Your Wellness Nerd

If you’re unhappy with how your lower back feels or functions, take the time to mobilise your hips.

Mechanically, any loss of hip range can ask the lower back to make up the difference when doing basic things like bending forward, leaning over, sitting, etc.

Whether you have back pain or are just unhappy with how it feels try improving your hip flexion range of motion, your hip extension range of motion and your hip rotational range to feed some slack back into your back from underneath.

Give it a go and let me know how you feel!

- Grant
#backpain #lowbackpain #hipstretches #hipmobility

4 days ago | [YT] | 42

Your Wellness Nerd

Weak glutes? You may never fully feel that permanent sense of strength until you ALSO focus on this!

Also, consider becoming a member for the extended cut!

What did you find???

- Grant

#weakglutes #glutestrength

5 days ago | [YT] | 19

Your Wellness Nerd

If you prioritise arch supportive shoes or orthotics, think again. 🤔

For most, there are two main reasons we intuitively lean this way:

1. We are often told to go for arch support
2. It often feels better

And that’s perfectly fine.

But what if we consider that an arch - almost by definition, is not a weight-bearing surface.

Whether it’s the arch of our feet, or an arch under a bridge or above a doorway, these structures bare the weight, not the other way round.

This common misconception stems from the our perception of pain and injury stemming from collapsing arches.

And while clinically this is highly relevant, the important perspective here is that a poor functioning arch is not a foot problem in isolation. It is often a consequence of poor overall leg function - stiff ankles, poor hip function, back dysfunction etc.

So while an arch can be offer short term relief, it will never stop your arch from wanting to collapse. We need a broader focus to achieve this and eventually get you to the stage where you don’t feel you need arch support long term.

Do you lean into arch support when you purchase shoes?

- Grant
#archsupport #flatfeet #orthotics #yourwellnessnerd

1 week ago | [YT] | 24

Your Wellness Nerd

Had to give this a go haha 😂

What other accessories am I missing?

1 week ago | [YT] | 27

Your Wellness Nerd

File this under yet another thing that seems one way but is ultimately another.

Hands up if you have consistent chest muscle tightness that doesn’t seem to go away despite your best efforts to stretch it🙋

You may be surprised to know that clinically, the root cause of that chest muscle tightness around the front may actually be hidden joint stiffness around the back.

Thanks to our daily postures and shapes, it’s easy to overload the spinal and rib joints in our upper back. Especially if you have slouchy shoulders.

Anatomically, the pectoral muscles anchor from the shoulder onto the rib cage at the front. But if there’s dysfunction along the course of those ribs that originates around the back then our brain can recruit those pecs for support.

So if you’re spending time stretching your chest muscles, take a moment to grab a ball and gently let it press in around your upper back to try and free up any hidden restrictions. Immediately try and stretch those pectoral muscles again and you might be surprised by how loose they already feel.

You may still need to stretch them as they have become tight, but the difference here is you shouldn’t have to keep stretching them if we’ve found the underlying cause of why they become tight in the first place.

Sounds weird but hugely important!

- Grant

1 week ago | [YT] | 13

Your Wellness Nerd

I find our current explanations for muscle cramps incomplete.

Typical ideas like dehydration, fatigue, low electrolytes, poor conditioning always made sense on the surface, but never felt specific enough.

Each of these are global issues - things that affect the whole body.

To me, these never explained why one calf muscle wanted to cramp and not the other, or adjacent muscles.

So I did a deep dive with my patients that mentioned cramping as a symptom.

And over the result? Back dysfunction.

Clinically, cramping is yet another symptom closely impacted by segmental spinal level dysfunction - and by freeing up these restricted/overloaded areas, we can consistently see a resolution.

The key here is to hunt around the level that houses the nerve that supplies the cramping muscle in question. For example, calf cramps relate more to the lower back thanks to the sciatic nerve. Similarly, the base of the neck relates more to forearm muscle that cramp, etc.

If we can dial into these spinal levels more closely, it doesn’t eliminate the role of electrolytes and hydration altogether - they may still have an impact, but it helps us better understand what those global issues might be exposing.

Thoughts?

- Grant

1 week ago | [YT] | 22

Your Wellness Nerd

New Podcast episode! In this episode, I discuss what could be THE most significant perspective I've learned when trying to uncover the root cause of common aches, pains, injuries and dysfunctions.

open.spotify.com/episode/6KwpSY2u5KvhexcUrlGxpn?si…

1 week ago | [YT] | 14

Your Wellness Nerd

Massage clearly has its benefits.

Its ability to help you feel looser and more relaxed obviously makes it a worthwhile pursuit.

But one thing it can’t do is stop those things from coming back.

Maybe this is obvious to some people, but subconsciously I think a lot of people go into a massage hoping that it nails their tightness is forever.

But it can’t. Muscle tightness is often a response to our brain’s request for support, protection, or help.

So if we don’t pair up a good massage with strategies that fill in these gaps somewhere else, then it’s natural for those tight muscles to come back over the course of the next few days.

In my clinical experience, muscle tightness often surrounds a joint that is stiff, or a muscle that is weak. These dysfunctions often exist within a system that isn’t functioning or positioned correctly in terms of posture or general body mechanics.

So if getting a massage helps you feel loose and less stressed AND you’re happy to keep having that experience over and over again, by all means keep things as they are.

But if you’re using these tools to rid yourself a dysfunction, just take a step back and consider why those muscles are tight and get to work on changing that as well.

- Grant

1 week ago | [YT] | 23

Your Wellness Nerd

So I've been toying with the idea of doing the odd live stream and would love to gauge potential interest.

My thoughts were to have one main topic to cover, such as back or shoulder pain, where I would do a deep dive into the underlying causes, helpful exercises, important perspectives I've learned as a Physio, etc.

I thought it might also be valuable to have a portion of the stream dedicated to general Q&A, with members guaranteed to have their queries answered.

Would you be interested in this? If so, please let me know by liking this post.

Also, I'd love to hear what you might like me to do during something like this so as to provide as much value as possible.

So, what are your thoughts?

- Grant

1 week ago | [YT] | 21

Your Wellness Nerd

If you have to sit and work for any length of time, consider adopting a standing desk instead. Here's how to optimise things!

- Grant

Please join up and become a member for exclusive content and early access to videos!

1 week ago | [YT] | 5