Why Body Alignment Matters
You’ve heard it before – my necks out, my backs out, one leg is longer than the other – by why does it all matter.
Your body alignment affects how well your body is functioning and can have an impact on many areas of your day to day life.
The way your body works is amazing, a series of complex interacting forces – pulls and pushes, leavers and pulleys all balancing together to get you moving around with ease. Because its so complex it means that if something isn’t “pulling its weight” there is usually another muscle or piece of connective tissue to share the load. But this doesn’t always work to our advantage – it may get the job done but repetitive compensations over time create imbalance, inefficiency and eventually failure.
For our spine and nervous system – the core of the body that holds it all together – things are even more interesting. Misalignment in the spine affects how well it functions – but spinal joint dysfunction also influences how the whole nervous system works. If the spine doesn’t function as its best, it isn’t sending very good sensory information to your brain – which in turn affects the information the brain sends back out to control the muscles. This is why feeling stuck or out of shape in your low back can start to affect your hips or knees – its not just because the muscles are connected but also the impact the nervous system has on how its controlled (its also how a chiropractic adjustment works).
So, what does that mean for me?
Well say you’re feeling tight in a certain area – that’s a bit of sign that muscle isn’t working very well. If you’re in pain that’s a really big sign that something isn’t working at its best. Even little signs like rapid fatigue or clumsiness may be a signal that the body just isn’t functioning at its %100. It all comes down to efficiency. Yes, you can physically sit there, stand there, or move around but how efficiently is your body doing it. When our body alignment is compromised it effects how EFFICIENTLY all those complex parts are doing their job.
A bit of misalignment here and there isn’t going to greatly affect how you move around in your day to day. However, the more imbalance we have, and the harder the muscles are working the more likely it is that when we push our body, it is not going to support us – leading to injury or pain. Even things like just sitting there and breathing can start to feel difficult, and our concentration and energy starts to suffer. The good news – if your imbalances have developed because of a changing nervous system then you CAN change it again for the better!
Its usually not your fault that an imbalance developed – we aren’t usually aware of the little changes that have built up and at some point in time the way your body compensated would have been useful, it’s just not as useful now. By bringing AWARENESS to where your body isn’t working at its best and doing things to change that you can start to retrain, rebalance and realign your body in a long lasting way.
There are many ways you can become aware of what misalignments are causing your symptoms. Getting outside help can be one of the fastest ways. Seeing your chiropractor, or other specialist, to assess exactly what IS and ISN’T functioning at its best and what you can do to realign your joints to help your body function at its best. Your chiropractor can help kick-start these changes, then by having a regular strengthening and stretching routine you can help maintain your alignment in between adjustments.
Having a specific practice – like yoga, pilates or just 15min at home, can have huge benefits over just general movement. When we focus on a movement it actually starts to change the nervous system FASTER than if we just did the movement without concentrating on it. By repetitively doing beneficial movements you can start to train your body towards the alignment that gets you moving at your best.
The bottom line – when we move better and function better; WE FEEL BETTER. We have more energy, can concentrate more and life just feels “lighter”. Your body alignment directly contributes to how you feel every day. So what are you doing to look after it?
