Posture
Assessment and Corrective Exercise
Good Posture can be likened to a well trued bicycle
wheel…when all the spokes (muscles) are correctly tensioned they dissipate the
shock from the road surface so it doesn’t damage the rim (spine and joints).
If a spoke (muscle)
becomes loose it can no longer do its job effectively and all the other
spokes (muscles) must share the extra load amongst them…it also leaves the part
of the rim (spine and joints) where the loose spoke (muscle) attaches prone to
damage.
The wheel (body) also starts to wobble (pain/injury)
and you know if it doesn’t get fixed then further damage will occur.
So you go to a bicycle mechanic (therapist) and the
first thing he does is put the wheel on a trueing stand and spins it
(assessment).
This way he can instantly see which spokes (muscles)
are loose (long/weak) and need tightening (strengthening) and which are tight
(short/tight) and need loosening (stretching).
If the mechanic just tightened (strengthened) all the
spokes (muscles) the wobbly wheel (body) is now tight and out of balance.
If he loosened (stretched) all the spokes (muscles)
the wheel (body) is loose and out of balance.
Even worse would be if the mechanic didn’t put the
wheel (body) on a trueing stand (assessment) and just randomly tightened
(strengthened) and loosened (stretched) different spokes (muscles) in the hope
it worked (stretching and strengthening with no plan because you had no
assessment).
Hopefully this simple analogy has shown you the
importance of assessing posture and prescribing corrective stretching and
strengthening to prevent and eliminate pain and injury.
Just like the bicycle rim…the spine and joints are not
meant to be load bearing structures.
It is the job of muscles to dissipate shock before it
reaches these vital structures but they can only do so if they are correctly
tensioned.
If they are not then injury is the usual result.
Good posture is the foundation of good movement and
life is movement.
Whether you are a mother bending to pick up her child
or an Olympic weightlifter, good posture will make you better at it and in some
cases will be the major factor in allowing you to do it at all.
Modern life and in particular the seated work position
has been a major factor in ruining people’s postures and causing pain but it
doesn’t have to be this way.
A posture assessment and a corrective exercise
programme based on the results is the best way I know of remedying this.
My assessment takes about 2 hrs and includes:
Head Carriage
Spinal Curves
Pelvic Tilt
1st Rib Angle
Weight Shift
Breathing Mechanics
Leg Length
ROM of all major muscles
Core Strength/Co ordination
Plumb Line
After the assessment I design you a corrective
exercise programme based on the results.
Robin Allan-Chek 1,HLC 2,Golf
Biomechanic,Sports Masseur
