Personal Training
My Body? Misaligned? And a GIVEAWAY!
HIII!!! So today I have a special post that I hinted about last week. I recently had the pleasure of visiting
Perfect Posture located in Newton, Ma. Aaron Brooks, the owner of the studio/company was not only extremely helpful, but also such a pleasure to work with! Within my first visit, I learned more about my body than I had in months and months of training. I learned what could be holding me back from reaching some personal strength goals, but more importantly was introduced to some corrective techniques and exercise to help my body move better with less pain
Aaron Brooks: Owner of Perfect Postures and Myoforce.net, is a biomechanist who has been successfully helping people with pain and movement restrictions for over 18 years. He has traveled extensively consulting other health care professionals and has set up mobile clinics to help with clients’ pain and limitations. His clients range from children to adults as well as many collegiate, high school, professional and Olympic athletes. His former company was also the pre season conditioning specialists for the San Diego Flash (professional soccer team). He has spoken at the 3-day Perform Better lecture series as well as the Jazzercise corporate headquarters. He has been a special advisor to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (
- Identify major structural imbalances and misalignments
- Correct muscle imbalances
- Change joint alignment
- Achieve pain relief
- Integrate the nervous system properly
- Increase your body’s awareness
- Learn great technique with each exercise
If you are having chronic pain, need an increase in flexibility or learn how to strengthen your body in the correct way, the I highly suggest you check out Aaron’s website as well as take a visit if you are local.
Whether you are new to exercise, an elite competitor, like myself (just kidding!) or simply wants to move and feel better throughout the day, everyone can benefit from the programs that Myoforce offers. What makes Myoforce so unique is how we bridge the gap between corrective exercises and proper strength training – it all starts from the assessment. Perfect Postures provides you with the tools to heal yourself. There is a direct correlation between your pain and your body’s misalignments and what Aaron and his team does is prove it every day by correcting their clients’ muscle imbalances and faulty joint mechanics. Clients leave the studio feeling better. The pain relief that the clients experience from the custom programs is a by-product of correcting ones body’s alignment.
My Evaluation
I came to Aaron not knowing what to expect. I always like to be in tune with my body, find out what is working, and not only looking to get stronger, but also feel better. I look at my body as a machine, and I want it to run as smoothly and as pain free as possible. As of late, I had noticed some factors that seemed to be holding me back, yet I could not pin point exactly what they were. I was getting frustrated with my lack of mobility specifically in the hip, ankle and shoulder region. I have always had tight hip flexors and a bit of muscle imbalance in my lower body (hamstrings stronger than the quads) I also had noticed tightness in my calves and I know that this was a limiting factor in many of my lower body strength exercises.
We all are aware that exercise (generally speaking) has all of the potention to help us improve physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually however, if there are significant limitations in basic movements like squatting, pressing, lunging and pushing, then the body will fight and this could possibly lead to injuries elsewhere in the body. These injuries or limitations may cause one to get frustrated, discouraged and thus turn away from exercise as a whole. To MOVE better and FEEL better and stronger, each individual needs to know their respective weak links in their bodies in order to improve movement. The tricky part is that most of us do not even know WHAT our weak links are and this could lead to self mis-diagnosis. This is where Aaron and his team came in to help me where I needed help the most. What the heck was going on with my body and what the heck can I do to alleviate the pain and limitations?
I visited Aaron right before the new year and was evaluated right off the bat. From the in depth assessment, Aaron began to identify structural deviations, such as muscle imbalances and joint misalignments, that are often associated with poor movement patterns and pain.
My “BEFORE” Evaluation (Savage Represent!)
- Left side of pelvis elevated
- Torso flexed to right
- Right shoulder depressed
- Head laterally flexed right
- Left ankle/foot pronated
- At left swing phase the pelvis laterally shift toward the left as the torso flexed to the right.
- In my initial evaluation, Aaron had me walk about 15 feet toward him in a straight line and next he had me close my eyes and perform the same walk towards him. What we discovered is that I walked in a crooked line toward the right, proving that my hips were unaligned–it was truly fascinating to see.
The corrective exercise program is to be done on a daily basis so the body can adapt. Over time the corrections are ingrained and the movement patterns throughout the body will also become more functional
So what?
I wanted to share my experience that I had at Perfect Postures, and with Aaron because I truly believe that assessing and working on imbalances and alignment issues in teh body is the key to unlocking its potential. Too many times, I see people train in ways they’re bodies are just not naturally meant to move. The driving forces behind these corrective programs are based in function and living a pain-free, active lifestyle. Completing these movements involves stability, mobility and strength throughout the body. ADL’s such as squatting to pick up groceries, walking up stairs, walking to work are just simple tasks that everyone should be able to do-completely pain free.
The Giveaway
Aaron has been gracious enough to provide one lucky reader with a pain relief program of his or her choice.
This is direct from his website:
I will do my best to explain in layman’s term what these diagnostic terms mean. Please keep in mind that I am not diagnosing your pain area. Only your physician is qualified to diagnose your symptom. I will however give possible causes for your pain and symptom(s). Identifying the underlying causes of your pain is where I feel there is a missing link in our healthcare system. It is easy to pop a pill, put a brace on, ice the area or have surgery in some cases. It is not easy to identify the exact causes of your pain though. This is where I will fill that void in the healthcare system. I will do this by showing you the most common muscle imbalances and postural misalignments that I typically find with my evaluations for each area of pain. In most of the pain areas there will be numerous faulty postural alignment scenarios. Finally and most importantly you will learn how to properly address the causes with my corrective exercise programs. This is your first step in to living pain free, functioning more efficiently and performing at the top of your game
I think you will be very surprised at how unconventional yet extremely effective these corrective exercise programs are. Keep in mind that the corrective exercise programs are addressing the typical misalignments that cause pain not symptomatic treatment. So, if you see exercises repeated on other pain areas sections remember that the corrective exercise programs are addressing the most common causes not the pain area itself. Read the directions very carefully and make sure you are performing the exercises properly. Perform the exercises in the exact order as they appear on the sheet and take your time. If one of the exercises hurts in a bad way skip it and move to the next. The corrective exercise programs may not help everyone because there are situations that may be more complicated. Every body has its own particular design. If the programs do not help your pain area please feel free to contact me directly so I can speak to you about your condition
Choose from the following Pain Relief Programs (retail value $24.99):
All of the programs, upon purchase (or in this case WINNING) are completely downloadable in PDF format so you will get it right away!
HOW TO ENTER:
1) Head over to the Myoforce website and tell me one thing you learned in the comments section
2) Follow perfectpostures on twitter
3) “Like” them on Facebook
Each entry counts once, so feel free to complete all 3 for 3 entries total!
The winner will be announced on Monday, January 12th
GOOD LUCK!!
