Episode 86
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Laura Coleman Waite is a structural kinesiologist and physical trainer who has spent the last 25 years teaching people to use their muscles to get rid of pain.
When she was 21, Laura watched her mother's will to live stripped away due to the pain she was in from lung cancer. She is passionate about helping people overcome their physical pain by activating their muscles properly.
Laura has found that many of us have underutilized and overlooked muscles that need proper activation.
Our muscles all have partners that counter balance them.
Psoas:
Is so internal it is often not activated or considered. Hip flexors and iliacus.
Gluteus:
Often not activate, especially if we sit a lot. Quads are often over strong.
Hamstring:
Calf pain and tightness. Heels.
Many of us are quad/calf dominant, and hamstrings stay under activated.
"Straight ahead sporters"
running, walking, most sports where we aren't using lateral movements cause tightness in low back.
We can (and should) artificially infuse multidirectional movement into our routines.
Sideways walking is a great way.
Biomechanics:
Regions of the spine are either mobile or stabile.
Cervical
Thoracic
Lumbar
Sacroiliac
90 seconds is the time it takes for a muscular and neurological reset when doing an exercise.
Laura's 1 thing:
Incorporate sideways walking into your day.
When she was 21, Laura watched her mother's will to live stripped away due to the pain she was in from lung cancer. She is passionate about helping people overcome their physical pain by activating their muscles properly.
Laura has found that many of us have underutilized and overlooked muscles that need proper activation.
Our muscles all have partners that counter balance them.
Psoas:
Is so internal it is often not activated or considered. Hip flexors and iliacus.
Gluteus:
Often not activate, especially if we sit a lot. Quads are often over strong.
Hamstring:
Calf pain and tightness. Heels.
Many of us are quad/calf dominant, and hamstrings stay under activated.
"Straight ahead sporters"
running, walking, most sports where we aren't using lateral movements cause tightness in low back.
We can (and should) artificially infuse multidirectional movement into our routines.
Sideways walking is a great way.
Biomechanics:
Regions of the spine are either mobile or stabile.
Cervical
Thoracic
Lumbar
Sacroiliac
90 seconds is the time it takes for a muscular and neurological reset when doing an exercise.
Laura's 1 thing:
Incorporate sideways walking into your day.
Other Resources:
Connect with Laura Coleman Waite
Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:00:00] Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today we are joined by Laura Coleman Waite who's dedicated the last 25 years of her life to teaching people how to use their muscles to get rid of pain. In today's conversation, Laura teaches us about what she calls underutilized and overlooked muscles that are often driving pain that doctors can't explain.
[Page//00:01:00] Laura teaches us about biomechanics and gives us tips that we can use starting today to reduce our pain from the root cause level.
Laura, welcome to the podcast.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh my gosh. So excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Julie Michelson: My pleasure. I am so fascinated about what you do and, and how you do it. Um, especially, you know, people ask me all the time, you know, what are some common symptoms of autoimmunity? I. The two that always come outta my mouth first are pain and fatigue. So I know today's conversation is gonna be amazing for listeners.
So my, my question always is, you know, how did you get into this world? Um, I know I wasn't dreaming of being a health coach when I was younger. Uh, I don't even know if there was, was, I don't think there was any health coaching. Forget functional medicine. Um, but how, how, tell, share your story with us.[Page//00:02:00]
Laura Coleman Waite: Well, I, as I was saying, um, I think our stories are unfortunately, sort of have a sad beginning because, um, your dad had his, I believe he had a heart attack.
Julie Michelson: Uh, we're not positive, but I, I think so.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah. At, at a relatively young age. And my mom, um, when I was a senior in college, um, getting ready to go to soccer tryouts, Right before I left, found out that she had, you know how you walk into a room and you know instantly that something is wrong? And my dad and I had been out back to school shopping for all intents and purposes, and I looked at her and I said, what is it?
And she said, I have a spot on my lung. And I didn't really know what that meant. And I said, okay. And the thing that really, really, really sort of slays me to this day, she was not a smoker. She was not a smoker. Her parents did smoke. My other sets of grandparents, my dad's parents smoked [Page//00:03:00] and my dad himself quit eventually, but he also smoked.
So she was surrounded literally by a cloud of smoke and she didn't smoke and she was the one that got sick. So, That's the part that makes me a little crazy. But the thing that I noticed because I was the, I was her primary caregiver for the last nine months of her life, I noticed that the thing that took the wind out of her sails the most was the pain.
And I, I wished away that pain on so many levels and she would have panic attacks and you know, it just really took away her. Her wanted her ability to stick around. So unknowingly that kind of set me on my journey, unfortunately, unfortunately. And I moved to San Diego cuz I needed to get that heck outta Dodge.
I had had enough, I needed to move, I needed a new place. I was running away of course. And I ended up working for a guy in San Diego in the mid nineties by the name of Peter Gosky. [Page//00:04:00] And he's written several books and he has clinics around the country. Um, He's the one that taught me how to watch people move.
And you look at the whole body as a system always, but as a muscu, as a complete muscular system. And the tricky thing with just working with muscles, that's the name of my company, just Muscles, is that there isn't a big diagnostic tool that nails them as a problem. So I had clients, you know, I had lots of women in particular who had been told they were hysterical females because.
They, there was no direct diagnostic test that can nail what their problem was, and that made 'em a little, I think that also made them a little bit upset because they knew they weren't crazy. They knew they felt bad, but there wasn't anything that their doctor could say, oh, well here it is on your M R I, or Here it is on your CAT scan, or you know, nothing showed up because it was muscular and origin.
There's [Page//00:05:00] nothing that really nails, muscles. So to everyone listening to this podcast, please develop a muscle test for us. That would be so nice, so that we could nail down muscles as the thing, but in the meantime.
Julie Michelson: Or train more Laura's.
Laura Coleman Waite: So that's kinda how I got started. And you know, there, um, There's been lots of things that I've, that I've researched and run across and done workshops with. I'm sure as you have, um, that have contributed to my sort of general knowledge over these last 25 years. And now I, that's, so, it's my favorite thing to do is I watch people move and then I, um, say, okay, well this looks like it's out of position.
This might be a little outta position. The thing is, is that that may not be the problem. Your problem may show up somewhere else. And that's usually the biggest paradigm shift for most [Page//00:06:00] people is just because we see something's wrong doesn't mean that that's the thing, that's the the problem. You have to take a, like, so for instance, if your shoulders are out of position, then it look, you know, your shoulders you can see are out of position, but are they out of position because your shoulders have a problem or is the thing they're sitting on top of the hips?
Are those out of position? And is that causing this whole sort of chain reaction all the way down the body? In which case we have to say, all right, well let's go after. So I, for the last 25 years, I have systematically sort of drilled it down to three, what I call underutilized and overlooked muscles in the body.
And I start with those three, almost without fail, with every single client. Regardless of what their, um, what, regardless of what their symptom is, whatever it is that's hurting them. So using the shoulders. An example, if your [Page//00:07:00] shoulder hurt, I'd say That's nice, but what's the other shoulder doing?
Julie Michelson: Right. Well, and I love the similarities because this is, it's just like functional medicine, and if you take the autoimmunity piece right, what they're treating in the rheumatology office is the symptom.
Laura Coleman Waite: Sure.
Julie Michelson: And we're going after the root cause. You're doing the same thing mechanically with the body. It's like, okay, I get that, that's uneven and hurts, but let's dig and, and find what's really driving that.
That's, that's incredible. So sorry, you're three underutilized
Laura Coleman Waite: Underutilized and overlooked muscles. So what do you think they're, I always ask them,
Julie Michelson: I have no idea, but I am so excited to learn and I'm sure I, I'm sure I have all three.
Laura Coleman Waite: I've shared that. You too. I'm sure. So one muscle that gets a totally bad reputation is our little friend, the soaz or the
Julie Michelson: I knew you were gonna say that. I should have [Page//00:08:00] just guessed it. Yes, because who doesn't have. So as issues,
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so let's talk about why. So let's say you have a job that requires you to sit, let's say the majority of the day.
Julie Michelson: actually let's back it up for listeners. Wh where is the, so as muscle.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. So the, so as. In order to get to it. That's the, that's kind of the interesting thing about it is it's so internal, so, so many people don't really know where it is or how to get to it.
So to get to it, we would've to scoop out all your intestines. Which we won't do today, but then it hangs onto the vertebrae in the low back and then comes diagonally down and attaches to the top of the inside of the femur. And the only real estate you have access to on the outside of the body is this tiny little square.
Kinda, if I stand up, it's right in the front of the crease of the hip. So the quad attaches to the front of the hip [Page//00:09:00] bone, and then let's say three finger wets over is the hip flexor. That's the only access you have to it from the outside of the body. So for the, for really the majority of the muscle is so internal and that makes it so difficult for people to understand where it is and how it works.
And it gets such a bad reputation. But it is so powerful. So powerful. It's one of my favorites. When you, so for instance, when you are watching the summer Olympics and you're watching the track, um, the track people. If they're doing hurdles, for instance, it's the hip flexer that's picking that leg up to get it up over the hurdle.
And if you didn't have hip flexors, then those hurdles would be really, yeah, you couldn't do it. You would definitely not be at the Olympics. So all of your favorite runners from Africa that have those beautiful strides in their legs just go flying out behind them. It's the hip flexor that pulls that leg up in the front so that it can have all of that extension and go flying out behind them [Page//00:10:00] for the rest of the stride.
So hip flexors. So hip flexor is the generic name for the SOAs. It's actually two muscles. One muscle is the iias. So if you picture a skeleton at Halloween, you've got those big soup bowl, hip bones, the ilias lines, the inside of the hip bone and the SOAs is it's best front. So they're two separate muscles, but they do the same thing and they attach to the top of the inside of the femur.
So they, they, they're just in charge of the same motion, which is jumping over hurdles or. Another motion that they're in charge of is sitting. So if you sit, so if you, I put my little chair ready to sit in
Julie Michelson: Well, and just know a lot of listeners are are gonna just listen on audio. So yeah, if you'll talk us through what you're doing.
Laura Coleman Waite: absolutely. So I just sat down in a chair and the reason I sat down in a tear is because that made the, [Page//00:11:00] the, um, soha muscle, the hip flexor muscle. Become positionally shortened. So that means that I'm not jumping over a hurdle, but I am shortening the muscle nonetheless, just because I'm sitting.
So it's as though I'm jumping over a hurdle, but sitting down to do it and the brain doesn't know the difference. And all muscles have a best friend. And so the hip flexor best friend is my second favorite muscle. What would you guess is the hip flexor his best friend in, in some planes,
Julie Michelson: That I don't know.
Laura Coleman Waite: so that's our friend, the glute,
Julie Michelson: Oh,
Laura Coleman Waite: so our little friend, the glute. So if your best friend is positionally contracted, so you're sitting and the, the two attachment points are brought closer together. So the muscle is positionally contracted, just cuz you're sitting. Then just by nature of [Page//00:12:00] their relationship, the glute gets knocked out of the, outta the, it just can't work because the brain doesn't care that if there's a difference between a positional and a jumping over a, a hurdle.
Yeah. So either way. The hip flexor isn't really working cuz it's just shortened. Just cuz you're stuck in a chair and it knocks out the glute. So then the body's like, no problem, we've got backup muscles, so we'll go to quad because the quad is the body's second choice to pick the leg up off the ground.
And the quad's like, okay, no problem. But it gets really strong really fast and it has a best friend, which is that my third favorite muscle to work on because it gets so underutilized. My little friend, the hamstring. So now the quads are really super strong, and now the hamstring gets knocked out. And now on the backside of the body, really the only muscle left on your [Page//00:13:00] leg is your poor little calf.
So tons of people have calf tightness and calf pain, and Achilles heal problems and foot problems, plantar fasciitis. All that comes from that calf doing the work of the calf. The calf doing work of the hamstring and the calf doing the work of the glit. So most people are what I call quad calf dominant.
So their quads work work really well, their calves work really well, and since there's no muscle in their hip per se, that's really working very well cuz the hip flexor is kind of positionally shortened from sitting and the glute gets knocked out cuz the hip flexor is positionally shortened. Then your body goes, well we need somebody to work around here.
So we'll go. We'll ask the neighbors. So we'll go above the joint and below the joint dash, the nearest neighbor for help. So it goes below the joint to the hamstring hamstring's, like, sorry, can't help you. I'm getting knocked out by my friend, the quad. And so the body goes, okay, we'll go above the joint.
So it goes above the joint to the low [Page//00:14:00] back and it says, Hey, low back, can you help us out? We don't have a glute, we don't have a hip flexor. And the LUV locks like, sure, but muscles are just like people when they do their job in somebody else's job, they get mad. So I think that most people have low back pain because they just, they just don't really tap into these big powerful hip muscles very often cuz they can't see the hip flexor, the glute, they don't even, they just don't fully understand.
And then the HSR gets knocked out by quads. So those are my three favorite muscles. I know, I know. It's, it's, it's, when you think about it that way, then you're like, oh, well, no wonder. So then the question is, what do you do about it? And that gets compounded by, I would say a lot of people took up walking during the pandemic in a way that maybe.
Was unprecedented because there wasn't else anything else to do. I'm a soccer player. I am on four soccer [Page//00:15:00] teams. All soccer teams disappeared, so I, my options were, I don't know about you. I could go for a walk or I could go for a run, and that was about it for exercise available. And when I, so when I've, what I figured out is that all of my clients that are what I call straight ahead sporters, so they have sports that allow them to go straight ahead.
They walk, they run, they hike, they swim, they bike. All of those sports are straight ahead. They all have really strong, that quad calf dominance really comes into play in a big way because. They don't have a multi-directional sport that they could do. And for the first time, I've been playing soccer since fourth grade.
This is the first time I hadn't played soccer since fourth grade, and I started to get all the things that my poor,
Julie Michelson: Don't you find it just makes you better at your job?
Laura Coleman Waite: that's, God, feels like this sucks.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:16:00] Yep.
Laura Coleman Waite: Fix that.
Julie Michelson: empathy goes through the roof when, when we have those kind of setbacks and experiences for sure.
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly,
Julie Michelson: So what do we do?
Laura Coleman Waite: about being a straight ahead sporter.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: So you kind of have to artificially infuse some multi-directional stuff into your, either your warmup or even mid sport. So my, I'm on a little track team and my track team friends are now used to me saying things like, Ugh. My left glute just said, see you later.
So I gotta go sideways for a little bit to get it to kick back in. So you artificially infuse a little bit of some multi-directional movement. So I love to teach people how to do sideways walking. I love to teach people how to do backwards walking, you know, in safe conditions. So
Julie Michelson: Uh, I'm chuckling cuz my, my kids were here for dinner last night, my adult children and, and, uh, my oldest works [Page//00:17:00] at a golf course and he walked 12 miles I think on Monday at work.
Laura Coleman Waite: Wow.
Julie Michelson: And then was complaining about his heels bothering him
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: and mentioned in passing. Well, yeah, those, like those 12 miles were backwards and we were like, wait, what is he what?
12? 12,000? Not sorry, 12 miles. Um, yeah, backwards. And I'm like, well wait. We were like, wait, why were you walking He needed to for what he was doing. But it just, it was, that was our dinner topic last
Laura Coleman Waite: Isn't that amazing? That's so great.
Julie Michelson: So yeah. I love it. But you already connected so many dots for me, and I'm sure listeners have kind of the, you know, same thing going on in their mind.
Um, my, I. Middle son,
Laura Coleman Waite: Uh,
Julie Michelson: um, in my weekly email yesterday I shared was literally just dismissed from his rheumatologist's office. He had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis when he was in high school,
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:18:00] and finally he is, you know, After listening and watching and ignoring his mother for all this time, um, he has reversed all his autoimmune symptoms, but when he was first diagnosed or before he was even diagnosed, um, he had the, the two symptoms.
For people that aren't familiar with ankylos and spondylitis, it's a autoimmune arthritis that starts in the spine and typically in the SI joint. So there we are back down at that lower back. Secondary, very common symptom at onset is heel pain. It's like you just totally connected those dots for me, the poor kid, we uh, we kind of, I don't wanna say ignored, um, we explained away he was a varsity catcher.
Right. So I was like, well of course your lower back hurts and your heal, you know, you just spent a double header in the hundred degree weather squatting. Like, but it, it really wasn't that. It was the [Page//00:19:00] inflammation going on in his si,
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: you know, traveling that path you just talked about down to the hill. Like so wild. Amazing. Sorry, I digress. I just had to share because.
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, no.
Julie Michelson: Part of it is, you know, I'm so excited to share with people. You know, we come on, we share healing journeys. We share our stories. You know, this is a young man who's 25, right? He works sometimes 70 hour weeks. He is got friends and hobbies and um, and it's like, okay, if he can do the things, if, you know, he could figure out what's triggering and actually make the lifestyle changes.
And, and a lot of it for him is exercise. It's making sure. That, that he is, you know, I guess not quad dominant anymore.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: And that keeps him pain free. It's one of the things, you know, and food and, and all the things we're always talking about. Um, so I love that. So [Page//00:20:00] I, anyway, sideways walking backwards walking, which I'm so glad cuz I'm already thinking well, I'm an equestrian, and so most of my, and I do, I walk a lot just in life, not, you know, I live, um, you know, live in the country.
So, um, but I was thinking like, I ca you know, I don't think I can do multidirectional in the middle, middle of a ride. Right. So, um, but we can
Laura Coleman Waite: you, are you up outta your sal saddle? Are you
Julie Michelson: Oh, yeah,
Laura Coleman Waite: you're up? I would think so. You could, you could really kick your booty out and really push through your stirs and really get that glued to activate for you in your saddle.
Julie Michelson: Oh, oh, yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, I would think that.
Julie Michelson: I Well, you would ha Yeah, to and i, I write jumpers, so Yeah. We're, that's activated. And, and I'm very familiar with the importance of, you know, The, the hamstring and all, all the things. [Page//00:21:00] Um, but just thinking of like, how, you know, how am I getting lateral, I guess. And that's exactly what you're saying.
You don't need the lateral movement or multi-directional as long as you're activating. Um, and you said it, I, I'm gonna even, uh, put it in my, like elementary school vernacular. Um, when you said, you know, all, every muscle has a, has a friend, um, Yeah, a best, a best friend. Um, and, and what people need to realize is, you know, they're, they work inversely, you know, they balance each other out.
And so that's hence why when you're quad dominant, your hamstrings are weak. Like it's, um, and it's just not a ba I mean, it's a beautiful thing. That's how we move.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, it it, if that relationship didn't exist, yeah, it, nobody would move anything. So it's useful. You just gotta realize that the front of your body is probably gonna be super strong and the backside of your body is probably gonna get knocked out just as it [Page//00:22:00] relate, just as a. Relationship thing with the front of the body.
So it's okay. It's very fixable.
Julie Michelson: and so you, when you. Well, I'll ask you in a minute. I wanna make sure, because I did interrupt you when you were talking about getting this other multidimensional movement in. I make sure if there's nothing else you wanted to say on that piece before I.
Laura Coleman Waite: No, I would just say that, um, if you don't spend all day with an anatomy app, like I like to. You might not know that the glute fibers, I think the reason it's called a fanny and sort of, you know, casual conversation is because those fibers run at a 45 degree angle approximately. So. You have to think about how the fibers actually are structured in order to get 'em to fire in the direction that they naturally want to go.
So in, that's why glutes are in charge of lateral movement. And even if you do play, let's say tennis or pickleball [Page//00:23:00] or you know, you wrestle or you're a a hoop guy or you know, whatever that, um, That doesn't mean that they're automatically gonna kick in, but at least you're giving your body the opportunity to have them kick in.
And so if you don't feel like, and if they don't look the way you think they should, they're not filling out those jeans the way you'd like 'em to, or someone in your life says That's a pancake back there
Julie Michelson: Better not.
Laura Coleman Waite: that.
Julie Michelson: It's rude.
Laura Coleman Waite: Rude but useful. So just take it in and say, oh, maybe I should try some, you know, the sideways walking, or maybe I should try going backwards and just see if you can get some of those muscles to kick in. You can even use them as a warmup. Or what I really like about going backwards and sideways is that you can do it on the fly.
So I'm not kidding, I'm, we're in the middle of a [Page//00:24:00] run and I'll say to my girlfriends, okay, I'm sorry, but I've gotta spin sideways, completely lost this hip. My knee is complaining. I don't see any reason to reinforce this muscle patterning thing. That's only gonna be detrimental long term. And that's how.
You know, running, for instance, gets a bad rap. It's bad for your knees. Well sure if you let it continue to hurt and you don't have all your muscles working, I'm sure it would be bad for your knees, but it's great for you the rest of the time when those muscles are all working. So why reinforce bad neuromuscular patterns?
I don't see any reason for it.
Julie Michelson: So, uh, you're saying listen to your body and the pain is a symptom.
Laura Coleman Waite: is that?
Julie Michelson: on
Laura Coleman Waite: Hallmark? This podcast? Yes.
Julie Michelson: we for, we so forget because it's often inconvenient. Right. That like, I am out for a run and this is my goal, this is my intention. [Page//00:25:00] My health coach says exercise. You know? Um, but no, listen to your body and there's no pushing through. When you're doing a especially repetitive motion that's painful. Like you said, you're just, you're digging yourself a hole that you don't need to be in.
It's, it's not. So where do people start though? Was, I know, you know, listeners are, they're in a. Just wide range of physical ability. Um, and so I'm thinking back to where I was before I, I broke out of the western medicine only model, right. And I was, I could walk, thank goodness. Um, but they wanted me to get a handicap placard on my car because I, it was painful and it was hard.
And, and, and I only had. Energy wise, so many resources. Right? That was their, their reasoning like, well no, cuz I was like, I don't wanna take a handicap spot, you know, I can walk. [Page//00:26:00] Um, so we've got the range, right? I have a client that came to mind when you were talking about illustrating this, the sitting, cuz she's, she's not older.
Um, and she, you know, will say like, I get out of a chair, like an 80 year old, she gets stuck. She literally gets stuck. She freezes. Um, and so I'm already like, Ooh, I have ideas. You know, so we have this range and then we have, I see a lot. I bet you do too. Kind of back to what I was talking about at that push through, so many people with autoimmunity don't want to give up their exercise.
Like that's the thing.
Laura Coleman Waite: What was that?
Julie Michelson: That they're like, no, you know, this disease isn't gonna take that away from me. And they're creating more problems by over exercising or exercising in the wrong way. Um, so this huge variety of, uh, where do people even start if they don't, if you know, can't get to you
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: to see like, where is this coming from?
Because [Page//00:27:00] just like with my autoimmune symptoms, doctors are telling me it's in my head, they can't figure it out.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yep, of course. And that, and that's crazy making and heartbreaking all in, all in one thing. So the, the, um, The little gift I sent to you is my favorite top five back pain hacks, and those don't require really much in the way of equipment I was telling you before we turned on. The thing is I had a, a video on Instagram that went viral and it was, I thought, something that everybody knew, which was to take two tennis balls in a sock and put it in the middle of your back to loosen up.
The middle of the back, which is another reason that the low back might get mad, and that apparently 80. 800,000 people didn't know that. And it was news to them. And I, I was sort of shocked and I, I was telling you, I, I had [Page//00:28:00] a couple physical therapists comment and say, well, I've been telling people for this for years.
And I had a massage therapist say, I tell that to all my clients all the time. I'm like, okay, well we all gotta keep doing it because apparently it's news to everyone. So
Julie Michelson: of us still didn't get the memo.
Laura Coleman Waite: and it's just an easy thing. So that's a, that's
Julie Michelson: how are they so. Really like how are you're using it? Two tennis balls in a sock middle of the back. What are you doing?
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so here's why. Do you wanna do quick biomechanics? Biomechanics in a nutshell.
Julie Michelson: Sure.
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so all joints need to be mobile or stable, right? So neck, let's just go head to toe. Neck. Do you think mobile or stable?
Julie Michelson: Well, it's hopefully mobile, but.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hopefully. Yeah, exactly. It should be mobile. Okay,
Julie Michelson: of us, it's a little more stable than we'd like
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly. Okay, so shoulder, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: mobile.[Page//00:29:00]
Laura Coleman Waite: Isn't that interesting? That's what everybody thinks, but there are 17 muscles that act on the shoulder joint and the shoulder itself, the shoulder joint should actually be stable. It should be a, a, a bastion of stability for the arm to, which is super mobile, right?
Yeah. Okay. So neck, mobile, shoulder, stable, mid back, mobile or stable.
Julie Michelson: It's stable. Well, it's probably shouldn't be minus like mid. I mean, I think all your whole spine should be mobile,
Laura Coleman Waite: It. So mid back should be mobile, yes, but low back, mobile or stable.
Julie Michelson: Well, how are you defining low back?
Laura Coleman Waite: So the lumbar vertebra, that little chunk of your spine.
Julie Michelson: well that's stable.
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly. There's a big chunky vertebrae to the bottom of a very long, thin pyramid. They want, they don't wanna move. They wanna hold still. You're absolutely[Page//00:30:00]
Julie Michelson: I broke one of those guys.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hi. Hi. Sorry. That's terrible.
Julie Michelson: no, it's.
Laura Coleman Waite: That's
Julie Michelson: Who's a writer? A writer thing. Writer. Error,
Laura Coleman Waite: Fucked off horses. That's, that just seems to result in broken vertebrae. Okay, so now hips, mobile or stable,
Julie Michelson: Well, I'm gonna say same thing. Stable. So the leg can be mobile. No, but they rotate. No. Well, I have no idea. Clearly,
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, you're doing awesome. Hips I think should be mobile. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. So they should be able to wiggle around, not as much in as freely as your arm can,
Julie Michelson: Right.
Laura Coleman Waite: unless you're like, you know, an awesome Cirque dulay performer or something. But for the most part, they should be mobile, low box, stable, hips, mobile.
Okay. Knees, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: I, I'm, I give up. Well, stable in that they're, you know, they bend, but they're [Page//00:31:00] not going all, hopefully not going all over the
Laura Coleman Waite: No, that's, that's exactly right. They're a hinge joint. You want 'em to work like a door and you only want 'em to work like a door. If they start twisting around in all sorts of directions, that's when you get in trouble. Yeah, exactly. You don't want 'em to be mobile. Okay,
Julie Michelson: There's a lot of knee twisting going around now in the mountains. Not for me, just in general
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so that leaves us with the ankles, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: Mobile.
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm. Correct. They should go multiple directions. Okay, so let's review neck, mobile, shoulder, stable, midback, mobile, low back, stable, hips, mobile, knees, stable ankles, mobile. That's, that's biomechanics in a nutshell. And something has to hold still, so something can move off of it.
Okay, so there's that beautiful pattern. Mobile stable, mobile stable, all the way down. What happens if something screws up that pattern?
Julie Michelson: The wrong part is doing the wrong, like we were saying [Page//00:32:00] before, which I can't wait to highlight, so I'm not gonna wait this idea of where the pain is. Is not necessarily where the problem is. And you alluded to that with the low back pain, but mid back needs the love.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hence the two tennis balls in a sock. So you put it in the middle of your back because think about your day and as you start to get tired, you're like
Julie Michelson: Like a withering flower.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, just like slowly slouch. Or it's the end of the day and you sink into your couch cuz you're so, you're finally done with your day, whatever it is. You so that if you took a pipe cleaner and you made an S and you pressed down on top of it, the S is basically like a spring and it would absorb and allow the force of your finger pressing down right into that, into a bigger S.
If you took a pipe cleaner and made a C and pressed down on the top of it, that C has that bender break point in the [Page//00:33:00] middle. That's your mid back. That's why you throw the tennis balls in your mid back and that can. Get the mobility back into the midback, and then your low back can go back to being stable and happy.
And because your low back is now back to being stable, and the midback is loosened back up with the tennis balls in a sock, then now you've reestablished that beautiful pattern and all is well in the world.
Julie Michelson: Wow.
Laura Coleman Waite: So just, you know, just that mobile people concept.
Julie Michelson: other than you and your friends, like, why don't people know this? Like, why
Laura Coleman Waite: a good question. I have the slightest idea. I don't have the slightest idea. I know, I know, I know. It's just been a, honestly, just a lot of experimentation and hanging out with a lot of smart people. Like I was listening to your podcast and you had this [Page//00:34:00] woman on Anna Eshe, Dr. Anna Anna. And. You had to repeat something that I'd never I'd, I'd never heard before, which was that emotional path.
I wrote it down and I'm reading it because I wanted to get it exactly right. I pulled over so that I could write it down. So you, she said that emotional pathways are along the same anatomical pathways as pain. They are really combined, so emotional pain can cause pain and pain can cause emotional pain.
And I was like, Hmm. That's so interesting because I have, so one of the biggest questions I get is, how long should I do my exercises? You know, like how many repetitions, how many sets,
Julie Michelson: We all, everybody wants the gimme the formula.
Laura Coleman Waite: The magic number, and I'm, and I always say, well, ideally you do it by feel like, can you feel it?
Is it working? I'm gonna tell you the target muscle. And when you get [Page//00:35:00] it to kick in, Then you can stop. That makes engineers and mathematicians and scientists around the world crazy. Yeah. They're like, gimme a number, gimme a number. So I did some research and I happened to bump into a physical therapist who said, well, 90 seconds is the magic neurological release and reset point.
So I say, so I say to my engineers and my mathematicians and my, all the rest of my clients, okay, let's do it for 90 seconds. And that's our magic number. So then my friend Margaret suggested this book to me that was, um, all about, um, 90 seconds being correlated with releasing feelings.
Julie Michelson: Mm.
Laura Coleman Waite: And so I, so I, all of a sudden I, my, I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I went, oh my gosh. So neuroscience. So this woman by the name of Dr. Joan Rosenberg wrote this book called [Page//00:36:00] From 90 Seconds to A Life You Love, she says. To ride the wave of feelings for a full 90 seconds. Well, guess what I've accidentally been doing this whole time when I have people do their exercises for 90 seconds, not only are they getting the neuromuscular release and reset point so that their brains start to learn where those muscles are and how it feels when they're working and how to get 'em to work equally, but they're also releasing the emotional component at the same time.
I was like, wow. So exciting because I think then when people get up and I say, okay, walk around and see how you feel after you get done with your workout, most people say, I feel better. And now my question is, do they feel better? Because is it the actual good muscles that we got to work, which I can tell they're working, or is it all the feelings that got to be released and processed?
Julie Michelson: that answer can ever be deterred. Like I, I just, it's, [Page//00:37:00] I, I tell people all the time, it's the same thing. You know, people want the form tell me what to do. I'm like, well, we, we will figure that out and you have to do this piece.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah.
Julie Michelson: And I, I think that makes such perfect sense. The the 92nd thing because so much of that pain, the pain, at least that's from the emotion, it does go both ways, um, is because we shove the emotion down or don't wanna feel it to begin with.
So it makes sense that sitting with the pain, even if we're not consciously feeling that emotion, you know, like all
Laura Coleman Waite: fear or the anxiety or any of that, any of those, like, is this gonna strike again? What do I do about it? You know, all of that.
Julie Michelson: we move through to the other side. We have to have that experience and that's, and, and I love, I'm gonna check out that book
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Sounds amazing.
And, and so, oh my gosh. Again, another [Page//00:38:00] like aha word, these integrated whole humans. What.
Laura Coleman Waite: what? Who knew? So amazing so that, that, you know, so I was so grateful for your podcast because, you know, I am forever
Julie Michelson: Anna is, she's brilliant. She's, she's, yeah. So, so brilliant.
Laura Coleman Waite: the fact that I can't believe she's gone back to school so many
Julie Michelson: I know she's there now.
Laura Coleman Waite: in school.
Julie Michelson: She's, she's back now. Oh, I have my empty, I think I'll get a, do I have nothing else to
Laura Coleman Waite: I'll get four more board certifications just for fun.
Julie Michelson: That's amazing. So, The, the place to start, uh, then is to go for these, the five back pain hacks and, and just start, like you said, feel.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I, I love
Laura Coleman Waite: so the walk sideways. And then if you're doing an exercise, things that make me crazy are things like, I'll have clients show me their physical [Page//00:39:00] therapy exercises, for instance. And I'll say, okay, let's start with exercise number one. Show me how you do it. And then I'll say, okay, where do you feel it?
And they'll say, Hmm. You know, they'll tell me a muscle. And they'll say, okay, is that the target muscle
Julie Michelson: No.
Laura Coleman Waite: blank look.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, they
Laura Coleman Waite: The what?
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: The tar, is it the target muscle. Oh, okay. So you don't know the target muscle. How about is it, what do you do if you don't feel the target muscle? Do you have an alternative to this or do you skip it or do you push through it or you know, what's the solution here?
Julie Michelson: No, they don't know.
Laura Coleman Waite: Blank Look. And so, It's a big deal. And when things are assigned for, you know, 30 seconds or 45 seconds, I'll say, why? What's the, what's the science behind that, that this 90 seconds is a, like that science bag that's 90 seconds is the neuromuscular release and reset point. You wanna teach your brain to get into that [Page//00:40:00] nerve pathway, to open up that muscle, to make that muscle available to you.
Because if you are having difficulty feeling it, I promise you it's not working any other time. And so you've gotta be sort of, you've gotta give it the opportunity to work. And if you cut it off at 45 seconds, even if you're doing the right muscle, you, you're not doing all that you can do. So that 90 seconds is so magic.
So magic. I love it. I, and I didn't realize how much I loved it until I tripped over the,
Julie Michelson: It all. It all clicked.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah. I was like,
Julie Michelson: I love it. It's, it is so validating too. It's
Laura Coleman Waite: Yes,
Julie Michelson: So you already gave us many, many, many, um, but I know you've listened to the podcast cuz you just quoted. Uh, so what is, if you had to pick one thing, what is one step that listeners can take starting today?
Laura Coleman Waite: I would try [Page//00:41:00] sideways walking. Honestly, if you are a straight ahead sporter, I would try sideways walking. That would be.
Julie Michelson: And if you are, if you don't consider your yourself a sporter, you are straight ahead. Like if
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, exactly.
Julie Michelson: not intentionally getting that multi-directional movement and you're straight ahead, even if you're like, well, I, I'm not a sporter. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I had to
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, no, no, no, no. And I, yeah, and I think women in particular sort of discount the fact that they move as well as they can. I have these cute 80 year olds in my neighborhood, and one of them had it band problems, and the other just flat out couldn't go for a walk because their back hurts so badly.
And I had 'em both do the same thing. I had 'em, I said, here's a really simple thing. When I meet at the dog park, what, when our dogs play, and the other one just lives a couple houses down. And I said, try walking sideways. Just try walking sideways. I saw, and [Page//00:42:00] she, the, um, the one with the it band, her knees literally collapsed in, so she looked like she was, you know, the opposite of bow-legged, so that all the valgus stress on the knees, as you know, and you know, or maybe a permanent horseback rider, like she'd been riding a horse all
Julie Michelson: No. We're bow-legged. We're the opposite.
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay. Okay, perfect.
Julie Michelson: You ever, you ever look at a cowboy, just wanna pull their knees together. Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yes. So I had on both walks sideways and that, you know, and they were sort of discounted because they were elderly there. You know, one doctor wanted to put one on Cymbalta, which made her tinnitus worse, and Ma, you know, made upset her stomach and all this other junk. And I was like, Ugh, it's so dumb. Could you just try walking sideways and see how that feels?
Julie Michelson: Amazing.
Laura Coleman Waite: So they're both feeling better and now the one can go for a walk. You know, and not have to [Page//00:43:00] stop because her back hurts. And I just saw the other one this morning and I said, your IT band's okay. And that's all I gave her. And she's like, yep, they're fine. I have a little bit of a, she has a, a baker cyst, so a little puffy thing in the back of her.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's.
Laura Coleman Waite: She's like, so I can't do, um, child's pose yet. And I said, okay, well we can work on that too. And she's like, okay, well I gotta go, but okay.
Julie Michelson: So cute. So cute. So I love that you that like just tied it in a bow because that's exactly what we're saying is we can be intentional about activating these muscles and being multi-directional and balancing our poor outta whack bodies out. Without a diagnosis, without, you know, by strengthening counterbalancing, it doesn't really, it the same exercise can solve different problems.
I love that.
Laura Coleman Waite: And I think most people [Page//00:44:00] operate on the premise that all of their muscles are working all the time. And I'm just here to tell you that's just not true.
Julie Michelson: They can't or you wouldn't be able to move? No.
Laura Coleman Waite: That's nearly impossible. And so, you know, you there, there are, I have 25 years of shocked expressions when I've had people try and contract their glutes consciously without any help from any of the neighbors. And they'll, they'll look at me and they'll say the C word. I, I can't. And I'm like, ah, I'm having difficulty having difficulty.
Your muscles can hear you. Let's talk positively to them. I'm having difficulty. They're there. You just have to give opportunity.
Julie Michelson: Right, right. So think of it as like they, you know, first they have to wake up from their long nap, then they can wake up. Oh, I love it. I love it. We didn't, we didn't plan any of this. Just very aligned. [Page//00:45:00] Very aligned. And the, the links are gonna be in the show notes for everything everywhere. But for people that are listening in their car like you, and they don't wanna pull over.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Where's the, like, best place to find you because they're, they're like, oh my gosh, I need to learn more from her.
Laura Coleman Waite: Ah, so sweet. So I, so my Instagram page is handy. I put, I post, um, quick fitness tips nearly daily on my Instagram page. I'm starting a group coaching program, but the, that program is not live yet. If you want to sign up to, um, be alerted when it does go live, that website is hack your back pain.com and that you just pop your little email in there and I'll shoot you an email when things get rolling.
Yeah.
Julie Michelson: fantastic. And your Instagram is what? Where can they find you on Instagram?
Laura Coleman Waite: Laura dot Coleman 27.
Julie Michelson: Perfect.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah. It's not particularly memorable, but [Page//00:46:00] the children set it up for me and I was like, all
Julie Michelson: It works. It works. And again, we will link to it, so that's great. Laura, thank you so much for coming on and teaching us so much and enlightening and inspiring us. You've shared amazing, amazing tips with us today.
Laura Coleman Waite: Aww. Thank you for having me and thank you for being such a force for good in the world. It's so, I'm so grateful to be part of your world, so fantastic.
Julie Michelson: I am, I am so glad we got to connect. I'm excited. Can't wait for your group program to launch and, um, just, I, I always love, I know, I knew I was gonna learn a lot today, um, and I'm probably gonna have to go back and listen again, so I, I'm just thrilled to have had you here.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh, thank you for having me again. Yes, it's been delightful.
Julie Michelson: for everyone listening, remember, you can get those show notes and transcripts by Visiting inspiredliving.show.
I hope you had a great [Page//00:47:00] time. I know you learned something. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
[Page//00:01:00] Laura teaches us about biomechanics and gives us tips that we can use starting today to reduce our pain from the root cause level.
Laura, welcome to the podcast.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh my gosh. So excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Julie Michelson: My pleasure. I am so fascinated about what you do and, and how you do it. Um, especially, you know, people ask me all the time, you know, what are some common symptoms of autoimmunity? I. The two that always come outta my mouth first are pain and fatigue. So I know today's conversation is gonna be amazing for listeners.
So my, my question always is, you know, how did you get into this world? Um, I know I wasn't dreaming of being a health coach when I was younger. Uh, I don't even know if there was, was, I don't think there was any health coaching. Forget functional medicine. Um, but how, how, tell, share your story with us.[Page//00:02:00]
Laura Coleman Waite: Well, I, as I was saying, um, I think our stories are unfortunately, sort of have a sad beginning because, um, your dad had his, I believe he had a heart attack.
Julie Michelson: Uh, we're not positive, but I, I think so.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah. At, at a relatively young age. And my mom, um, when I was a senior in college, um, getting ready to go to soccer tryouts, Right before I left, found out that she had, you know how you walk into a room and you know instantly that something is wrong? And my dad and I had been out back to school shopping for all intents and purposes, and I looked at her and I said, what is it?
And she said, I have a spot on my lung. And I didn't really know what that meant. And I said, okay. And the thing that really, really, really sort of slays me to this day, she was not a smoker. She was not a smoker. Her parents did smoke. My other sets of grandparents, my dad's parents smoked [Page//00:03:00] and my dad himself quit eventually, but he also smoked.
So she was surrounded literally by a cloud of smoke and she didn't smoke and she was the one that got sick. So, That's the part that makes me a little crazy. But the thing that I noticed because I was the, I was her primary caregiver for the last nine months of her life, I noticed that the thing that took the wind out of her sails the most was the pain.
And I, I wished away that pain on so many levels and she would have panic attacks and you know, it just really took away her. Her wanted her ability to stick around. So unknowingly that kind of set me on my journey, unfortunately, unfortunately. And I moved to San Diego cuz I needed to get that heck outta Dodge.
I had had enough, I needed to move, I needed a new place. I was running away of course. And I ended up working for a guy in San Diego in the mid nineties by the name of Peter Gosky. [Page//00:04:00] And he's written several books and he has clinics around the country. Um, He's the one that taught me how to watch people move.
And you look at the whole body as a system always, but as a muscu, as a complete muscular system. And the tricky thing with just working with muscles, that's the name of my company, just Muscles, is that there isn't a big diagnostic tool that nails them as a problem. So I had clients, you know, I had lots of women in particular who had been told they were hysterical females because.
They, there was no direct diagnostic test that can nail what their problem was, and that made 'em a little, I think that also made them a little bit upset because they knew they weren't crazy. They knew they felt bad, but there wasn't anything that their doctor could say, oh, well here it is on your M R I, or Here it is on your CAT scan, or you know, nothing showed up because it was muscular and origin.
There's [Page//00:05:00] nothing that really nails, muscles. So to everyone listening to this podcast, please develop a muscle test for us. That would be so nice, so that we could nail down muscles as the thing, but in the meantime.
Julie Michelson: Or train more Laura's.
Laura Coleman Waite: So that's kinda how I got started. And you know, there, um, There's been lots of things that I've, that I've researched and run across and done workshops with. I'm sure as you have, um, that have contributed to my sort of general knowledge over these last 25 years. And now I, that's, so, it's my favorite thing to do is I watch people move and then I, um, say, okay, well this looks like it's out of position.
This might be a little outta position. The thing is, is that that may not be the problem. Your problem may show up somewhere else. And that's usually the biggest paradigm shift for most [Page//00:06:00] people is just because we see something's wrong doesn't mean that that's the thing, that's the the problem. You have to take a, like, so for instance, if your shoulders are out of position, then it look, you know, your shoulders you can see are out of position, but are they out of position because your shoulders have a problem or is the thing they're sitting on top of the hips?
Are those out of position? And is that causing this whole sort of chain reaction all the way down the body? In which case we have to say, all right, well let's go after. So I, for the last 25 years, I have systematically sort of drilled it down to three, what I call underutilized and overlooked muscles in the body.
And I start with those three, almost without fail, with every single client. Regardless of what their, um, what, regardless of what their symptom is, whatever it is that's hurting them. So using the shoulders. An example, if your [Page//00:07:00] shoulder hurt, I'd say That's nice, but what's the other shoulder doing?
Julie Michelson: Right. Well, and I love the similarities because this is, it's just like functional medicine, and if you take the autoimmunity piece right, what they're treating in the rheumatology office is the symptom.
Laura Coleman Waite: Sure.
Julie Michelson: And we're going after the root cause. You're doing the same thing mechanically with the body. It's like, okay, I get that, that's uneven and hurts, but let's dig and, and find what's really driving that.
That's, that's incredible. So sorry, you're three underutilized
Laura Coleman Waite: Underutilized and overlooked muscles. So what do you think they're, I always ask them,
Julie Michelson: I have no idea, but I am so excited to learn and I'm sure I, I'm sure I have all three.
Laura Coleman Waite: I've shared that. You too. I'm sure. So one muscle that gets a totally bad reputation is our little friend, the soaz or the
Julie Michelson: I knew you were gonna say that. I should have [Page//00:08:00] just guessed it. Yes, because who doesn't have. So as issues,
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so let's talk about why. So let's say you have a job that requires you to sit, let's say the majority of the day.
Julie Michelson: actually let's back it up for listeners. Wh where is the, so as muscle.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. So the, so as. In order to get to it. That's the, that's kind of the interesting thing about it is it's so internal, so, so many people don't really know where it is or how to get to it.
So to get to it, we would've to scoop out all your intestines. Which we won't do today, but then it hangs onto the vertebrae in the low back and then comes diagonally down and attaches to the top of the inside of the femur. And the only real estate you have access to on the outside of the body is this tiny little square.
Kinda, if I stand up, it's right in the front of the crease of the hip. So the quad attaches to the front of the hip [Page//00:09:00] bone, and then let's say three finger wets over is the hip flexor. That's the only access you have to it from the outside of the body. So for the, for really the majority of the muscle is so internal and that makes it so difficult for people to understand where it is and how it works.
And it gets such a bad reputation. But it is so powerful. So powerful. It's one of my favorites. When you, so for instance, when you are watching the summer Olympics and you're watching the track, um, the track people. If they're doing hurdles, for instance, it's the hip flexer that's picking that leg up to get it up over the hurdle.
And if you didn't have hip flexors, then those hurdles would be really, yeah, you couldn't do it. You would definitely not be at the Olympics. So all of your favorite runners from Africa that have those beautiful strides in their legs just go flying out behind them. It's the hip flexor that pulls that leg up in the front so that it can have all of that extension and go flying out behind them [Page//00:10:00] for the rest of the stride.
So hip flexors. So hip flexor is the generic name for the SOAs. It's actually two muscles. One muscle is the iias. So if you picture a skeleton at Halloween, you've got those big soup bowl, hip bones, the ilias lines, the inside of the hip bone and the SOAs is it's best front. So they're two separate muscles, but they do the same thing and they attach to the top of the inside of the femur.
So they, they, they're just in charge of the same motion, which is jumping over hurdles or. Another motion that they're in charge of is sitting. So if you sit, so if you, I put my little chair ready to sit in
Julie Michelson: Well, and just know a lot of listeners are are gonna just listen on audio. So yeah, if you'll talk us through what you're doing.
Laura Coleman Waite: absolutely. So I just sat down in a chair and the reason I sat down in a tear is because that made the, [Page//00:11:00] the, um, soha muscle, the hip flexor muscle. Become positionally shortened. So that means that I'm not jumping over a hurdle, but I am shortening the muscle nonetheless, just because I'm sitting.
So it's as though I'm jumping over a hurdle, but sitting down to do it and the brain doesn't know the difference. And all muscles have a best friend. And so the hip flexor best friend is my second favorite muscle. What would you guess is the hip flexor his best friend in, in some planes,
Julie Michelson: That I don't know.
Laura Coleman Waite: so that's our friend, the glute,
Julie Michelson: Oh,
Laura Coleman Waite: so our little friend, the glute. So if your best friend is positionally contracted, so you're sitting and the, the two attachment points are brought closer together. So the muscle is positionally contracted, just cuz you're sitting. Then just by nature of [Page//00:12:00] their relationship, the glute gets knocked out of the, outta the, it just can't work because the brain doesn't care that if there's a difference between a positional and a jumping over a, a hurdle.
Yeah. So either way. The hip flexor isn't really working cuz it's just shortened. Just cuz you're stuck in a chair and it knocks out the glute. So then the body's like, no problem, we've got backup muscles, so we'll go to quad because the quad is the body's second choice to pick the leg up off the ground.
And the quad's like, okay, no problem. But it gets really strong really fast and it has a best friend, which is that my third favorite muscle to work on because it gets so underutilized. My little friend, the hamstring. So now the quads are really super strong, and now the hamstring gets knocked out. And now on the backside of the body, really the only muscle left on your [Page//00:13:00] leg is your poor little calf.
So tons of people have calf tightness and calf pain, and Achilles heal problems and foot problems, plantar fasciitis. All that comes from that calf doing the work of the calf. The calf doing work of the hamstring and the calf doing the work of the glit. So most people are what I call quad calf dominant.
So their quads work work really well, their calves work really well, and since there's no muscle in their hip per se, that's really working very well cuz the hip flexor is kind of positionally shortened from sitting and the glute gets knocked out cuz the hip flexor is positionally shortened. Then your body goes, well we need somebody to work around here.
So we'll go. We'll ask the neighbors. So we'll go above the joint and below the joint dash, the nearest neighbor for help. So it goes below the joint to the hamstring hamstring's, like, sorry, can't help you. I'm getting knocked out by my friend, the quad. And so the body goes, okay, we'll go above the joint.
So it goes above the joint to the low [Page//00:14:00] back and it says, Hey, low back, can you help us out? We don't have a glute, we don't have a hip flexor. And the LUV locks like, sure, but muscles are just like people when they do their job in somebody else's job, they get mad. So I think that most people have low back pain because they just, they just don't really tap into these big powerful hip muscles very often cuz they can't see the hip flexor, the glute, they don't even, they just don't fully understand.
And then the HSR gets knocked out by quads. So those are my three favorite muscles. I know, I know. It's, it's, it's, when you think about it that way, then you're like, oh, well, no wonder. So then the question is, what do you do about it? And that gets compounded by, I would say a lot of people took up walking during the pandemic in a way that maybe.
Was unprecedented because there wasn't else anything else to do. I'm a soccer player. I am on four soccer [Page//00:15:00] teams. All soccer teams disappeared, so I, my options were, I don't know about you. I could go for a walk or I could go for a run, and that was about it for exercise available. And when I, so when I've, what I figured out is that all of my clients that are what I call straight ahead sporters, so they have sports that allow them to go straight ahead.
They walk, they run, they hike, they swim, they bike. All of those sports are straight ahead. They all have really strong, that quad calf dominance really comes into play in a big way because. They don't have a multi-directional sport that they could do. And for the first time, I've been playing soccer since fourth grade.
This is the first time I hadn't played soccer since fourth grade, and I started to get all the things that my poor,
Julie Michelson: Don't you find it just makes you better at your job?
Laura Coleman Waite: that's, God, feels like this sucks.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:16:00] Yep.
Laura Coleman Waite: Fix that.
Julie Michelson: empathy goes through the roof when, when we have those kind of setbacks and experiences for sure.
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly,
Julie Michelson: So what do we do?
Laura Coleman Waite: about being a straight ahead sporter.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: So you kind of have to artificially infuse some multi-directional stuff into your, either your warmup or even mid sport. So my, I'm on a little track team and my track team friends are now used to me saying things like, Ugh. My left glute just said, see you later.
So I gotta go sideways for a little bit to get it to kick back in. So you artificially infuse a little bit of some multi-directional movement. So I love to teach people how to do sideways walking. I love to teach people how to do backwards walking, you know, in safe conditions. So
Julie Michelson: Uh, I'm chuckling cuz my, my kids were here for dinner last night, my adult children and, and, uh, my oldest works [Page//00:17:00] at a golf course and he walked 12 miles I think on Monday at work.
Laura Coleman Waite: Wow.
Julie Michelson: And then was complaining about his heels bothering him
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: and mentioned in passing. Well, yeah, those, like those 12 miles were backwards and we were like, wait, what is he what?
12? 12,000? Not sorry, 12 miles. Um, yeah, backwards. And I'm like, well wait. We were like, wait, why were you walking He needed to for what he was doing. But it just, it was, that was our dinner topic last
Laura Coleman Waite: Isn't that amazing? That's so great.
Julie Michelson: So yeah. I love it. But you already connected so many dots for me, and I'm sure listeners have kind of the, you know, same thing going on in their mind.
Um, my, I. Middle son,
Laura Coleman Waite: Uh,
Julie Michelson: um, in my weekly email yesterday I shared was literally just dismissed from his rheumatologist's office. He had been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis when he was in high school,
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm.
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:18:00] and finally he is, you know, After listening and watching and ignoring his mother for all this time, um, he has reversed all his autoimmune symptoms, but when he was first diagnosed or before he was even diagnosed, um, he had the, the two symptoms.
For people that aren't familiar with ankylos and spondylitis, it's a autoimmune arthritis that starts in the spine and typically in the SI joint. So there we are back down at that lower back. Secondary, very common symptom at onset is heel pain. It's like you just totally connected those dots for me, the poor kid, we uh, we kind of, I don't wanna say ignored, um, we explained away he was a varsity catcher.
Right. So I was like, well of course your lower back hurts and your heal, you know, you just spent a double header in the hundred degree weather squatting. Like, but it, it really wasn't that. It was the [Page//00:19:00] inflammation going on in his si,
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: you know, traveling that path you just talked about down to the hill. Like so wild. Amazing. Sorry, I digress. I just had to share because.
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, no.
Julie Michelson: Part of it is, you know, I'm so excited to share with people. You know, we come on, we share healing journeys. We share our stories. You know, this is a young man who's 25, right? He works sometimes 70 hour weeks. He is got friends and hobbies and um, and it's like, okay, if he can do the things, if, you know, he could figure out what's triggering and actually make the lifestyle changes.
And, and a lot of it for him is exercise. It's making sure. That, that he is, you know, I guess not quad dominant anymore.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: And that keeps him pain free. It's one of the things, you know, and food and, and all the things we're always talking about. Um, so I love that. So [Page//00:20:00] I, anyway, sideways walking backwards walking, which I'm so glad cuz I'm already thinking well, I'm an equestrian, and so most of my, and I do, I walk a lot just in life, not, you know, I live, um, you know, live in the country.
So, um, but I was thinking like, I ca you know, I don't think I can do multidirectional in the middle, middle of a ride. Right. So, um, but we can
Laura Coleman Waite: you, are you up outta your sal saddle? Are you
Julie Michelson: Oh, yeah,
Laura Coleman Waite: you're up? I would think so. You could, you could really kick your booty out and really push through your stirs and really get that glued to activate for you in your saddle.
Julie Michelson: Oh, oh, yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, I would think that.
Julie Michelson: I Well, you would ha Yeah, to and i, I write jumpers, so Yeah. We're, that's activated. And, and I'm very familiar with the importance of, you know, The, the hamstring and all, all the things. [Page//00:21:00] Um, but just thinking of like, how, you know, how am I getting lateral, I guess. And that's exactly what you're saying.
You don't need the lateral movement or multi-directional as long as you're activating. Um, and you said it, I, I'm gonna even, uh, put it in my, like elementary school vernacular. Um, when you said, you know, all, every muscle has a, has a friend, um, Yeah, a best, a best friend. Um, and, and what people need to realize is, you know, they're, they work inversely, you know, they balance each other out.
And so that's hence why when you're quad dominant, your hamstrings are weak. Like it's, um, and it's just not a ba I mean, it's a beautiful thing. That's how we move.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, it it, if that relationship didn't exist, yeah, it, nobody would move anything. So it's useful. You just gotta realize that the front of your body is probably gonna be super strong and the backside of your body is probably gonna get knocked out just as it [Page//00:22:00] relate, just as a. Relationship thing with the front of the body.
So it's okay. It's very fixable.
Julie Michelson: and so you, when you. Well, I'll ask you in a minute. I wanna make sure, because I did interrupt you when you were talking about getting this other multidimensional movement in. I make sure if there's nothing else you wanted to say on that piece before I.
Laura Coleman Waite: No, I would just say that, um, if you don't spend all day with an anatomy app, like I like to. You might not know that the glute fibers, I think the reason it's called a fanny and sort of, you know, casual conversation is because those fibers run at a 45 degree angle approximately. So. You have to think about how the fibers actually are structured in order to get 'em to fire in the direction that they naturally want to go.
So in, that's why glutes are in charge of lateral movement. And even if you do play, let's say tennis or pickleball [Page//00:23:00] or you know, you wrestle or you're a a hoop guy or you know, whatever that, um, That doesn't mean that they're automatically gonna kick in, but at least you're giving your body the opportunity to have them kick in.
And so if you don't feel like, and if they don't look the way you think they should, they're not filling out those jeans the way you'd like 'em to, or someone in your life says That's a pancake back there
Julie Michelson: Better not.
Laura Coleman Waite: that.
Julie Michelson: It's rude.
Laura Coleman Waite: Rude but useful. So just take it in and say, oh, maybe I should try some, you know, the sideways walking, or maybe I should try going backwards and just see if you can get some of those muscles to kick in. You can even use them as a warmup. Or what I really like about going backwards and sideways is that you can do it on the fly.
So I'm not kidding, I'm, we're in the middle of a [Page//00:24:00] run and I'll say to my girlfriends, okay, I'm sorry, but I've gotta spin sideways, completely lost this hip. My knee is complaining. I don't see any reason to reinforce this muscle patterning thing. That's only gonna be detrimental long term. And that's how.
You know, running, for instance, gets a bad rap. It's bad for your knees. Well sure if you let it continue to hurt and you don't have all your muscles working, I'm sure it would be bad for your knees, but it's great for you the rest of the time when those muscles are all working. So why reinforce bad neuromuscular patterns?
I don't see any reason for it.
Julie Michelson: So, uh, you're saying listen to your body and the pain is a symptom.
Laura Coleman Waite: is that?
Julie Michelson: on
Laura Coleman Waite: Hallmark? This podcast? Yes.
Julie Michelson: we for, we so forget because it's often inconvenient. Right. That like, I am out for a run and this is my goal, this is my intention. [Page//00:25:00] My health coach says exercise. You know? Um, but no, listen to your body and there's no pushing through. When you're doing a especially repetitive motion that's painful. Like you said, you're just, you're digging yourself a hole that you don't need to be in.
It's, it's not. So where do people start though? Was, I know, you know, listeners are, they're in a. Just wide range of physical ability. Um, and so I'm thinking back to where I was before I, I broke out of the western medicine only model, right. And I was, I could walk, thank goodness. Um, but they wanted me to get a handicap placard on my car because I, it was painful and it was hard.
And, and, and I only had. Energy wise, so many resources. Right? That was their, their reasoning like, well no, cuz I was like, I don't wanna take a handicap spot, you know, I can walk. [Page//00:26:00] Um, so we've got the range, right? I have a client that came to mind when you were talking about illustrating this, the sitting, cuz she's, she's not older.
Um, and she, you know, will say like, I get out of a chair, like an 80 year old, she gets stuck. She literally gets stuck. She freezes. Um, and so I'm already like, Ooh, I have ideas. You know, so we have this range and then we have, I see a lot. I bet you do too. Kind of back to what I was talking about at that push through, so many people with autoimmunity don't want to give up their exercise.
Like that's the thing.
Laura Coleman Waite: What was that?
Julie Michelson: That they're like, no, you know, this disease isn't gonna take that away from me. And they're creating more problems by over exercising or exercising in the wrong way. Um, so this huge variety of, uh, where do people even start if they don't, if you know, can't get to you
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: to see like, where is this coming from?
Because [Page//00:27:00] just like with my autoimmune symptoms, doctors are telling me it's in my head, they can't figure it out.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yep, of course. And that, and that's crazy making and heartbreaking all in, all in one thing. So the, the, um, The little gift I sent to you is my favorite top five back pain hacks, and those don't require really much in the way of equipment I was telling you before we turned on. The thing is I had a, a video on Instagram that went viral and it was, I thought, something that everybody knew, which was to take two tennis balls in a sock and put it in the middle of your back to loosen up.
The middle of the back, which is another reason that the low back might get mad, and that apparently 80. 800,000 people didn't know that. And it was news to them. And I, I was sort of shocked and I, I was telling you, I, I had [Page//00:28:00] a couple physical therapists comment and say, well, I've been telling people for this for years.
And I had a massage therapist say, I tell that to all my clients all the time. I'm like, okay, well we all gotta keep doing it because apparently it's news to everyone. So
Julie Michelson: of us still didn't get the memo.
Laura Coleman Waite: and it's just an easy thing. So that's a, that's
Julie Michelson: how are they so. Really like how are you're using it? Two tennis balls in a sock middle of the back. What are you doing?
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so here's why. Do you wanna do quick biomechanics? Biomechanics in a nutshell.
Julie Michelson: Sure.
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so all joints need to be mobile or stable, right? So neck, let's just go head to toe. Neck. Do you think mobile or stable?
Julie Michelson: Well, it's hopefully mobile, but.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hopefully. Yeah, exactly. It should be mobile. Okay,
Julie Michelson: of us, it's a little more stable than we'd like
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly. Okay, so shoulder, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: mobile.[Page//00:29:00]
Laura Coleman Waite: Isn't that interesting? That's what everybody thinks, but there are 17 muscles that act on the shoulder joint and the shoulder itself, the shoulder joint should actually be stable. It should be a, a, a bastion of stability for the arm to, which is super mobile, right?
Yeah. Okay. So neck, mobile, shoulder, stable, mid back, mobile or stable.
Julie Michelson: It's stable. Well, it's probably shouldn't be minus like mid. I mean, I think all your whole spine should be mobile,
Laura Coleman Waite: It. So mid back should be mobile, yes, but low back, mobile or stable.
Julie Michelson: Well, how are you defining low back?
Laura Coleman Waite: So the lumbar vertebra, that little chunk of your spine.
Julie Michelson: well that's stable.
Laura Coleman Waite: Exactly. There's a big chunky vertebrae to the bottom of a very long, thin pyramid. They want, they don't wanna move. They wanna hold still. You're absolutely[Page//00:30:00]
Julie Michelson: I broke one of those guys.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hi. Hi. Sorry. That's terrible.
Julie Michelson: no, it's.
Laura Coleman Waite: That's
Julie Michelson: Who's a writer? A writer thing. Writer. Error,
Laura Coleman Waite: Fucked off horses. That's, that just seems to result in broken vertebrae. Okay, so now hips, mobile or stable,
Julie Michelson: Well, I'm gonna say same thing. Stable. So the leg can be mobile. No, but they rotate. No. Well, I have no idea. Clearly,
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, you're doing awesome. Hips I think should be mobile. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. So they should be able to wiggle around, not as much in as freely as your arm can,
Julie Michelson: Right.
Laura Coleman Waite: unless you're like, you know, an awesome Cirque dulay performer or something. But for the most part, they should be mobile, low box, stable, hips, mobile.
Okay. Knees, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: I, I'm, I give up. Well, stable in that they're, you know, they bend, but they're [Page//00:31:00] not going all, hopefully not going all over the
Laura Coleman Waite: No, that's, that's exactly right. They're a hinge joint. You want 'em to work like a door and you only want 'em to work like a door. If they start twisting around in all sorts of directions, that's when you get in trouble. Yeah, exactly. You don't want 'em to be mobile. Okay,
Julie Michelson: There's a lot of knee twisting going around now in the mountains. Not for me, just in general
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay, so that leaves us with the ankles, mobile, or stable.
Julie Michelson: Mobile.
Laura Coleman Waite: Mm-hmm. Correct. They should go multiple directions. Okay, so let's review neck, mobile, shoulder, stable, midback, mobile, low back, stable, hips, mobile, knees, stable ankles, mobile. That's, that's biomechanics in a nutshell. And something has to hold still, so something can move off of it.
Okay, so there's that beautiful pattern. Mobile stable, mobile stable, all the way down. What happens if something screws up that pattern?
Julie Michelson: The wrong part is doing the wrong, like we were saying [Page//00:32:00] before, which I can't wait to highlight, so I'm not gonna wait this idea of where the pain is. Is not necessarily where the problem is. And you alluded to that with the low back pain, but mid back needs the love.
Laura Coleman Waite: Hence the two tennis balls in a sock. So you put it in the middle of your back because think about your day and as you start to get tired, you're like
Julie Michelson: Like a withering flower.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, just like slowly slouch. Or it's the end of the day and you sink into your couch cuz you're so, you're finally done with your day, whatever it is. You so that if you took a pipe cleaner and you made an S and you pressed down on top of it, the S is basically like a spring and it would absorb and allow the force of your finger pressing down right into that, into a bigger S.
If you took a pipe cleaner and made a C and pressed down on the top of it, that C has that bender break point in the [Page//00:33:00] middle. That's your mid back. That's why you throw the tennis balls in your mid back and that can. Get the mobility back into the midback, and then your low back can go back to being stable and happy.
And because your low back is now back to being stable, and the midback is loosened back up with the tennis balls in a sock, then now you've reestablished that beautiful pattern and all is well in the world.
Julie Michelson: Wow.
Laura Coleman Waite: So just, you know, just that mobile people concept.
Julie Michelson: other than you and your friends, like, why don't people know this? Like, why
Laura Coleman Waite: a good question. I have the slightest idea. I don't have the slightest idea. I know, I know, I know. It's just been a, honestly, just a lot of experimentation and hanging out with a lot of smart people. Like I was listening to your podcast and you had this [Page//00:34:00] woman on Anna Eshe, Dr. Anna Anna. And. You had to repeat something that I'd never I'd, I'd never heard before, which was that emotional path.
I wrote it down and I'm reading it because I wanted to get it exactly right. I pulled over so that I could write it down. So you, she said that emotional pathways are along the same anatomical pathways as pain. They are really combined, so emotional pain can cause pain and pain can cause emotional pain.
And I was like, Hmm. That's so interesting because I have, so one of the biggest questions I get is, how long should I do my exercises? You know, like how many repetitions, how many sets,
Julie Michelson: We all, everybody wants the gimme the formula.
Laura Coleman Waite: The magic number, and I'm, and I always say, well, ideally you do it by feel like, can you feel it?
Is it working? I'm gonna tell you the target muscle. And when you get [Page//00:35:00] it to kick in, Then you can stop. That makes engineers and mathematicians and scientists around the world crazy. Yeah. They're like, gimme a number, gimme a number. So I did some research and I happened to bump into a physical therapist who said, well, 90 seconds is the magic neurological release and reset point.
So I say, so I say to my engineers and my mathematicians and my, all the rest of my clients, okay, let's do it for 90 seconds. And that's our magic number. So then my friend Margaret suggested this book to me that was, um, all about, um, 90 seconds being correlated with releasing feelings.
Julie Michelson: Mm.
Laura Coleman Waite: And so I, so I, all of a sudden I, my, I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I went, oh my gosh. So neuroscience. So this woman by the name of Dr. Joan Rosenberg wrote this book called [Page//00:36:00] From 90 Seconds to A Life You Love, she says. To ride the wave of feelings for a full 90 seconds. Well, guess what I've accidentally been doing this whole time when I have people do their exercises for 90 seconds, not only are they getting the neuromuscular release and reset point so that their brains start to learn where those muscles are and how it feels when they're working and how to get 'em to work equally, but they're also releasing the emotional component at the same time.
I was like, wow. So exciting because I think then when people get up and I say, okay, walk around and see how you feel after you get done with your workout, most people say, I feel better. And now my question is, do they feel better? Because is it the actual good muscles that we got to work, which I can tell they're working, or is it all the feelings that got to be released and processed?
Julie Michelson: that answer can ever be deterred. Like I, I just, it's, [Page//00:37:00] I, I tell people all the time, it's the same thing. You know, people want the form tell me what to do. I'm like, well, we, we will figure that out and you have to do this piece.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah.
Julie Michelson: And I, I think that makes such perfect sense. The the 92nd thing because so much of that pain, the pain, at least that's from the emotion, it does go both ways, um, is because we shove the emotion down or don't wanna feel it to begin with.
So it makes sense that sitting with the pain, even if we're not consciously feeling that emotion, you know, like all
Laura Coleman Waite: fear or the anxiety or any of that, any of those, like, is this gonna strike again? What do I do about it? You know, all of that.
Julie Michelson: we move through to the other side. We have to have that experience and that's, and, and I love, I'm gonna check out that book
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Sounds amazing.
And, and so, oh my gosh. Again, another [Page//00:38:00] like aha word, these integrated whole humans. What.
Laura Coleman Waite: what? Who knew? So amazing so that, that, you know, so I was so grateful for your podcast because, you know, I am forever
Julie Michelson: Anna is, she's brilliant. She's, she's, yeah. So, so brilliant.
Laura Coleman Waite: the fact that I can't believe she's gone back to school so many
Julie Michelson: I know she's there now.
Laura Coleman Waite: in school.
Julie Michelson: She's, she's back now. Oh, I have my empty, I think I'll get a, do I have nothing else to
Laura Coleman Waite: I'll get four more board certifications just for fun.
Julie Michelson: That's amazing. So, The, the place to start, uh, then is to go for these, the five back pain hacks and, and just start, like you said, feel.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah. Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I, I love
Laura Coleman Waite: so the walk sideways. And then if you're doing an exercise, things that make me crazy are things like, I'll have clients show me their physical [Page//00:39:00] therapy exercises, for instance. And I'll say, okay, let's start with exercise number one. Show me how you do it. And then I'll say, okay, where do you feel it?
And they'll say, Hmm. You know, they'll tell me a muscle. And they'll say, okay, is that the target muscle
Julie Michelson: No.
Laura Coleman Waite: blank look.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, they
Laura Coleman Waite: The what?
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: The tar, is it the target muscle. Oh, okay. So you don't know the target muscle. How about is it, what do you do if you don't feel the target muscle? Do you have an alternative to this or do you skip it or do you push through it or you know, what's the solution here?
Julie Michelson: No, they don't know.
Laura Coleman Waite: Blank Look. And so, It's a big deal. And when things are assigned for, you know, 30 seconds or 45 seconds, I'll say, why? What's the, what's the science behind that, that this 90 seconds is a, like that science bag that's 90 seconds is the neuromuscular release and reset point. You wanna teach your brain to get into that [Page//00:40:00] nerve pathway, to open up that muscle, to make that muscle available to you.
Because if you are having difficulty feeling it, I promise you it's not working any other time. And so you've gotta be sort of, you've gotta give it the opportunity to work. And if you cut it off at 45 seconds, even if you're doing the right muscle, you, you're not doing all that you can do. So that 90 seconds is so magic.
So magic. I love it. I, and I didn't realize how much I loved it until I tripped over the,
Julie Michelson: It all. It all clicked.
Laura Coleman Waite: yeah. I was like,
Julie Michelson: I love it. It's, it is so validating too. It's
Laura Coleman Waite: Yes,
Julie Michelson: So you already gave us many, many, many, um, but I know you've listened to the podcast cuz you just quoted. Uh, so what is, if you had to pick one thing, what is one step that listeners can take starting today?
Laura Coleman Waite: I would try [Page//00:41:00] sideways walking. Honestly, if you are a straight ahead sporter, I would try sideways walking. That would be.
Julie Michelson: And if you are, if you don't consider your yourself a sporter, you are straight ahead. Like if
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah, exactly.
Julie Michelson: not intentionally getting that multi-directional movement and you're straight ahead, even if you're like, well, I, I'm not a sporter. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I had to
Laura Coleman Waite: No, no, no, no, no, no. And I, yeah, and I think women in particular sort of discount the fact that they move as well as they can. I have these cute 80 year olds in my neighborhood, and one of them had it band problems, and the other just flat out couldn't go for a walk because their back hurts so badly.
And I had 'em both do the same thing. I had 'em, I said, here's a really simple thing. When I meet at the dog park, what, when our dogs play, and the other one just lives a couple houses down. And I said, try walking sideways. Just try walking sideways. I saw, and [Page//00:42:00] she, the, um, the one with the it band, her knees literally collapsed in, so she looked like she was, you know, the opposite of bow-legged, so that all the valgus stress on the knees, as you know, and you know, or maybe a permanent horseback rider, like she'd been riding a horse all
Julie Michelson: No. We're bow-legged. We're the opposite.
Laura Coleman Waite: Okay. Okay, perfect.
Julie Michelson: You ever, you ever look at a cowboy, just wanna pull their knees together. Yeah.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yes. So I had on both walks sideways and that, you know, and they were sort of discounted because they were elderly there. You know, one doctor wanted to put one on Cymbalta, which made her tinnitus worse, and Ma, you know, made upset her stomach and all this other junk. And I was like, Ugh, it's so dumb. Could you just try walking sideways and see how that feels?
Julie Michelson: Amazing.
Laura Coleman Waite: So they're both feeling better and now the one can go for a walk. You know, and not have to [Page//00:43:00] stop because her back hurts. And I just saw the other one this morning and I said, your IT band's okay. And that's all I gave her. And she's like, yep, they're fine. I have a little bit of a, she has a, a baker cyst, so a little puffy thing in the back of her.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's.
Laura Coleman Waite: She's like, so I can't do, um, child's pose yet. And I said, okay, well we can work on that too. And she's like, okay, well I gotta go, but okay.
Julie Michelson: So cute. So cute. So I love that you that like just tied it in a bow because that's exactly what we're saying is we can be intentional about activating these muscles and being multi-directional and balancing our poor outta whack bodies out. Without a diagnosis, without, you know, by strengthening counterbalancing, it doesn't really, it the same exercise can solve different problems.
I love that.
Laura Coleman Waite: And I think most people [Page//00:44:00] operate on the premise that all of their muscles are working all the time. And I'm just here to tell you that's just not true.
Julie Michelson: They can't or you wouldn't be able to move? No.
Laura Coleman Waite: That's nearly impossible. And so, you know, you there, there are, I have 25 years of shocked expressions when I've had people try and contract their glutes consciously without any help from any of the neighbors. And they'll, they'll look at me and they'll say the C word. I, I can't. And I'm like, ah, I'm having difficulty having difficulty.
Your muscles can hear you. Let's talk positively to them. I'm having difficulty. They're there. You just have to give opportunity.
Julie Michelson: Right, right. So think of it as like they, you know, first they have to wake up from their long nap, then they can wake up. Oh, I love it. I love it. We didn't, we didn't plan any of this. Just very aligned. [Page//00:45:00] Very aligned. And the, the links are gonna be in the show notes for everything everywhere. But for people that are listening in their car like you, and they don't wanna pull over.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: Where's the, like, best place to find you because they're, they're like, oh my gosh, I need to learn more from her.
Laura Coleman Waite: Ah, so sweet. So I, so my Instagram page is handy. I put, I post, um, quick fitness tips nearly daily on my Instagram page. I'm starting a group coaching program, but the, that program is not live yet. If you want to sign up to, um, be alerted when it does go live, that website is hack your back pain.com and that you just pop your little email in there and I'll shoot you an email when things get rolling.
Yeah.
Julie Michelson: fantastic. And your Instagram is what? Where can they find you on Instagram?
Laura Coleman Waite: Laura dot Coleman 27.
Julie Michelson: Perfect.
Laura Coleman Waite: Yeah. It's not particularly memorable, but [Page//00:46:00] the children set it up for me and I was like, all
Julie Michelson: It works. It works. And again, we will link to it, so that's great. Laura, thank you so much for coming on and teaching us so much and enlightening and inspiring us. You've shared amazing, amazing tips with us today.
Laura Coleman Waite: Aww. Thank you for having me and thank you for being such a force for good in the world. It's so, I'm so grateful to be part of your world, so fantastic.
Julie Michelson: I am, I am so glad we got to connect. I'm excited. Can't wait for your group program to launch and, um, just, I, I always love, I know, I knew I was gonna learn a lot today, um, and I'm probably gonna have to go back and listen again, so I, I'm just thrilled to have had you here.
Laura Coleman Waite: Oh, thank you for having me again. Yes, it's been delightful.
Julie Michelson: for everyone listening, remember, you can get those show notes and transcripts by Visiting inspiredliving.show.
I hope you had a great [Page//00:47:00] time. I know you learned something. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
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Connect with Laura Coleman Waite
Laura Coleman Waite
My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was 21. (No, she wasn’t a smoker- everyone around her was!) Her will to live was stripped away because of the pain she was in, and she passed away two years later. I ran away from Oregon to San Diego and tripped over a man by the name of Pete Egoscue. He taught me how to watch people move, identify muscles that were not working, and help lots of people recover from back, neck, shoulder, knee, and wrist pain even though they thought there weren’t any other options. This is what I’ve dedicated the last 25 years of my life to: teaching people to use their muscles to get rid of pain.
Here’s to balance, strength, and happiness!
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