How to Fix Your Pain for Good: Rick Olderman on the Plant Yourself Podcast
Channel: Sick to Fit | Plant Yourself Podcast
Date: 2022-08-01

Rick Olderman is a physical therapist, personal trainer, author, and speaker. His main focus is pain -- specifically the pain we experience because of the way we sit, stand, walk, and run.

In other words, how we use our bodies during the long hours of the day.

Most of the pain work I've done has been exercises that I do for a short time, to strengthen this muscle or connect the brain to that movement chain.

Or stretching to loosen things up.

Or deep tissue massage to break up knots and constrictions.

But Rick, who's been studying across several modalities for decades, insists that none of this has a lasting effect if we don't correct the basics of posture and gait.

And that makes sense, at least to me. If I spend hours a day sitting wrong, or standing wrong, or walking wrong, then of course whatever pain I experience will return again and again.

And if my running form is off, then the hours a week I spend doing that will cause even more harm.

So when Rick offered to talk to me about his understanding and diagnosis and prescription and treatment for chronic pain, I was all ears (and legs and arms and torso).

In this conversation, Rick walks me through not just his general views, but also assesses and guides me to make changes to how I stand and move. And in the two weeks since this was recorded, I've noticed significant improvement just from turning my feet out a bit and keeping my knees bent.

If you can, watch this episode rather than just listening. (As a bonus, you'll get to see my pandemic 1o jiggling around my middle - ugh!)

Enjoy!