Physical Manifestations of Stress in the Body: Lee Albert's Integrated Positional Therapy Method
When I first learned about Integratned Positional Therapy all the aches and pains that I had from running or had in my body in the past began to make sense. It made sense that balancing weak and strong muscles was the way to less pain, I just never knew how; I was always focused on the area that hurt and many times wasted time stretching an overstretched muscle instead of relaxing and strengthening the opposite short tight muscles. These trainings have also brought a foundational change to how I address pain in sessions.
Lee Albert’s training and methods are truly life changing. Through my trainings with Lee, I learned that I could use simple, gentle stretches and slackening techniques to ease tightness in all areas of the body. The results were fast and truly amazing.
An added bonus is that it pairs very well with MELT. If you are looking for a way to ease pain, tightness and stress in the body try out the daily stretches below to start experiencing more balance in the physical body.
Lee Albert's Daily Stretches
Hold each stretch for 1 minute to 9o sec
Shoulder Stretch
The shoulders are one of the major areas of tension in the body. We are almost always leaning forward and hardly ever leaning back. To balance the overstretched back muscles, it's important to slacken the back muscles and stretch the tight chest muscles by bringing the shoulders back.
Psoas Stretch
The psoas is not only affected by our physical activity, but it is also affected by our past trauma, emotions and experiences. This muscle can be very tight from sitting and can be the cause of lower back pain.
Quad Stretch
Instead of stretching your hamstrings, it's time to start stretching your quads! The quad muscles are typically tight, which means the hamstrings are overstretched. Therefore, in order to find relief for our hamstrings we must stretch our quads.
QL Side Bend
These muscles become tight from sitting and any forward leaning movements such as using a computer. To perform this stretch simply bring your arms overhead and tilt to one side, this slackens one side of the QL and stretches the other.
Spinal Twist
The outside of the thighs tend to be very tight and can be the cause of both hip and lower back pain. One way to tell if you have tight outer thigh muscles is to lay down and relax your feet, if your feet fall out to the sides you have tighness in your outer thighs. For this stretch, there is a seated version & supine version.
If you would like to learn more stretches, slackening techniques as well as strengthening exercises make sure to check out Stress & Tension Relief Yoga next Tuesday 3/5 at 6:00pm or book a Positional Therapy Bodywork Session to work privately on your specific imbalances. Since I have completed 2 years of training and I am working throuhg my case studies phase, these sessions are available at a discounted price ($70) and limited to 5 clients per month.