You just want a good night’s sleep.Maybe your bed is super old. Maybe you’re 99% sure that your current bed is contributing to your back pain, hip pain, or shoulder pain. As you start navigating the many options of beds, you realize that you have to choose a mattress firmness. Soft vs. firm? Medium? What’s the difference?! This video […]
Continue readingYour deep squat sucks. You keep finding yourself stuck with your hips way above your knees. No matter how many times you try to go deeper, it just feels like you’re stuck. Your trainer or a P.T. might have said, “it’s because your bones aren’t made for squatting.” You may have read this on the internet and […]
Continue readingWhy do back pain treatments fail? Why do so many medical and alternative treatments for back pain provide dismal results? In this episode we talk about the fundamental problem with back pain treatments and two strategies to help you with your back pain. Resources: Crooked by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin: https://amzn.to/2JWknNo The Back Pain Fix: http://brainfood.uprighthealth.com/backfix […]
Continue readingIf you have hip pain, are PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections worth it? Will PRP injections help with knee or shoulder pain? What about your elbow or foot? Let’s see what the science says so you can make an informed decision. Why talk about PRP injections? We work with a lot of clients who have had chronic hip, […]
Continue readingWhen you’re suffering with chronic pain, you search for meaning in it. Why am I in chronic pain? Why do I keep hurting every day? What’s wrong with me? But the meanings we ascribe to our chronic pain do not always helps us get out of pain. Oftentimes, the theories we attach to chronic pain can […]
Continue readingIf 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 […]
Continue readingIf you’ve been told you have femoroacetabular impingement (FAI, femoral acetabular impingement, or hip impingement), you have probably heard that arthroscopic hip surgery is the only answer. The conventional medical approach to hip pain associated with femoroacetabular impingement bone shapes is surgery, after all.We’ve successfully helped countless people beat their hip pain without surgery – […]
Continue readingShari started having hip pain in high school. Physical therapy didn’t help. Doctors told her that she had femoroacetabular impingement and that surgery was the only answer. She never got the surgery, but she’s been able to get back into yoga without hip pain, and she shares the lessons she’s learned along the way. Music […]
Continue readingWhat is meditation? Is it worth the time? In this episode we discuss what meditation is and isn’t. The conversation provides insights about how meditation can improve exercise, stress, anger, and more. Meditation is an incredibly valuable practice to incorporate into day to day life. Listen in to get a better idea of why and […]
Continue readingDo stem cell or PRP injections work for back pain? What do X-rays and MRIs really mean for your spine? What can you do to get out of chronic back pain? Find out from investigative journalist and author of Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery. Get the book: https://amzn.to/2nrErdS […]
Continue readingSurgeons often make optimistic claims about their surgeries – in spite of evidence to the contrary. Do these doctors lie? Are they regularly lying about surgery results? Or is something else at play? Find out what’s at the heart of this problem. Episode 28 – The Secret History of Joint Pain: https://brainfood.uprighthealth.com/the-secret-history-of-joint-pain/ Nick’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFG31ZeFtMk Open Payments […]
Continue readingWhat is the purpose of pain? If you have chronic hip, back, or shoulder pain, what does the pain really mean? Does it mean you’ve got permanent damage of some kind? How can you use and think about pain in a way that gets you back to enjoying your life? Helpful links How to […]
Continue readingWhy are shoulder labral tears important to talk about?Shoulder pain is extremely common. A 2003 study in the Netherlands estimated that shoulder pain is the second most common complaint after lower back pain. Another 2011 study in the same country estimated that 3 out of 100 people goes to a general practitioner due to shoulder […]
Continue readingChronic pain sufferers often get conflicting information from doctors and other experts. One doctor tells you this surgery is the best. Another says this one is better. Another says none of them will help. Another doctor tells you this pill will solve your problems. If you listen between the lines, there’s a deeper message that […]
Continue readingWhy does the medical system seem to be surgery-happy? Why do even physical therapists seem to think surgery is the only option for some kinds of joint pain? In this episode, we’ll look at the history and systemic issues that infuse the medical system with a love of surgery. And we’ll talk about what YOU […]
Continue readingNote: this was originally sent as an email to Upright Health clients and newsletter subscribers on a Friday afternoon. A surprising number of people asked that we make it available in a shareable format…so here it is! Enjoy! My son was born three months ago. Leading up to the birth, everyone kept asking me: “Are you […]
Continue readingWe work with a lot of clients who have been told they have hip impingement (otherwise known as femoroacetabular impingement / FAI). We’ve seen people with this diagnosis improve their hip function without surgery, and this has made us look deeper into the diagnosis. In this article, we’re going to look at the FADIR test. The […]
Continue readingWe’ve talked about hip impingement, the success rates for FAI surgery, and even if surgery is worth it. But what if we compare the results of treating hip impingement with surgery versus physical therapy?A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2018 compared the outcomes of patients with a femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) […]
Continue readingThinking about surgery for hip impingement? Years ago, I met online with a young attorney named Maks in New York City who was afraid he needed to get hip surgery. He had lost the ability to play basketball. His doctors were sure he needed surgery to fix his hips. He was told he had femoroacetabular […]
Continue readingHealthy Hips Workshop at Upright Health in Redwood City, CA.This two day workshop covers the fundamental ideas around training people out of hip pain including:general philosophy and research oriented approach to hip problems from a non-medical, movement-oriented perspectivecutting edge research on femoroacetabular impingement, hip osteoarthritis, and labral tears and their importance in the context of […]
Continue readingWe’ve all been there. Maybe after a hard workout or some stressful weeks, your muscles are tight. You’ve had massages, done your stretching routine from top to bottom… but after a short period of relief, it comes back again. The common treatment for tight muscles consists of massage, stretching, rest, or ice/heat. But those approaches don’t […]
Continue readingAre you considering a hip injection to test for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI)? Has a hip surgeon told you he can use a hip injection to diagnose FAI or a labral tear with certainty? In this article, you’ll discover the truth about hip injections for FAI (and related hip joint pathology like labral tears). Why get a […]
Continue readingYou’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 pregnancyLet’s […]
Continue readingIf you have hip pain, you know how hard it is to get a straight answer. Doctors give you diagnoses, but their solutions don’t seem to work. If your hip pain is bad, all roads eventually lead to surgery. But why is this? Why does the medical system offer surgery as the only real option […]
Continue readingIf you have hip pain, and you’ve been told you have femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), you may have had a series of movement tests (called “special tests” in medical jargon) done to confirm your diagnosis. If you have hip pain and are wondering if you there are good tests for femoroacetabular impingement that will tell you if […]
Continue readingRounded back in your deadlifts?When people have a rounded back in the deadlift (also known as a hunchback deadlift), they often find all kinds of bad information on how to fix it. In this post, we’re going to look at the truth about having a rounded back in the deadlift AND how you can fix […]
Continue readingHow should you sleep if you have anterior pelvic tilt? If you sleep in the wrong position with anterior pelvic tilt, will it make your tilt worse? If you sleep in a good position, will it make it better?In this article we’re going to talk about how to sleep with anterior pelvic tilt, and we’ve […]
Continue readingIf you’ve been diagnosed with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), or hip impingement, you may have been told that surgery is the only way to relieve your hip pain. Your doctors may sound confident that surgery will solve your problems, but this article will explain what your doctor may not know and why you may want to be […]
Continue readingYou’ve got shoulder pain. Should you get a shoulder X-ray? Is what you see in a shoulder X-ray useful? What if a shoulder X-ray shows nothing? Or, what if it shows something? What can you do with the information you get from a shoulder X-ray?The most common myth about shoulder X-rays for shoulder painStress, among […]
Continue readingWhy are hip labral tears important to talk about?Hip pain is becoming an extremely common complaint in this age of desk work and constant sitting. It’s also becoming very common for people to get the diagnosis of a hip labral tear. But what does it mean to tell people they have hip labral tears? What do doctors […]
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