I am sure we all remember that fun little children’s song! We have sung it with our children and our grandchildren. As a child, that song is fun and easy to move to. Now-a-days, that song is literally a pain! Head, neck, shoulders knees and foot aches keep us from our daily activities! Why?
The cervical spine (neck) has 7 vertebrae, and they are all perfectly stacked one on top of the other to support the head. The head weighs a whopping 12 pounds! When stacked in the perfect position, the trapezius muscles do not have to work too hard to help hold the head up on the cervical spine. However, as the head moves forward, the muscles begin to work harder and become strained, trying to hold the head up. The farther out the head goes, the heavier it becomes to hold up! Not only are the muscles overworked and painful, but the vertebrae are no longer in their proper position causing possible restriction of nerves and blood flow and creating the perfect storm for a bulging or herniated disc. This is a common posture imbalance called Upper Cross Syndrome, Forward Head, or Tech Neck.
Head to toe, posture is important!
Forward Head issues travel downward to the upper back (thoracic) and shoulder area. The pressure of the head causes the chest to be pushed down and inward and the thoracic is pushed outward causing a large hump (kyphosis) on the back. The stomach and lungs are restricted as this becomes worse over the years.
The chest muscles (pectorals) are stronger, pulling the shoulders forward and down and the shoulders follow along. You end up being round-shouldered. The fronts of your hands face forward instead of to the side.
The shoulders are a complicated system! There are 24 different muscles within the shoulder girdle. One tight, overworked muscle; or even a pulled muscle, can cause pain, stiffness, and months of problems. The arms are connected to the shoulders so, your arm movement will be affected when you have a shoulder problem. Soon, you may find you cannot move the arm at all, and you have what is called “Frozen Shoulder”. A doctor will want to put you to sleep while he tears the muscle tissue to loosen it up and get the proper range of motion. Or Fitworks Perfect Posture can correct it now before that happens.
The knees are much like a door hinge. There is not a lot of muscle around the knees, so they are easily injured. The pelvis is the guiding light for the legs. Basically, the position of the pelvis tells the legs were to go. If the pelvis is in a more anterior position (sway back) the legs are tilted inward creating knocked knees. This wears out the meniscus and cartilage of the knee joint prematurely and now we are talking knee replacement.
When the opposite happens to the pelvic girdle, we have a condition we call flat back. When a person seems to have all back and no butt. They most time will have bowed legs because the pelvis directs the legs outward. This is also affecting the knee joint, but in a different way.
Even if you have already had a knee replacement, you still need to correct the muscle imbalances that caused it in the first place, or you may need a second knee replacement!
Everything runs downhill so the imbalances do not stop at the knees. They keep moving to the ankles. Knocked knees creates pronation at the ankles which creates loss of arch, which could lead to a painful foot irritation and develop into Plantar Fasciitis. Bowed legs however create supination at the ankles which causes you to walk on the outer edges of the feet.
Head to Toe, Posture is important!
The body was created to heal itself when in a state of “ease”. If you are walking around with muscle imbalances, you are walking around in pain. The organs of the body have trouble properly doing their job when there are nerve and blood restrictions because of tight muscle or disc restriction.
Fitworks Perfect Posture has been doing one thing successfully for over 21 years- correcting bad posture and then pain goes away! By building and stretching specific muscle groups, the joints line up gradually for perfect posture. A balanced body over time…all done naturally!
Head to toe, posture is improtant!