of exercising only those muscles you can see in the mirror, on the way to getting big pecs (chest muscles) you may totally neglect the muscles of the upper back and get a very unattractive and unhealthy round shouldered look about you.

If you decide to play it safe and get a personal trainer you will usually achieve better results if you choose one of about your own age because they may be in a better position to know what may be realistically achievable for you. A much younger trainer may be more attractive but will usually have less knowledge and experience than an older one will and not be as aware of age related body changes.

Always check the fasteners before you lift, it is easy (and embarrassing) for a weight slide off the bar and break your foot as you lift.

Allow yourself at least 2 minutes between sets and try to work with your weights at least once in every 3 days. If you have no weights with you rather than miss out use your own body weight for resistance training like push ups and chin ups.

Therapeutic Massage II

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How long will it take to feel better?

This is an often asked question that is not always easy to answer because it is contingent on so many different factors. Firstly younger bodies usually heal faster than older bodies because cell growth and repair happens faster in the young. Secondly the severity and duration of your muscle or joint problem must be taken into account, a muscle that has been repeatedly injured has more internal scarring than a new mild to moderate problem.

During the initial acute phase of treatment you may need to get more than one treatment a week and then as your condition improves your visits will need to be less frequent. The issue of consistency does not just apply to to massage therapists,- acupuncturists, osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists can all achieve better results with regular visits.

It is very easy to forget what it is like to feel “normal”, it is an easy trap to fall into thinking all your aches and pains are the unavoidable consequence of getting older. Obviously a 20 year old  will almost always be fitter and more lithe than a 60 year old, if you have a negative set of expectations about ageing you might think it just is not worth the effort of not even trying massage or maybe you just give up after only one or two treatments.

The next time you see a person with grey hair and wrinkles on their face but they still are fit, agile and upright you are probably looking at someone who did not give up on themselves too soon. Good genetics help but regular attention to body maintenance and exercise usually counts more. Regular effort helps you more than luck alone.

Some therapists are more proactive about showing you preventative and rehabilitative exercises than others. You can get better and faster results through learning  how to help yourself. I have been showing my clients easy and effective ways that they can massage their bodies as well as showing them exercises for a few years now. The clients who follow these instructions require fewer treatments and save themselves money.

Another strategy you might try is to do a massage course and swap massage treatments with your fellow students, it is a nice thing to share with your friends and can encourage you to see more of them.

Some health insurers don’t give you much cover for massage therapy, you may need to shop around and ask them questions about what they are prepared to offer you.