the Somatics blog
Exploring somatic health, how the brain controls posture and movement, why we experience
muscle and joint pain, and how we can live our lives to the fullest.
7 Reasons Why Every Athlete Should Do Clinical Somatics
The benefits of Clinical Somatics exercises are so life-changing that every athlete needs to be doing them in order to improve their performance, prevent injuries, and extend their athletic career. […]
12 Causes of Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation contributes to chronic pain, cancer, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and many other conditions. The good news is that most causes of inflammation are highly controllable or completely avoidable! […]
What really causes muscle cramps?
Muscle cramps have long been attributed to electrolyte depletion and dehydration, but research actually points to altered neuromuscular control and muscle fatigue as the culprits.[…]
Figuring out the Cause of Your Chronic Neck Pain
Figuring out the Cause of Your Chronic Neck Pain Why is neck pain such a pain in the neck to get rid of? First, the muscles in your neck adapt to any postural imbalances you have in the core of your body. If your lumbar or thoracic spine is out of alignment in any [...]
Good vs. Bad Stress: The Critical Difference Between Challenge and Threat
Good vs. Bad Stress: The Critical Difference Between Challenge and Threat When we're faced with a potentially stressful situation, we automatically and subconsciously ask ourselves two questions: First: Could this situation cause me harm or loss, or is there potential benefit? Second: Am I capable of handling this situation? This is the transactional model [...]
How Muscular Learning Leads to Pain and Degeneration
How Muscular Learning Leads to Pain and Degeneration Chronic pain is invisible, and can be all too easily ignored by people who haven’t experienced it. But if you suffer from chronic pain, you understand the stress, helplessness, depression, and fatigue that accompany it. You might deal with financial hardship as a result of missed [...]
How Gratitude Changes Your Brain and Body
How Gratitude Changes Your Brain and BodyThere's a trend in recent studies on human health: Mom's advice is proving to be the best medicine. When your mom told you to eat your roughage, go outside and play, stop staring at the TV, and get a good night's sleep—she may not have understood the underlying science, [...]
Why Whiplash Turns into Chronic Pain
Why Whiplash Turns into Chronic Pain Whiplash is one of the most common acute injuries that results in chronic pain. Since many cases go unreported, we don't know exactly how often whiplash occurs. Some sources estimate that up to 3 million people suffer from whiplash in the U.S. every year. Studies show that at [...]
New Research on How Stress Affects Inflammation, Neurodegeneration, the Gut Microbiome, Cancer Treatment, and Relationships
New Research on How Stress Affects Inflammation, Neurodegeneration, the Gut Microbiome, Cancer Treatment, and RelationshipsStress is a particular passion of mine—I love learning how to reduce negative stress, and I'm fascinated by the ways stress affects our health. This is the first in a series of posts I'll be writing about stress in the coming [...]
How to Even out the Imbalances in Your Body
How to Even out the Imbalances in Your Body I get questions every day from students wanting to know exactly which exercises to do and for how long in order to relieve their particular pain or postural issue. While I know we all love a prescription—myself included—because it gives us confidence that we're doing the [...]
Tendinitis vs. Tendinosis: What’s the Difference? And 8 Steps to Recovery
Tendinitis vs. Tendinosis: What's the Difference? And 8 Steps to Recovery Injuries to tendons are not only painful, but they can be very frustrating for two reasons. One, they are slow to heal and two, a change in behavior is often required in order to allow the healing process to take place. Many tendinopathies (which [...]
How Muscles Contract in Scoliosis C Curve
How Muscles Contract in Scoliosis C Curve Learn how chronic, involuntary muscle contraction pulls the spine into a C curve, and how muscles on the opposite side of the spine contract to stabilize posture.
Why you can’t release your tight psoas muscle with stretching
Why you can't release your tight psoas muscle with stretching Your physical therapist, chiropractor, or yoga teacher might have told you that you have a tight psoas muscle, and they may have taught you stretching exercises to release it. While they're probably right—having a tight psoas is a very common problem—static stretching has little to [...]
