Do you think that you have good posture? Are you standing up straight? Or do you suspect that maybe you suffer from a bit of a slouch?
Does your head sit squarely on top of your shoulders? Or does your neck crane forward from spending hours staring at your computer screen?
Are your arms hanging evenly at your sides or do they hang in front of your thighs with one hand lower than the other?
If the right and left sides of your body are not identical to one another (and they probably aren’t), or if your head is forward (and it probably is) then you have some alignment issues.
Imbalances in the body’s alignment often lead to pain.
WHAT IS BODY ALIGNMENT?
Essentially, your body’s alignment is how our load-bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees and ankles) line up with each other. If you are properly aligned, you will have less stress on the neck and spine.
Having less stress on these areas of the body can result in good posture. And if you can maintain good posture, that will ultimately help keep your body aligned.
However, if one of those load-bearing joints gets injured or out of whack, the rest of the body can be affected.
HOW DOES MISALIGNMENT OCCUR?
It does not take much for our bodies to become misaligned, I’m sorry to report! Take the very common example of spraining your ankle.
If you sprain an ankle, you still need to get around. In doing so, we will try to put as little weight on the injured ankle as possible.
So to support the weight that gets placed on the unaffected foot, your knee position can start to deviate. This, in turn, can result in twisting and straining the knee.
Then, to adapt to the new knee position, your pelvis may also start to rotate. When this happens, your pelvic position can start to alter your spinal position.
When your spinal position changes, your neck and shoulders will also be impacted.
And then your neck will take your head along for the ride!
That’s a lot of rotation of the body when there shouldn’t be any. And it all started with a common ankle sprain!
It also demonstrates how poor alignment could be responsible for any pain you may have in any of these body parts.
THE ROLE OF MUSCLES
There’s even more to consider here. The above example doesn’t take into account the role our muscles play in the body’s alignment.
Your muscles help to stabilize and move you, as well as prevent injuries. In a body that has proper alignment, the muscle distribution will be pretty even.
In a misaligned body, however, muscles will adapt to support the stress being placed on other parts of your body.
When this type of compensation happens, some muscles work more than they should while others don’t pull their own weight!
These imbalances can wind up creating a cycle of misalignment that can show up as chronic pain, and even result in long-term damage or injury.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BODY ALIGNMENT
You can see how something as simple as a sprained ankle can result in some longer-term issues with your posture and alignment. In addition, misalignment and bad posture can lead to other problems, including, but not limited to:
- Decreased mobility
- Headaches
- Sciatica
- Digestive issues
- Soreness and discomfort
- Restricted range of motion
- Respiratory issues
- Slow metabolism
- Poor sleep
Seeing some of the potential issues poor posture can create, it’s in your best interest to stand up straight!
So how can you tell if you have poor posture or if your body is out of alignment?
A SIMPLE TEST FOR ALIGNMENT
Find a blank wall that is ideally free of large baseboards. Stand against it with both your heels and your shoulder blades touching the wall.
Then take notice… Is the back of your head touching the wall?
If you have to push your head back to make contact with the wall, that means your head is not where it should be: squarely on top of your shoulders. It is positioned forward, which can create strain on the neck, shoulders, and back.
Have you noticed that you are having trouble backing the car out of the driveway because you can’t turn your head 180 degrees? Do you have pain when you bend over to pick something up off the floor? Are other everyday activities not as easy to perform as they once were?
As noted previously, neck pain, shoulder pain, and back pain can lead to bigger problems so it is best to work on correcting these at the start as they can all be signs that your body is off balance.
PAIN FREE PHILLY CAN HELP
The good news is that your body’s imbalances can be corrected!
And it doesn’t have to be fixed with surgery!
You will have to exercise though…
Simple stretching and strengthening exercises can help to get your body back in alignment. But they will need to be exercises that are right for your body and specific to your misalignment.
Use the wall test to assess if your body is in alignment and if you find that your head isn’t where it should be, contact us today!