Keegan Chiropractic Sports & Wellness Clinic
44355 Premier Plaza
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Ashburn, VA 20147
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Posture For Health
Sit up straight, shoulders back, stand tall; all of those little reminders our mothers gave us while we were growing up weren't just to pick on us.
Posture has a great effect on our general health and well being. Many of the aches and pains we suffer regularly are a result of postural stresses.
Recent studies have shown that forward head posture increases the risk of headaches, while decreasing the muscular endurance of the neck and back muscles. Also, a study from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported that increased kyphosis (forward flexed posture of the upper back) was directly associated with increased rate of death from atherosclerosis among the elderly.
Your specific posture is the way your body resists the effects of gravity. Ideally we would like to have a well balanced and efficient posture. Properly aligned posture is just that, well aligned, balanced, and results in a bio-mechanically efficient state in which stress on the muscles and joints is minimized.
When your posture isn't aligned or symmetrical you have to work harder to fight gravity, causing stress on your muscles, bones and joints.
Here's a quick way to test someone's posture. Have the person stand straight in a balanced fashion with their feet about shoulder width apart. First look at them from the side. Ideally if you drew a plumb line from the center of the ear straight to the floor it would pass through the shoulder, the hip the knee and the ankle. If it doesn't then something is unbalanced, front to back.
Next look at the person from the front. Take that same line and this time draw it from the center of the top of the head. The body should be symmetrical (the same on both sides of the line).
If you detect imbalances in your posture you can correct this problem. Posture is something that is learned. Your body learned to work in an inefficient unbalanced way, and it can also learn to function in an efficient and balanced way with a little work.
Correction of joint restrictions through chiropractic adjustments, correction of muscular dysfunction with massage therapy, and training of proper posture with postural exercise can be effective ways to retrain your body. Postural correction is possible with a little of work.
When you have balance in your posture and good alignment, your entire body functions better. Why handicap yourself with poor posture. We all want to excel and proper posture is the way to do it.
