Alignment check?

Structural Alignment and Pain Relief

If you are like many of us you probably deal with some aches and pains.  Do you suffer with pain in the heel or arch of your foot or in your shins when you walk?  How about knee pain when running, walking or climbing stairs? Other common issues are pain in the side of the hip, the lower back, tension and pain between the shoulder blades, in the neck or at the base and back of the skull.

Issues like these can often be reduced or relieved with corrective exercise. This begins with an alignment check; a Structural Assessment of the alignment of the feet, ankles, knees, hips, lower, mid and upper back, head, and shoulders. Any area that is out of alignment can cause pain in that area as well as the areas above or below it.

Besides causing pain and discomfort, structural misalignments also limit our mobility, reducing our performance in sports, and on the job. And misalignments often cause much more serious issues (and pain) down the road.

Here’s an example:

Many people who do a lot of work at a desk and on a computer have what is known as a “forward head posture.”  If you have a healthy posture in your neck and head, your head will sit nicely in line with your upper spine.

The human head weighs around 8 to 12 pounds, as much as a bowling ball.  Every inch forward of a neutral position is extremely hard on the muscles that support your head, your upper back, and neck muscles. These become overstretched, tense, and inflamed –and this can be very painful.

To check for a neutral head position, you can have someone observe you from the side, standing straight. Have them draw an imaginary line from the front and top of your cheek bone straight down. It should line up with your collarbone.  For many of us, it is going to be forward of that.  This will eventually cause pain in the upper back, neck and shoulders; and many other related joints.

A Structural Assessment by a qualified Fitness Professional can help you identify areas that need attention and begin to determine the muscular imbalances that are contributing to your misalignment and/or pain.

You can be taught how to self-massage muscles that are inflamed, stretch muscles that are tight, and strengthen muscles that are weak to move your structural alignment back toward a neutral position; alleviating the discomfort of having muscles that are working too hard to keep you upright.

The work you do in the gym should contribute to better alignment; but can actually make it worse, leading to more pain and discomfort, and sometimes serious issues. 
 

A common example:

Training the chest, front shoulders and biceps without adequately training the muscles that oppose them. This can pull your shoulders and head forward, worsening your alignment and causing various painful conditions.

So, get your alignment checked. Find a Fitness Professional or Personal Trainer trained to assess your structural alignment and begin designing a fitness program not just for good looks but for overall health and longevity.