What is Posture Alignment Therapy? To sum it up, I'll quote Pete Egoscue from his first book, HealthThrough Motion.
"It's about responsibility. It's about you, and about the answer to a question I hear almost every day in my clinic: "How did I get in this condition?" It's been asked so often...that I ...don't remember the first time, but I do have a clear recollection of a woman from the Midwest, a lawyer, a wife, and a mother of two children, who was suffering from back spasms that prevented her from bending over and putting on her own shoes. 'I wasn't born this way, ...I haven't done anything stupid like go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. I'm just a normal person doing normal things and it doesn't make any sense.' Three hours later I watched her lace her Reeboks. She looked up and there were tears in her eyes. 'Thank you,' she said. Thank yourself, I replied. You made the pain go away. You took responsibility for your own health - not me." p xvii
The idea that "makes or breaks this Method" of Posture Alignment is RESPONSIBILITY. The woman (mentioned above) got her self into that condition and she got her self out of it. This is about taking responsibility and restoring lost functions.
To get your pain to go away you must be willing to change your mind, your habits and your actions.
Mind: Instead of asking what's wrong with me and chasing symptoms, start asking what is it that your body is needing, why is the pain in that specific area and focusing on how it is related to your overall posture and posture deviations. Diagnostic tools used by traditional medicine are looking for what's broken. It is a symptom based approach. If you have pain shooting down your leg, your doctor orders an MRI and sees a herniated disc pressing on a nerve and orders surgery. Six months later, the pain returns. Why? --you ask!! Because modern medicine does not ask WHY the disc herniated - what caused it to do that. The location of the pain is seldom the source of the pain. Habits & Actions: Posture Alignment Therapy is a process of corrective stretches and exercises designed specifically for each client to address postural and muscular deviations away from our anatomical blue-print design. This means you must consistently implement new stimulus (specific targeted movement and action) to your body on a daily basis to change your muscle memory. These simple yet profound corrective exercises address the underlying root cause of your pain rather than the symptoms.
This process strengthens specific muscles & brings the body back to its proper alignment & functioning the way it was designed—pain free. When practiced on a regular basis Posture Alignment Therapy provides long term restoration to your overall physical health in mind, body and spirit.
Posture Alignment Therapy works on the basis that the human body has a fundamental design characteristic, or "blue-print design". This can be seen in the pictures above that outlines the relationship of the load bearing joints - the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. You will notice that the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders are designed to line up vertically and horizontally at 90 degree angles.
Blue-Print Design or Proper Posture :
Keeps bones and joints in the correct alignment so that muscles are being used properly
Helps decrease the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces that could result in arthritis
Decreases the stress on the ligaments holding the joints of the spine together
Prevents the spine from becoming fixed in abnormal positions
Prevents fatigue because muscles are being used more efficiently, allowing the body to use less energy
Prevents strain or overuse problems
Prevents backache and muscular pain
Contributes to a good appearance
Any deviation from this fundamental design posture will lead to dysfunction, compensation and eventually pain in the body.
Therefore, any differences between the left and right side of the body, front and back of the body or any combination of imbalances will lead to some form of dysfunction. Common postural changes can include a head that is forward of the spine, pelvis that is tipped back or forward, elevated hip or shoulder, rotation of trunk or hip, “knock” knees or bow legs, feet that turn out or in and loss or exaggeration of any or all spinal curves and can occur as a result of lifestyle factors and injury.
At The Posture Clinic, the process of Posture Alignment Therapy begins with the following 9 Steps:
1. Identify your unique postural imbalances.
2. Understand how function, dysfunction and compensation are tied together and how they cause pain.
3. Learn exactly what needs to change in your daily thought, habit and action for you to become pain free.
4. Have a personalized "menu" of corrective exercises created for you to decrease compensation movements and restore correct movement and joint function.
5. Learn these specific corrective exercises with your therapist and implement them on your own at home on a daily basis.
6. Follow-up appointments to evaluate progress and change stimulus, receive a new menu as your neuromuscular coordination improves and your body adapts and heals.
7. As the pain continues to diminish and go away begin to address the root dysfunction underlying your compensation movements
8. Implement full body range of motion exercises to restore full function to all your joints
9. Learn to recognize new dysfunctions and compensations when they first appear and how to intervene before pain sets in. You are now acting proactively and fully participating in preventative health care management!
You will have the additional benefit of Photo and Gait analysis for use in evaluating your progress. This gives you a visual 'marker' of how your menu of exercises is helping you change your body into an optimal and efficient postural position.
"The body has great tolerance. But it does not have infinite tolerance." Pete Egoscue
Call 772-559-1532 or come in to The Posture Clinic in Vero Beach to discuss your individual needs.
Being Pain Free doesn't come from a pill bottle, a surgeon's knife, or a brace. It comes from within you and your desire to become Pain Free. Hard work and dedication will get you through the program and your results will be astonishing.