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hip hiphinging the wrong way may have caused me pain

vandu
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09/04/2012 - 6:48am
hip hiphinging the wrong way may have caused me pain

i have been enjoying hip hinging and i thought i was doing it right. but i have had some pain/discomfort for past few days in my mid back (a familiar pain from my office days when i tried to sit straight). seems to occur gradually when i stand straight or stretch sit/ or stack sit.  i was a bit disheartened that i can't do these techniques without getting the pain.

 then i thought maybe some other technique i'm doing is causing me problems and i thought about hip hinging which i like doing because of the stretch I feel in back (maybe this is wrong reason as i should only feel stretch in hamstring?). i think i would enjoy hip hinging because it felt like some releif from standing straight.  but the way i'm doing it i am trying to do like the women in the book and bending knees only a little. i think i'm not bending my knees enough because i realized today that my upper back/neck are curving/ and shoulders going forward.  so i looked in a mirror, and saw that i have to bend my knee significantly more (that's how inflexible my hambstrings are apparently) to be able to keep my back/kneck aligned and straight. i look almost like a football player bent over ready to pass a ball saying "hike." it is like midway squat.  I should also mention i am referring to hiphinging to pick things up off the floor/ground. and i was actually just doing it to put my hands near the floor (to get relief/stretch from the mid back pain).

so it seems this is how i must hiphing to keep my spine and kneck straight and shoulder back.  so i must use more of my knees, which hip hinge typically avoids.  please let me know if i'm correct or if i'm missing something here.  also any other insights about why i may be feeling the familiar pain when i stand/sit straight. i never had low back pain, but rather mid back pain when i sat straight for too long (due to the location of a slight curvature in that area of my spine).

i feel i am standing/sitting correctly with anteverted pelvis (butt/tail out, and i'm not swaying)..but has been feeling like effort once discomfort/tingling starts in mid back.  so i think hip hinging may have exacerbated it but even if i correct my hip hinging..anything else i can do to prevent that tingling/discomfor in mid back when i stand/sit straight?  thanks. 

charlenehannibal
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12/15/2010 - 7:51am

Hello there, 

 

It sounds like you are making some great progress-kudos to you.

 

Hip-hinging: you are absolutely right.  Looking like a football player is a wonderful analogy.  Most everyone I teach needs to bend their knees quite a bit more than some of the people in our book.  Once you've been hip-hinging as a lifestyle, you will get more flexible!  If the knees don't bend enough, your tight hamstrings will generally pull the pelvis into a tuck (retroversion) and often the back becomes rounded.  When we allow them to bend as needed, the pelvis can continue to rotate and tip as you bend forward.

 

As far as anteverting your pelvis, be careful not to overdo.  When someone is experiencing fatigue or pain when attempting to tip the pelvis forward, it is often the case that the attempt has been too exaggerated.  This will likely cause the lumbar back to sway, which puts the back in a lumbar curve (not ideal).  Pelvic anteversion is not to be "muscled", rather a way to allow the pelvis to gently shift forward.  It might be helpful to you to try and Stacksit with a nicely placed wedge.  Work on anchoring your ribs to alleviate any sway and see if you can find a place where you are upright and relaxed.  Relaxation is generally a wonderful sign in the Gokhale Method.  If this is still challenging for you, I would stick with Stretchsitting until the muscles in your back feel more stretched out.

 

I hope this is helpful to you!

 

Warmly, 

Charlene Hannibal

Gokhale Method Teacher, Palo Alto/San Francisco

vandu
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09/04/2012 - 6:48am

Thanks for clariflying about the hiphinging Charlene. it is a joy to bend now and i love every opportunity to do so, and enjoy feeling the stretch in my hamstring and feeling of my back strengthening. ye i think i had gotten some pain before from curving my back isince i wasn't bending my knees enough before.  to stretch my hamstrings i also do this stretch a few times a day where i bend forward 90 degree and put my arms out to hold onto a bar (my stair railing) and lift one leg out, while the supporting leg gets a nice stretch. similar to the one in back of the book but holding onto a bar helps me with balance. 

i still do get some pain from stacksitting for several minutes..a sort of tingling that makes me want to give the position up. i dont think i'm swaying my back.  but i also have some curvature of the spine due to mild scoliosis in the area where i get the pain.  i've been seeing an osteopath to address it but i think what will help most is the ALF appliance i am getting in a few weeks to correct my bite  I feel like posture needs to be addressed holistically..you can know how to do good posture but your body may not feel like it due to low energy, poor digestion, curved spine, improper bite.  and i had no idea how much an improper bite affects the whole body and the posture. ALF is a type of appliance that brings the bite back to alignment and the resulsts often include improved posture. 

jelai
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10/09/2012 - 1:17am

Yeah, it might give you pain but there's an advanatages in that, because that's still an exercise but you need to be careful in doing that... But maybe for the first try it gives you pain but maybe a 2nd time or third time, that would easy for you to do the step and I have something here for you to have more information about the blog seo.

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