Intro Banter
Toxic, Chemical Concerns in Everyday Foods and More
- Kerrygold bummer
- Label is found to contain “forever chemicals” PFAS. Our take and butter choices moving forward… Read more here.
- Salt choices for lowest microplastics and metals, etc.
- What are the best types of salt to buy as far as those lowest in microplasctics, heavy metals, etc.
- Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Pink salt, etc.
- Is there really a concern as far as how much of the “bad stuff” is in these salts?
- Crucial Four is a new brand dense in minerals that Tawnee is trying for her morning adrenal-health drink.
- Where else are concentrated sources of chemicals in our daily lives–look there!
- E.g. city water or water source for your home, drinking water, clothing, etc.
- Any recommendations for a good bathtub water filter?
- A healthy body should be able to handle low levels of heavy metals, microplastics, etc., and detox that properly.
Holistic Hamstrings
Hamstring Basics
- Read Steve’s in-depth article on hamstring injuries here.
- Quick hamstring 101: hamstrings consists of 3 muscles, the motion they provide, bridge between glutes and calves, etc.
- Generally, hams are more often injured in running, jumping.
- Upper hammy are more often injured in endurance athletes/runners than lower (behind knee, which is usually a calf muscle issue).
- Upper hamstring more often a glute issue, often weak due to pelvic instability–hamstring is doing extra work to make up for glute weakness
- Steve’s philosophy of “don’t treat the hamstring” when hamstring hurts or is injured.
- Either coming from a different muscle or the hamstring function is being disrupted by some other muscle imbalance somewhere else in the body.
- Hamstring might be in spasm–gastroc, soleus (i.e. calves) or glutes are not working well and hamstring is compensating.
Upper Hamstring Injuries
- What is usually going on, what needs to be done? i.e. glutes, hips
- Glute test, do this BAREFOOT: stand on one leg, how well can you support yourself, stabilize pelvis, feel pain-free, etc.
- If super solid on both side for 10-15 seconds, try doing it with your EYES CLOSED.
- Basic balancing exercises to begin with.
- Sacrum is really important when talking about glutes due to sacrotuberous ligament–remnant of bicep femoris, embryological piece, integrates sacrum to ischium.
- SI nerve/joint issues
- Sciatic nerve can go above, below or through piriformis.
- With pelvis, glute medius (lateral, stability) and piriformis (hip rotator) are critical.
- Piriformis balance each other, eg fatigue on one side and pain on the other.
- Glute med and piriformis issue WAY more common than true hamstring issues.
- if hamstrings have to kick on too often or too much, they get over-worked, too tight and hurt.
- Why are these areas so often affected? Basic movement patterns, sitting too much, shoe choices (heel lift), etc.
- Low back pain
- Low back pain and anterior (front side) hip flexor connection. Psoas or even obliques, look for trigger points to help.
- Simple test for psoas (hip flexor) tightness: If you lie on your back and low back hurts or if you can’t lie on back without putting something under your knees or bending them, then you have a hip flexor problem.
Lower Hamstring Injuries
- Lower hamstring pain (at back/inside of knee): way less common! Almost always an upper gastroc issue or tibialis posterior instead.
- Tibialis posterior: probably the most important muscle of lower leg for movement: involves plantar fascia, link between tibia and fibula, affects how you pronate, how you absorb shock, toe splay, etc.
- Actually, is that really MCL or meniscus pain or something else…
- Pes Anserine–what is it, why does it matter here?
- People confuse this with MCL or medial meniscus pain when it is actually a weak hamstring muscle issue.
Adrenal Connection
- Muscle-organ relationship; applied kinesiology; biofeedback.
- When a muscle isn’t functioning properly is that muscle injured or is it an organ influence?
- Clinically: tibialis posterior, soleus, gastroc, sartorius, gracilis are very closely tied into adrenal gland function, more so on the right side of the body.
- Injuries include: plantar fasciitis, shin splints, medial knee pain, calf strain… tie in with over-stress happening in life (dysfunction in cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA, etc.)
- Muscle is not responding as it should, inhibited, instability, etc., when this over-stress is taking place (the organ connection).
- Then what will happen another muscle will over-compensate, leading to some kind of injury (e.g. hamstring, etc).
Shoulder Issues…. for Hamstrings?!
- Shoulders often the hidden source of lower-leg injuries.
- Two main reasons:
- Force closure–it’s how the hamstrings affects the SI joint through the coupled action of the latissimus dorsi; lats reach from sacrum to humerus.
- Our gait cycle, which is contralateral. E.g. As hamstrings fire on the left side, lats fire on right side and vice versa. Integration of flexors and extensors. Glutes/hamstrings with lats/traps (on opposite sides)… and it goes deeper (e.g. knee and elbows).
- Shoulder girdle and hip joint connection is huge.
- Shoulder issues often from lack of movement; how often do we even have to reach overhead? How about posture awareness.
- Many shoulder exercises often do more harm than good, e.g. bench press problems! Why we don’t like it…
- Start focusing on the fundamentals with rotator cuff, proper shoulder mobility (e.g. external rotation), etc.
Exercises To Do
- Steve’s philosophy on warming up…
- Single leg work, all of it! It starts with brain-body connection and reintegrating this back into our life. Get to the point of being able to close your eyes with SL exercises.
- SL RDL/SL DL with weights…. or SL RDL with knee drive (opposite side) and hop (with holding a weight if possible).
- Rocking… to crawling… etc.
- Dead hangs, scap pushups (protraction/retraction), scap pullups… take a video to know your form and work on it!
- Single leg work vs. something like a banded lateral monster walk.
- Caution with isolating muscles in your exercises; instead, think about using them as they are naturally used by the body i.e. functionally.
Recorded MARCH 24, 2023
