Postural Balancing~3~
The body’s structure continually needs to move and balance itself while we go through our everyday lives. It doesn’t matter what the movement is, the body’s ability to adjust its posture is critical. Whether we are playing a game of tennis or vacuuming our living room, the body’s ability to create the proper movements is an ongoing event.
How does the body know what to do? How does the body respond to balance and movement? At conception our body’s model or paradigm is developed. As we grow from this miraculous beginning, the body is constantly adjusting the parameters to protect the original paradigm. At birth the infant, as well as the mother, goes through a traumatic ordeal and oftentimes needs to adjust the parameters so that the necessary movement takes place. Throughout our growing years we stub our toe or how often does a baby fall when learning to stand and then walk. It’s the body’s innate ability to determine how to best use its resources to accommodate our movement while constantly keeping us in balance. The body’s main goal is to protect our spine and the central nervous system.
Whether we are sitting at our computer or using a vacuum cleaner, the strength of our posture needs to be developed by our core group of muscles as to keep our posture in its proper position. The body needs to work from its center at all times and this is what a strong core does. Our extremities need to be free moving from the joints and work in conjunction with the body’s posture in movement. In other words as the vacuum is being pushed it should be an effortless push with the larger muscles of the body generating the movement. This can only be done if the center of gravity is being stabilized so that when pushing away from the body with the vacuum cleaner, the spine is being protected. How does this happen? A strong core dynamics is necessary to prevent trauma to the low back. This core dynamics comes from the deep abdominal muscles of the body, not the front or superficial abdominal muscle. The front or superficial abdominal muscle helps us bend forward; we should not be using it to push. The actual movement should come from our shoulder and arm with our body supporting the movement. The force will then come from our lower extremities.
How does Chagrin Valley Wellness Center address these issues? First the therapist will balance the posture so that proper movement can and does take place. Second, combining that balance with our Fundamental Movement Pilates℠ classes a person is able to strengthen and stabilize their core. This will change old behavior patterns that have been placed from old adaptive patterns that have developed from previous compensation. Once the body senses stability it will move much freer and with less discomfort allowing even using the vacuum cleaner to be pleasurable.
Balancing our posture is a subconscious phenomenon that takes place continuously throughout the day and in actuality works 24/7. This continuous process is how the body functions to keep us comfortable. It is up to us to give our body the ability to work to its full capacity to keep us healthy and pain free.
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