Walking Tall – Check Your Posture

Walking Tall

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and corrected your posture based on what you see and what you think correct should look like? How do you feel? Do you feel normal, or do you feel all weird? Does it cause discomfort and pain? Over the years I have seen many clients get on the table and they are curved sideways like a banana. I ask them “Do you feel straight right now?” and most responded with yes. Then I grabbed their legs and straightened them, and I asked the same question. Most will respond with no. What does this all mean? When we walk around and carry on with our daily activities, we develop our postural habits. Over time (as mentioned in my earlier blog, ‘The Straw that Broke the Camel’s back’, the accumulative effect dictates our posture. This posture determines if we function normally or if we function with pain. It becomes our “normal”.

I had a client who worked as a part time photographer. Over time, she noticed that all her pictures were slightly tilted, and she wondered if there was a problem with the camera. Eventually when she started to get more and more neck pain, she came to see me. Her posture had got so bad that she was unconsciously compensating by tilting her head slightly to “Seem normal”. Of course, there was no hiding this with a still frame photo.

When we stand, there are different receptors all over our bodies, like in our feet gathering data like pressure, and our visual receptors gathering space perception, light and equilibrium and gravity receptors in our ears. All this information is collected, combined, and sent to the brain. The response is “We are upright, walking tall and Straight”. But what happens when we lie down, eyes closed? How do the receptors work then? Well obviously, visual perception is switched off, pressure receptors move from feet to front of body, and gravity receptors (equilibrium) tells us we are lying down. But why are we still bent? Well, in my experience, its muscle memory. Our muscles remember positions, in relation to each other. They either lengthen or shorten, depending on what they are expected to do day after day. So, when we rest, they will sometimes hold those positions. That certainly does not help our posture or pain.

This is where I come in. I observe what is happening in the body when you stand, you walk in and when you lie down. I gather all the information, combined with your expressed experiences, I work towards identifying the cause of your pain issues, helping you Walk Tall and Straight again. How do I do this, well, I use Acupuncture, Remedial Massage, Cupping, Gua Sha and my years of clinical experience and observation. Are you bent?