The city of Tena in Ecuador is an entry point to the Amazon jungle. I have seen no consistent differences from typcial western posture. I had two opportunites to see how people live outside the farm. First I met a Huarani elder (probably in his late 60s) who came to Gareno Lodge in the jungle. […]
Author Archives: Bryan Ausinheiler DPT, OCS, CSCS
What does any 16 month old have in common with a man smoking in the streets of Beijing? Hint: It’s not their lungs, It’s the deep squat. The deep squat describes a position in which one is resting in full flexion of the hips, knees ankles with the feet on the ground. The deep squat […]
This blog contains my thoughts and discoveries about human posture, movement, and pain through the lens provided by my doctorate degree in physical therapy. I am especially curious about how these three facets of human life interact with the wide spectrum of environments in which humans live. Here are some of the questions I am contemplating: What […]
A Question Sun and muscle are often seen together, compare the sunshine on Muscle Beach to the fog of Ocean Beach or the before and after snapshots found in supplement testimonials, you will find a nearly ubiquitous pallor in the former and the bronze kiss of the sun in the latter. One explanation for these […]
A Question Symmetry is beauty and beauty improves the likelihood that your genes will be recombined and transmitted to the next generation. That is the conclusion that I came to after reading Nancy Etcoff’s Survival of the Prettiest (a book I highly recommend). While facial right/left symmetry is the strongest predictor of attractiveness, asymmetries in […]
A Question I sit a lot. I am sitting as I write this, you might even be sitting as your read this. There is also a good chance you sit lot throughout the day, especially if you are a student. I take stretch breaks, I used the standing workstations in the library and I do […]
A Question Take a look at your leg. Straighten your knee and feel the quadriceps on the front of your thigh contract. Now imagine being so weak in the quadriceps that you are unable to straighten your knee. Imagine being not only weak but unable to even contract the muscle. If you can’t wiggle your […]
A Question Last year in Pt school we had a lecture series on the physiology of aging accompanied by the Online Curriculum in Geriatrics and Gerontology hosted by the UCSF Academic Geriatric Resource Center. I highly recommend the online course as it was both informative and entertaining (gerigero-onlinecourse.ucsf.edu) but the experience left me wondering if […]
A Question I recently watched a documentary on people who live in jungles worldwide called The Human Planet: Jungles. A theme I noticed from theBayaka of the Congo,Awa Guaja of the eastern Amazon and theKorowai of Papua New Guinea was that the men were extremely lean and muscular but many of the women were not. […]
A Question I saw a a two year old take off at full speed only to fall on his face about ten steps later. After repeating this process a few times, his father stopped and took off the child’s boots after which he ran barefoot without falling. Do shoes change the way children walk […]
Posture Movement Pain 