I have never considered myself ambidextrous. I’ve learned some skills requiring ambidexterity (violin, piano, typing, and using my phone), but my left hand has always felt stupider than my right. A month ago, left handedness was forced upon me when I got a cat bite on my right forearm. Being a body and movement nerd, I became my own experiment.
Read moreHow To Be Kind To Your Neck
A recent conversation with a client:
Me: Try letting your shoulders turn with your head and see how that feels.
Client: Wait... is that an okay thing to do? I thought I needed to turn my head by itself for some reason...
Me: It's absolutely an okay thing to do.
Pop quiz: If you think about your neck and the rest of your spine, do you think of them as A) discrete sections of your body, or B) both as part of your spine?
Read moreHypermobility: Less Is More
The term "hypermobility" covers a whole spectrum of excess joint mobility. It refers to everything from being able to bend your hand back towards your forearm to being a contortionist with the skill to control and coordinate all that mobility. It also includes a client who I've been working with regularly for a few months. Here's a little about the story of working with her. I'll call her K.
Read moreLower Back Pain and Your Legs
If you've ever experienced lower back pain, be it constant or occasional, you know how much trouble it can cause you. The difficulty of going from sitting to standing, going up stairs and hills, leaning or squatting down to pick something up... There are seemingly endless activities that can trigger lower back pain. So why is that?
Read moreDominant vs. Non-Dominant Hand: 2 Mini-Lessons
Do you get hand cramps or forearm cramps in your dominant hand? Do you wish you were a little more ambidextrous? You are not alone. A couple of weeks ago in class, someone asked if we could look at the differences between our dominant and non-dominant hands, so last week, we did a lesson that explored how to decrease constantly held tension in our dominant hand and arm and how to increase coordination in our non-dominant hand. It was a huge hit, and is easy to do in most settings, so I'll share part of it here, along with part of a related lesson.
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