"I spent my Thanksgiving break in bed crying and researching surgery options..."

I want to share an important story with you today. Here's the background.

I've been coaching a young woman named Erica online for the last couple of months.

She has hip dysplasia. Doctors often claim that hip dysplasia is a guaranteed path to hip pain and arthritis. The only solution for hip pain from dysplasia, they say, is drastic surgery.

The other week, Erica was over-the-moon excited about what she'd accomplished in such a short period of time - especially because of what her well-renowned expert hip surgeon in Los Angeles told her.

Let's set the stage.

I am 30 years old and for my entire adult life I have been physically active...

You are building a self-feeding, self-maintaining machine. 

You give it feedback mechanisms that enable it to regulate and meet its own needs. It senses when it needs to ingest fluids and solid matter in order to fuel further operation. After ingestion, observation, and analysis, it determines which solid matter and fluids are acceptable for future use as fuel. Solid matter and fluids that are unacceptable are ejected promptly and avoided. Any resulting damage is assessed and repaired quickly.

The machine senses when and how often it needs to power down so that it can run through a lengthy checklist of system fidelity checks and maintenance processes for its locomotive system, its external environment observation...

In a previous article, I talked about phone and internet addiction being a major contributor to my own history of chronic pain.

I addressed the ways in which constant compulsive phone and computer usage can lead to a heightened statute of stress - which can exacerbate pain and get you stuck in a loop of chronic pain. We also discussed simple steps to loosen the hold your phone has on you, and how to eventually break your phone addiction.

In today’s article, I want to address something that comes up when you’re trying to break your phone addiction. If you follow the advice I gave in the previous article, you’ll find you have a lot of time to fill. All those hours you would normally being spending on your...

If you are an athlete with recurrent or chronic pain or hang around people with recurrent or chronic pain, you’ve probably heard of cortisone injections. They’re these wonderful injections that (when they work) take away pain. However, before you get your next shot, you might want to know that the world’s most respected medical journal just published a study that shows that cortisone shots actually HARM you more than they help you.

The study looked at a large group of randomized trials looking at recurrent and chronic tendon injuries, and what they found was about what you’d expect:

…cortisone injections did, as promised, bring fast and significant pain relief, compared with doing nothing or...

If you’re experiencing back, shoulder, or hip pain, consider cutting how much time you spend scrolling through social media on your phone or working from bed on your laptop. These modern-day habits create stress levels that impact whole-body health. Here, practical advice for relieving pain by cutting screen time.

Table of Contents

• The Root Causes of Pain
• 2 Non-Surgical Strategies for Pain Relief
• How Stress Affects the Body and Mind
• The Road to Lasting Health
• 2 Practical Steps to Cutting Out the Causes of Pain
• Adjust Your Screen Limits to Fit Your Needs
• Relieving Pain with Simple Technology Life Hacks Instead of Surgery

The Root Cause of Pain

People with back, shoulder, or hip pain often think that surgery is the...

You’ve been spinning your wheels in chronic pain. Maybe you’ve got shoulder pain. Back pain. Hip pain. Knee pain. Whatever it is, you’ve been in pain for a while.

You keep thinking “I’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF PAIN.”

Every day, you’re obsessing about the pain you’re in and how to get away from it.

You’re in a hole. You’re in a hole of AVOIDANCE. An Avoidance Hole. Or an A Hole for short.

Nobody wants to be stuck in an A hole. It’s miserable. It smells bad. And it’s totally unproductive.

All your obsessing about avoiding pain doesn’t solve anything. You rest more. You use pain patches. You use pain pills. You avoid things you used to love. 

And still your body...

If you’ve been told you have a repetitive strain injury (RSI), you may have been told that rest is the only way to fix your problem. Often, repetitive strain injuries go by the name of tendonitis or tendonosis. When your pain is in the hands and wrists, you may be told you have carpal tunnel syndrome or thoracic outlet syndrome.

In this article, we’re going to talk about perspective shift that can help you get rid of your repetitive strain injury, no matter what it’s been called. 

Watch this video for a quick summary of repetitive strain injuries.

Conventional medical treatments for repetitive strain injuries

If you’ve been to a doctor for your repetitive strain injury, you already know the...

Massage and myofascial release are great for temporary pain relief, releasing tension, and to kickstart recovery, but you may need to add functional training to strengthen muscles and relieve tension and pain in the long-run.

Table of Contents

The Pros and Cons of Massage and Myofascial Release

When is Massage Good for Tight Muscles?

Understanding Short, "Tense" Muscles

Tight and Stiff Muscles are Weak Muscles

How Massage Can Fix Stiff Muscles

Massage isn’t a Permanent Solution for Tight Muscles and Joint Pain

Add Functional Training to Build Strength

When NOT to Use Massage for Tight Muscles

The Best Use of Massage for Tight Muscles

The Pros and Cons of Massage and Myofascial Release

If your muscles always feel tight...

Introduction to Joint Injections for Pain Relief 

Steroid injections are becoming as common as advil these days to treat joint pain. Doctors offer steroid injections to people suffering with hip, shoulder, knee, back and other joint pain as a way to relieve pain. Some swear by it and some feel absolutely nothing afterwards. 

Up until recently, these joint injections were thought to be low risk with nearly no side effects.  However, a recent study from the medical journal, Radiology, calls into question the safety of injections for joint pain

Let’s take a closer look at this study on steroid injections and what it means for you. The study found four main negative effects from steroid injections, and we will...

You're pregnant. Your belly is bigger than you ever imagined, and your abdominals no longer work. At all. They're too stretched out.

It turns so bad to roll over in bed...

Is it even possible to roll over in bed without using your abs? Yes, yes it is!

How to roll over in bed during pregnancy

Let's cut straight to the chase. The video below shows you clear instructions on how to roll over in bed in your third trimester.

Got it? Good!

Problems rolling over in bed like this?

Note that if you're doing this in a small bed, you may need to the movement.

If you find that you don't have enough room in your bed to roll as shown in the video here's the trick. Push your foot harder into the bed to lift your butt/hips off the bed, and shift your...