Our shoulders facilitate the free movement in space of our hands. They help our arms move through a wide range of motion but they are also a place where we hold our worries and our tension. We get a sense of this through the idioms: a chip on your shoulder; a shoulder to cry on; a weight off my shoulders; falling squarely on your shoulders; cold shoulder; shoulder the burden. Our language is full of examples of the role our shoulders take in our responsibilities and obligatio

Usually when I speak to people with osteoporosis in their spines they have an image of their spine as being like a slinky, made up of fragile vertebrae, alone in the back of their bodies. What their health care providers have forgotten to tell them is that our vertebrae have help! They have discs, end plates, ligaments, tendons, muscles and fascia. Our vertebrae are part of the strong column that holds us up, but they are only one (well, technically 33) of the elements that m

Nearly a quarter of the body's bones are in our feet. These bones have wonderful names I remember the tarsal bones with the mnemonic "Tiger Cub Needs MILC" T: talus; C: calcaneus; N: navicular; M: medial cuneiform; I: intermediate cuneiform; L: lateral cuneiform; C: cuboid. I love the springy, powerful, playful image that this memory aid brings to our foundational limbs. I have a special fondness for the navicular: the little boat, and though the cuneiforms are supposedly nam