Edward Paget

Crawling, probably one of the most basic yet important movements we ever do. Crawling is part of the natural developmental cycle that most humans go through. The action promotes cross connections in the brain and increases core strength getting us ready to stand and walk. Children who miss the step of crawling can show signs of poor motor co-ordination later in life. Interestingly hard wood and tiled floors (which are ubiquitous) can be painful for children to crawl on and p...romote an earlier transition to standing. This is not always desirable as crawling really is the foundation for most other movements. Here Coach Christina shows us the hand/knee crawl. This movement can be practical in our lives as we move across the floor or need to get low. Keep the hips strong and stable by keeping your back straight and your belly button drawn in towards your spine. Don't let your knees come into your chest and keep your wrists under your shoulders for stability. Give it a try and happy moving! Tag someone who needs this.

What can we do to help ourselves fight Covid-19 and the seasonal flu? Here’s a great article published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine that points us in the right direction. It gives some practical tips, from a functional medicine perspective, on what you can do to improve your immune system.Here’s a link to the whole article. http://blog.edpaget.com/functional-medicine-and-covid-19/... For me this article is very welcome, because it’s not about drugs and fear but more about what we can do, as individuals, to help ourselves. It’s empowering and acknowledges that there is so much we can do to improve our health. There are some people who are happy to isolate until there is a vaccine, but as one of my medical colleagues recently pointed out to me We don’t have a great track record of producing vaccines quickly.Hep C and and HIV vaccines have failed to materialize after 25 + years of research. In my view it’s better to make yourself more resilient and be as healthy as you can be so that you can enjoy life more right nowrather than at some unknown time in the future.

How low can you go? Our modern environment has removed the necessity for us to use our whole movement repertoire on a daily basis. For example how often do you squat? Probably not very often. How often did our tribal ancestors squat? That's not even the correct question, it should be for how long did our tribal ancestors squat every day! In this video Coach Christina shows us a balancing deep knee bend. It's a variation of the normal low squat that requires control and good ...ankle and foot mobility. It is important for full body ROM to work all angles. This is to ensure we are strong and efficient in any position life may throw at us. However, when I see people in person I'm amazed at how many people can't do this. My kids (both under 10) can do this naturally and easily...but somewhere in our teen years the skill or co-ordination goes and we shy away from these types of movements. Time to reclaim your natural abilities - it's up to you to take control. Give it a try and happy moving! Tag someone who needs this.

In my private members zoom class today someone asked me how common it is for people to have certain structural problems with their spines. Below is a chart of 'normal' finding on MRIs organized by age group. I haven't seen a study comparing people without scoliosis to people with scoliosis, so I don't know if structural problems are more common with scoliosis. However, lots of people with no symptoms have lots of structural problems.... For adults I don't find it very useful to focus on the structure, especially things like disc bulges. Instead I find it useful to look at peoples function as a measure of success in the program. To make it worse some people become hyper focused on the structure that isn't normal...they want it fixed...I can see why people think like this, after all that is was surgery does...it corrects things. However, what if the thing you want corrected is actually normal...then you end up having parts of your body removed plus scar tissue and potential infections for no reason. This chart shows us what is normal in the general population. If a person can move better, has less pain and enjoys life more...then I consider that a good result.

As a 3 Time Olympian, Former World Record Holder and Olympic Gold Medalist, Christine knows a thing or two about training. Here she is talking about her experience incorporating natural movement training into her life. Over the coming weeks I'll be sharing some of the exercises she learnt and tips on how to perform the fundamental movements that can dramatically change your balance, core strength and flexibility. Tag someone who needs this.

A lot of us have tight feet from wearing shoes all day and for most of our lives. The key movements are pronation and supination. This is a dynamic stretch that gets all 26 bones, 30 joints and over 100 muscles moving. The feet are the foundation of the body and a foot that doesn't move well can affect the knee, hip and even the back. Take care of your feet try this one every day for a week and feel the difference. Tag someone who needs this.

Breathing. Something we all take for granted....something that is so natural we don't need help with it right? Well, according to author James Nestor we could all do with a little coaching. Read my short summary of his book and download the breathing cheat sheet here: http://blog.edpaget.com/1298-2/

MovNat Coach Jason shows how to move from a sitting position to a deep squat and finally to a standing position. This is a quick, more advanced and effective way to get up and off of the ground. It does require a lot of hip strength and flexibility so you may not be able to do it on first go. However if you can - wow that's amazing. If you can’t do it work up to it, practice by sitting on a small pillow or stool rrock forward so the weight goes on to your feet and then stand up. Slowly lower the stool or cushion until you can start with your bum on the floor. Tag someone who needs this.

Tight hips generally mean that other areas of the body will have to work harder. If you have tight hips then the lower back tends to do more work, making it vulnerable to over use and injury. In this video Coach Christina shows us an elevated hip hinge. Challenge yourself by changing your environment before you add any load. It is important for full body ROM to work at all angles. This is to ensure we are strong and efficient in any position life may throw at us. Give it a try and happy moving! Please share and tag someone who would like this

MovNat Coach Jason shows us how to roll from our backs into a deep knee split squat and then move efficiently into a standing position. This is an advanced exercise involving high levels of coordination, balance and strength. If you practice this movement can become a very efficient way to get up from the group...plus it makes you look like a ninja! Tag someone who needs this.

Wrist pain or pinching in the wrist is a common problem that can make things like downward dog or push-ups painful or impossible. In most people their dominate hand is a little tighter and stiffer than their non-dominate side. Over time this tightness can lead to problems when you want both hands and wrist to have the same level of flexibility and do the same things. Think hand stands as well as the downward dog and push-ups. The wrist is complicated joint where the two b...ones of your forearm meet the 8 carpel bones (wrist bones) which in turn meet the 5 metacarpal bones of the hand. Commonly people get a pinch on extension in the back of their wrist. In the video I show different ways to stretch the wrist using rotation of the arm, traction via a strap, manual therapy of your other hand and focused stretching with a hard ball. Personally, these exercises are my go to group when I feel my old wrist pinch or De Quervain's tenosynovitis coming back. Tag someone who needs this. https://youtu.be/sesMAofInIo

Differences in leg strength from one side to the other is a common problem. It may happen simply due to one sided dominance or may come from injury.It can manifest as runner’s knee, piriformis syndrome, patella tracking issues and a host of other complaints that are common in the lower limbs. Whatever the cause, here is a simple way to test for it and to correct it.... All you need is a skipping rope. As you skip, hop on one side for 50 reps, then hop on the other side for 50 reps. Do you feel a difference in fatigue, strength, ‘springiness’ between the sides?If you do then the side that feels weaker, more fatigued and less springy is probably the weaker side. To correct that every time you skip repeat the one leg hop drill but do more reps on the weaker side. Over time the weaker side will become stronger and you leg strength will be more balanced. Tag someone who needs this.

MovNat Coach Christina shows us different foot variations while squatting. If you can squat it is probably in the 'vanilla' both feet in the same position type squat. While this is good and shows you have good hip and ankle mobility it may lack application in the 'real world'. By that I mean in an environment where the floor is engineered to be flat. In this video we introduce some varying foot positions that place different stresses and loads on different areas of your legs.... If you practice this regularly then your hip strength and mobility will increase. Have a go at all 27. Tag someone who needs this

Advanced upper back exercise. This one targets the muscles in-between your shoulder blades called the thoracic erector spinae. In modern life we do not to use these muscles very much. Their function is extensionIn every day life, similar to a cobra in Yoga or the position surfers get into when they paddle out. But most of the time we put our thoracic spines into flexion, we are bent forward on our phones, watching TV or even driving.... Overtime this inhibits the muscles that extend our upper back and before we know it we are stuck with a forward head posture and a rounded thorax. We then lack the flexibility and the strength to take our upper back into extension. These two exercises use a thick resistance band that pulls us into flexion, as we resist and move into extension fire up those muscles while giving us back strength and flexibility. This is an advanced exercise for those who regularly move or go to the gym. Having resistance at the top of your neck can put strain on your lower back, in a similar way to a dead lift. So start easy with 10 to 12 reps and 1 or 2 sets and work up from there. Tag someone who needs this https://youtu.be/HWaIqdr5IKM

When you have a painful, stiff neck stretching it the traditional way can make it worse. Here I show you a way to stretch and mobilize your neck using a more integrated approach. You see the neck sits on top of the thorax. If your thorax isn't working 100% your neck will have to do more work, perhaps leading to over use and pain. We can then follow this logic down to the hips, if they are stiff the thorax will have to do more and so on down the body. An integrated neck stre...tch is one that takes into account the feet, knees, hips, thorax and neck. Here we are using a bottom up movement to create amazing change in the neck. Try this if you have a sore or stiff neck, you will be amazed. Tag someone who needs this.

Some thoughts on Stress, Gut Health, Food and Chronic Pain...hint they are all related! http://blog.edpaget.com/chronic-pain-stress-gut-health-and/

I had fun talking to Christine from Yoga Berry today. You can find a copy of our chat about all things scoliosis here: https://youtu.be/n1RgpGkw6iU

A testimonial to the benefits of looking after your feet: This gymnast rolled her ankle, spraining ligaments in her foot as a result of a miss timed landing. Months of rehab did not help her improve her balance. An MRI showed now anatomical explanation for her in ability to balance, basically everything had healed.... But...someone forgot to tell her brain. The nervous system was still acting like her ankle was injured. When she wanted to balance she couldn't co-ordinate the contractions to provide a stable base for her to stand from. In our session we simply freed up all the bones in her foot and helped her move them into full pronation and supination. Then we worked up the chain allowing her hip, knee and ankle all to flex at the same time her foot went into pronation. This reminded her brain what the correct 'firing' sequence was, and literally 5 minutes later she was able to balance again. If you have chronic pain or muscle problems don’t give up hope. Sometimes the answer are simpleyou just got to ask the right questions. Tag someone who needs this. #scoliosis #Levoscoliosis #Dextroscoliosis #Ribhump #SpinalRotation #Upperbackflexibility #ScoliosisExercises #scoliosisawareness #scoliosisTreatment #ScoliosisCorrectionProtocol #schroth #backpain #Lowerbackpain #backpainrelief #Backpaintreatment #Sciatica #pinchednerve #herniateddisc #slippeddisc #backworkout

In this video I show you how to take a simple exercise like the plank and put it through a 3 dimensional make over. Most people just think of core as the abdominals but it is much more than that. Years ago this was brought home to me when I pulled a muscle in-between my ribs. It meant that I couldn't do a sit up, or a plank. It meant I couldn't hang on a bar, it meant I couldn't throw a ball and it meant I couldn't cough without pain. All those movements involve the "core", s...o now I think of core muscles as any muscle used in in moving the pelvis or the trunk. So, when we really think about it, core muscles can be any muscles between the toes and the nose. Try these plank exercises. You'll notice when I give an exercise a 3D make over I start in the sagittal plane. This is the most familiar movement to most of us. Then I move into the frontal plane. This one is, again, familiar to us but to a lesser extent. Lastly, I take the movements into the transverse plane or rotation. Our body usually isn't as strong in this plane and can lack coordination there, so be careful when you try something for the first time. Tag someone who needs this.

It’s so rewarding when I get messages from other professionals in the health space. Dr Terry Wahls, who is best known for reversing the progression of MS in herself and teaching others to do the same, recently wrote to say that she: Enjoys using the exercises from the Scoliosis Correction Protocol as part of my spinal health program.... If you to want to see how specific scoliosis exercises can help you slow down, stop or even reverse your scoliosis, get on the early bird list for my next course and receive my FREE 6 part video series about a whole body approach to scoliosis. Sign up here: scoliosiscorrectionprotocol.com

I've heard some many people tell me that their bodies started to decline after they had kids. For women there is more of physical stress in those early year post pregnancy with breast feeding and lots of missed sleep. By contrast men don’t have those physiological changes but their priorities change and their free time is now spent with the kids. In this video I show you a few ways in which I used to try and keep mobile and strong while spending important bonding time with my... little ones. So, move the furniture to one side and prepare to get down onto the ground. The exercises I show are: Foot stretching. Hollow body rolls Forward rolls Back rolls Tag someone who needs this. #scoliosis #Levoscoliosis #Dextroscoliosis #Ribhump #SpinalRotation #Upperbackflexibility #ScoliosisExercises #scoliosisawareness #scoliosisTreatment #ScoliosisCorrectionProtocol #schroth #backpain #Lowerbackpain #backpainrelief #Backpaintreatment #Sciatica #pinchednerve #herniateddisc #slippeddisc #backworkout

I love this IG post from Dr. Spencer Nadolsky Now, weight lifting isn't a panacea but the studies on how movement and resistance training can decrease your chances of dying from the big problems of cancer, heart disease and stroke are amazing. Couple that with how weight training slows down osteoporosis, keep muscle mass and makes us more capable humans it's a wonder why more people don't do it.... One of the most obvious things I see with my clients who are in pain is that they aren't using their human potential when it comes to strength. Most people do barely any exercise and only lift things over their head when they are putting their hand luggage in their overhead bins. Now, I might be dealing with a population who feels as though they can’t move due to pain, hence they are weak, but my guess is they were never really strong or prioritized movement. If you want to change that and start adding more movement to your life you can have a look at my youtube (link in the bio) and start with some of the natural movements I show there. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Will your doctor help you with your scoliosis? Nothey won’t and I’ll tell you why. Your family physician is trained to help you when you are sick. Their tool kit consists... of advice, medications and referrals to other doctors, usually specialists. If you have a scoliosis and you think it is progressing your doctor will order an x-ray. Depending on your age and the degrees of curve your doctor may then suggest monitoring the curve at certain intervals with more x-rays or refer you to a specialist.. The specialist will most likely be a surgeon. They will look at your x-ray, assess your function, factor in your pain, your age, your degrees etc and decide if surgery would work for you. If you are not a candidate for surgery the surgeon may well suggest monitoring it, essentially waiting and seeing to see if at some point in the future you do meet the criteria for surgery or in some rare cases they will refer you to a therapist who specializes in scoliosis. Almost all my clients go through this journey. Some of the younger once have to, as curves can progress very rapidly in teenagers by my adult clients don’t need to, and I’ll tell you why. When I ask them if they want surgery the majority of them say no. I ask them why they were talking to a surgeon first and not a scoliosis therapist. If they are American the answer is usually something to do with insurance The medical model is backwards, you are pushed to see a surgeon when you don’t want surgery. My point is that there are amazing therapists in every country that can help you, they should be your first callnot your last. The Schroth method trains great physiotherapists, the Clear Method has great chiropractors, Spiral Stabilization has great therapistsif you have the time and resources to see someone in person I would check them out. If, however, there is no one in your area or you don’t want to spend time driving back and forth to appointments there are some great online solutions for you including my upcoming course that opens for registration in August. Spaces are limited so get on the early bird waitlist by visiting scoliosiscorrectionprotocol.com (link in the bio) and get my free 6 part scoliosis series sent directly to you. Tag someone who would like this. See more

Did you know that your scoliosis or back pain can be effected from the bottom up or top down? Most clinicians look at the back as the source of the problem, when in reality the back is usually a victim of something else not working to its optimal potential. I’ll give you 2 examples.... One of the most commonly injured areas is the lower back, specifically the L5 S1 junction. This is where the spinal vertebra join with the bones of the pelvis. I’ve frequently seen articles written by prominent physicians saying things like back pain is the price we pay for standing uprightand they are correctwith just one caveat. Back pain is the price we pay for standing upright when we have tight hips, a tight upper back and motor patterns that aren’t functionalSure it’s not quite as catchy but you get my point. So, let’s look at the hips. They are the biggest joints in the body. They have lots of muscles that pull on them allowing them to move in all 6 directions with every conceivable iteration in between. However, they can easily become locked down by prolonged sitting or inactivity. The body is great at adapting and the tiny movement that is lost in the hip is now compensated for by the spineit’s so subtle that we don’t even noticehowever if we reach the recommended goal of 10,000 steps a day that would mean 10,000 aberrant micro movements in the lumbar spine. If you add that up over a few years its no wonder that discs start to degenerate, bone spurs start to grow and arthritis sets in. The same goes for the thoracic spine. Unlike the neck or the lumbar spine the mechanics of the thoracic spine allow it to move in all combinations in all directions. Sure, it doesn’t move as much as it’s neighbours because it has the ribs to contend with but generally it is very adaptable. However, this adaptability is what leads it to become stiff from prolonged forward posture. Now it doesn’t have the freedom to move as it once did and it calls on its friends the neck and the lumbar spine to do a little more movement. Then the already stressed lumbar spine now is getting bullied from above and below and the neck starts doing the job of the thorax and we end up with the two most common areas of pain, neck pain and lower back pain.One solution to this is to look at these common problem areas every time you want to help you back. Work your hips and your thorax and you will see amazing things happen in your neck and lower back, (I'm using a bottom up approach in the picture). On August 10th I'm releasing a revamped scoliosis training course. If you want to know more about it make sure you sign up here and I'll email you directly. scoliosiscorrectionprotocol.com

I want to share a little with you about my story of back pain. When I was 18 I was in a car crash. I really hurt my back. I remember driving to the physio for some rehab only to get out of the car and collapse to the ground with pain all the way down my leg. I had to crawl to the waiting room.... Over time I got better and a few years later I went to a chiropractor. This time it was more out of curiosity as I was competing in Triathlons and wanted to see if I could improve my performance. He took an x-ray of my spine and told me had literally hundreds of things wrong with it: Schmorl's Nodes spondylolisthesis Crush fractures on the front of my vertebrae Facet Tropism Mild Scoliosis Degenerative Disc Disease Now the interesting thing is I didn't have any pain in my back when I went to see him....but he told me with all that going on I shouldn't be doing triathlons as things could get worse in my back. I listened to him and stopped competing and also stopped going to the gym. But as I got weaker, from not doing anything, I got back pain. I spent my days worrying that if I twisted the wrong way or lifted something incorrectly that I would severely damage my spine. It was only when I went to osteopathy school did I realize that most of the findings on x-ray where incidental and harmless and that I wasn't going to do major damage by twisting or even working out. This gave me the confidence to use my body again and fast forward 20 years I'm still playing rugby (that's me in the 13 shirt) and keeping strong at the age of 42. My point is don't let your diagnosis define you. Let you define you. Our beautiful, wonderfully designed bodies are capable of much more than you think. In fact, the more you use your body, the stronger it will get and then the more you use it! The converse is also true, the less you do the more your body starts to break down and, therefore, the less you do...this is what started happening to me in my 20's, its a downward spiral. I'm just glad I educated myself, pushed myself and chose movement over fear. Will you do the same?

After giving up on her scoliosis brace Lauren took just 3 months to go from migraines, joint pain and a worsening posture to being free from pain, being able to pick up her son without any problems and being able to enjoy life again. Don't miss a video. Subscribe to channel: youtube.com/edpaget... New Scoliosis Program Launches Aug 10th : https://scoliosiscorrectionprotocol.com/ Scoliosis Training for Professional: https://scoliosispro.com/ Back Pain Masterclass: https://bpcp.edpaget.com/ Website: http://www.edpaget.com/ Facebook Group Support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/351414238781617/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdPagetOsteopath/

Here is a link to a short interview (25mins) I did with Anya (http://www.pilatesbuddies.com/) about scoliosis and my approach to it. You will need to log into Instagram to watch it. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCwvUrRJQjB/

Understanding how your hip moves is crucial to fixing lower back pain. This video is more for the therapists out there, because I show you how to quickly assess someone hips while they are standing to get an idea of how well they move in function, i.e when a person is standing and gravity is loading the body. Moving your hips in all 3 planes of movement will show restrictions that may not appear in a standard table based physio or orthopaedic examination. This is because the ...joints, muscles and proprioceptors (those little things that tell the brain what is going one) are all loaded when someone is standing up. When they are lying down the ‘pressure’ quite literally is off, so the joints can move differently. First part of the evaluation is moving your hips left and right to see adduction in the frontal plane. Next take the legs wider apart and again move the hips left and right. This movement highlights abduction in the frontal plane. The third assessment is in internal rotation of the hips in the transverse plane. The fourth assessment is for external rotation, again in the transverse plane. The fifth assessment is extension in the sagittal plane. We could add a sixth assessment here which would be flexion in the sagittal plane. I didn’t do it as I find that not many people display a difference in standing flexion. Tag someone who needs this. Please share and tag someone who would like this.

You see, most of us are told not to rotate. That we must not twist or we will 'pull' something. And why that might be true for people who don't regularly twist you won't 'pull' things if you regularly do this. You see, rotation is so special to the body there are specific nerves cells that measure it (ruffini) and they tell the brain what is happening. The special cells also do some amazing other things in the body like stimulate your parasympathic nervous system (rest and re...pair) when they are activated. So, simply doing these rotations while deep breathing can take you from a state of stress to a state of relaxation. This will improve your digestion, lower your blood pressure, decrease cortisol levels and help you live longer...sounds too good to be true doesn't it. Well, it is true, breath work and rotation is a magic formula, something our Chinese cousins have been doing for 1000's of years! Try this for 1-3 minutes a day for a week and tell me how you feel. Tag someone who needs this.

As we have evolved or should I say physically 'devolved' from our hunter gatherer ancestors to we have become more like "homo SITiens" than homo sapiens. The average American exercises just 14mins a day and the rest of the time is spent sitting. Either sitting at home, sitting in a car or sitting watching T.V or sport. So, lets accept the reality. Sitting isn't going away. Plus, let's not forget that standing all day isn't good for us either...that's why they brought chairs i...nto the industrial work place originally. How do we sit and prevent our hips and back from tightening up? This video explains some really simple yet effective ways of actually lengthening your muscles and stretching your joints while sitting. Follow it through and let me know how you feel in the comments below.

The way we live our modern, chair bound, lives means that nearly all of us have tight hip flexors. One of those muscles in particular can cause trouble in the hip, pelvis and spine. Yup, you guessed it...that pesky psoas again. This stretch is a great way to loosen it up because it 'attacks' the whole hip flexor complex in all 3 dimensions with emphasis on the psoas. The psoas actually attaches to the spine so you need to move the spine to stretch it from the top down. Start ...by taking a step forward with your left leg, this will start to stretch your right hip. Take both hands out in front of you at shoulder height. Rotate right and left. Next take your hands above your head, reaching for the ceiling keeping your core tight and pulling your shoulder blades down your spine. Lean left and right to stretch in the 'Frontal Plane'. Lastly, you can increase the stretch by moving your hands backward and forwards, be careful not to go too far back as you might feel a pinch in your lower back. If you do just tense your butt and reach to the sky. Tag someone who needs this.