If you feel your posture needs help OR you spend a lot of time exercising and working on your posture and you still feel there is something wrong, then watch this video.
I have 3 things to share with you that are often missed when looking at great healthy spine and excellent posture.
Let’s start with helping you assess your posture (you will need some help here) and the posture of loved ones (maybe not your pet here). If postural is not ideal then this can lead to, and often does, mechanical and structural stress/changes which if not sorted early enough will lead to pain, discomfort and stiffness in the spine.
Does that sound like you?
Firstly having a camera, or should I say a phone ready will help, especially if the person you assess wants to see their posture for themselves. Feel free to send me your posture photos if you need a second opinion. Having tight fitting clothes is a good idea to help you analyse the photos with more ease.
STEP 1 TAKE 2 PHOTOS
Stand with feet shoulder width apart and march on the spot several times. Then (as long as you or the person you are checking doesn’t suffer from vertigo) close your eyes and nod your head a few times and when you are facing forward, open your eyes. Camera person can take a shot from the front and another shot from the side.
STEP 2 ANALYSE PHOTO
Front photo: to see if posture is ideal, imagine a plumb line that starts in-between the feet and this line should run up the body and divide the body into 2 symmetrical halves. The line should hit the pubic bone, chest bone centrally and then in-between the eyes.
If this is not occurring then this person’s posture may not be ideal. You may see a sway of the pelvis to one side, or one hip sitting higher than the other or the neck tilting off to the side.
Side, or profile photo: Again, imagine a plumb line that starts at the ankle and runs up. This line should go through the knee, hip, mid-point of the shoulder and ear opening.
If this is not the case then you may be seeing a shift of the pelvis forward compared to the feet, an increase in rounding of the mid back with the shoulders sitting forward or perhaps, what we see quite often in our office is a forward head carriage.
Here are 3 Things Often missed when looking at correcting posture and improving spinal health.
1. Leg length deficiency
If one leg is anatomically shorter than the other (due to for example a congenital hip issue, a leg fracture as a child, infection etc.) then this unleveling will cause imbalance in the pelvis and de-stabilise the rest of the spine.
2. Spinal Deformity, not diagnosed
Such as undetected scoliosis or developmental conditions like Scheuermann’s disease, where the mid back curve increases due to changes in the spinal bones of the mid back. If these, and many other problems are not detected and diagnosed, then treatment for spinal/postural issues will give temporary relief and may lead to not only frustration, but potentially more strain and long term damage to the spine.
3.. Undetected postural changes
If a long term postural issue is not detected and not addressed properly then pain syndromes that are linked to these changes in posture can become chronic. Generally, we see these people have sort care over the years, seeing a range of health professionals and because the underlying posture has not been properly assessed and detected then the practitioner is addressing the pain and not the underlying posture that is leading to the spinal or neck stress in the first place.
What can we do to help?
If you feel that your posture is an issue, even if your spine and neck are not giving you pain or other symptoms, then a thorough spinal assessment it a great idea.
OUR UNIQUE APPROACH
At Errol Street Chiropractic Centre, we use state of the art technology and analysis to detect and correct spinal/postural deficiencies. Through also using Chiropractic BioPhysics alongside our chiropractic care we are able to get some excellent postural changes.
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