During my travels in New Zealand I visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. I came across a most magnificent canoe – “The Waka ceremonial canoe”. The 35-metre-long canoe needs a minimum of 76 paddlers to handle it safely on the water. It weighs 6 tonnes when dry and 12 tonnes when saturated What fascinated me was [...]
"Yikes - I have back pain !" As a movement practitioner the most common reasons that clients will come and see me is probably the words ‘BACK PAIN’. About 80 percent of adults experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. But what actually is back pain? Pain in my experience is a [...]
As the hype continues after the recent catwalk shows, the Victoria secret angels have been doing Pilates Reformer, Yoga and Barre to stay in shape. But can doing these pastimes really give you the catwalk body that you may desire? As I reflect on another cadaver study this week, this re-affirms the thinking we are [...]
Why is it that some of us are able to tilt the pelvis and some of us cannot? I have seen this time and time again in seated forward bend asanas, GYROTONIC handle unit, and Pilates variations of the roll down and roll up. We are forever being sold solutions to gain flexibility in our [...]
Wow what a vast subject, don’t know where to start, here is just a snippet of what many others and I call: “The Pelvic driver'. The Pelvis being a large basin, is one of the leading areas of power in sports biomechanics as well as basic gait pattern. It also houses some of the most [...]
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"- World Health Organisation. We are all busy bees, rushing around from A to B and harnessing the monkey mind. Everyone you meet is busy, busy, busy and as a result of moving faster and [...]
Most of the population are manipulated by media images of perfect abdominal tone. Fitness gimmicks show us tight abdominals that look aesthetically desirable. We therefore have a nation of people who go around holding their tummy constantly tight, this causes breathing dysfunctions and has long term negative affects on the body. Our abdominals are prime [...]
The Oxford dictionary tells us that alignment is "Arrangement in a straight line or in correct relative positions", but is this technically possible in our body, never mind our lower extremity? We know from looking at the axis and levers in traditional anatomy that we require equal balance, a bit like a see saw effect. [...]
The connection between feet and posture does not receive enough emphasis in the movement community. We start with it, and then forget about it as we become more obsessed with more challenging postures and sequences, and yet it’s the basis of every asana and a challenge in itself if done correctly. Our feet are not [...]
With Yoga and pilates now in the top ten lists for pursuits, are we ready to handle the people who come to our classes. If we are in constant pain or are getting repetitive injuries, one of the key points we need to consider is posture. If our posture is out of sync, our organs [...]
