Good Posture

I frequently ask people about their posture. The emotions associated with the answers are usually guilt, grief, or apathy.

What’s up with that!?

Let’s look at what posture is – then we can check out good posture.

Your spine has twenty four vertebrae. The vertebrae protect the delicate nerves and the spinal cord. If the spine was just one big bone it would protect better and there would be no worries about posture. However, there would be no movement either. So there is a compromise or balance in the body between stability and mobility.

In correct alignment the twenty four moveable segments, plus the skull, and tail bone all line up. That requires a small amount of work to hold the weight of the body right over the center of gravity. Movement between the vertebras is good because no one area is overworked. Balance in the aligned spine is good because the weight is already centered and small movements to correct the balance occur easily.

Without good alignment, the body is much heavier, as leverage quickly doubles the effective weight. Because the spinal muscles are overworked whole segments of the spine will fail to move well. This decreases balance, and overworks the portions of the spine not yet ‘locked up’ while sapping the individual’s energy.

So… A person with pad posture is not lazy; they are working harder than the person with good posture. The good news is that we can do something about it.

Chiropractic Adjustments restore motion where there is a lack. Simultaneously, restored alignments add stability to the spine. With the restored alignment and motion, it releases pressure on the nerves. The free flow of nerve energy communicates with your brain so that know the different positions of your body – after all if you know you were crooked, you would straighten up.

We just got a new Posture Screening Analysis program to help increase awareness of one’s own posture faux pas. I encourage you to come in for a complementary computerized spinal analysis. This is available to everyone – patients and non-patients alike.