Pain Free Performance — Posture Alignment Therapy

Posture Alignment Therapists, Graduates of Egoscue University

Function of movement

A Simple Trick to Test Your Alignment

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Many clients seek out our practice to reduce pain and regain their quality of life. 

Often, they are not aware that their body is out of alignment. 

When one aspect of the body is altered, it changes the function of the muscles and joints that surround that site. 

For most of us, our work week involves sitting at a desk in front of a computer. 

This position drives the shoulder forward, forcing the upper back to round, and bringing the head and neck into a flexed position.

In order to not develop chronic neck, shoulder, and back pain here is a simple trick to see if you body is aligned:

Stand vertically at the wall with the back of your head, shoulders, hips, and feet touching the wall.

In this position, is your head able to touch the wall? Or is there tension in your neck from bringing the head back?

For every inch forward that your head is from the wall, it increases the weight of your head on your neck by 10 lbs!

With the Egoscue method, we can reduce the forward head positioning and neck strain by getting to the root of the problem in the body.

How long does it take to create pain relief using posture alignment therapy?

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Most of the clients we see are in pain. These clients come to us for relief with their knee pain, back pain, hip pain, and shoulder pain. Oftentimes, our clients have been to chiropractors, physical therapists, doctors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists that have been unable to create a lasting change with their muscle and joint pain. This can be challenging for our clients because their journey for pain relief has already taken weeks and months before we meet our clients for the first time. 

 

In order to create lasting pain relief, as Postural Alignment Specialists that practice The Egoscue Method, we assess the muscular imbalances in their bodies. This begins through a complete health assessment and history to understand the patterns of movement (or lack of movement) that led to pain. We complete postural photos to see how their joint position aligns against a grid to understand how their joints are loading. This can reveal if an elevated shoulder and hip are leading to the back pain or if a forward head position is causing the shoulder pain. Finally, we complete a series of functional testing and gait analysis to determine what muscles are active or inactive that are resulting in muscular compensation and pain. 

 

When our clients leave their first postural alignment session, they can expect to feel a change in their body. This often results in a decrease in pain. If a client’s body has compensated for years, they might notice feeling “lighter” or “straighter” after doing their Egoscue therapy exercises. This is a sign that their body is becoming more functional and balanced. 

 

The work towards alignment and health takes time and effort. Our muscle memory begins to take effect in 90 days and is often the time our clients begin to notice less pain due to their enhanced alignment. Change is not always linear and might result in peaks and valleys. We encourage clients to remain focused on what is changing. Our cells and tissues are constantly adapting and we will continue to adapt new exercises and stimuli to create a change in the muscle structure. One of the great benefits of our bodies is that they are dynamic and constantly in motion. This is why the method works! Now, let’s get moving!

A Peek inside Postural Alignment Therapy Evaluation

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When clients are new to postural alignment therapy, they become awakened to a new awareness of viewing the body. What do we mean by this?

When someone is in chronic or acute pain, the pain becomes their focus. Pain requires individuals to use great effort in order to function throughout their day. Their attention is centered on how to avoid pain. Our bodies are skilled at compensating. To reduce overall pain, our bodies will change the way in which we move as a form of survival.  

So as Egoscue therapists where do we start?

First: We place the focus on the joint position. We identify the joint position though palpating or touching the joints. But what does the joint position tell us? 

When we look at the body, we are looking for what is different from the natural skeletal position. 

        Do the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles align? 

        Is a shoulder elevated? 

        Or, do the knees and feet turn out instead of being straight. 

If any of these joints are off, the body is unable to work as a unit and pain results from misalignment. 

Second: We assess the way the body is loading. 

        We do this by having the client do a body analysis. The client closes their eyes and connects to the weight of their body. Oftentimes, clients are heavier on one foot and their 

weight distribution can be uneven in both feet. This allows us to know that their body’s are misaligned and that natural compensation patterns are occurring for the client to move. As therapists we

use this assessment to understand the way the client’s joints load the weight bear of their body. This information helps us establish a baseline of their imbalances. 

Third: Gait analysis

All joints and muscles have a function or movement that they perform. When a person is misaligned and their joints are different than the natural skeletal position, their body will compensate for

this misalignment. We, as therapists, look at the way a client walks and moves. We are looking for what part of the body is not working and what parts of the body are compensating for the work

of the inactive part of the body.  Compensation can be new or have developed over years.

Often times in gait or walking we notice:

       No arm swing or more arm swing on one side

       Rotation and twisting in the upper body

       Elevation of a hip

       Knees and feet being turned outward or inward

       Uneven heel strike and decreased movement in the feet

Any compensation pattern will lead to inflammation, arthritis, pain, and decreased quality of life. 

So what do we do with this information!?!

 

Our goal is to pull the body into alignment. We correct the muscle imbalances and improve the way the body moves. Without proper alignment and motion you will set your body up for pain. Correct the alignment and live pain free.

Moving into the New Year!

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A new year brings opportunity for new beginnings. Many of us look at January as a start date for change and for removing bad habits from our lives. What if we viewed this new decade as an opportunity to add something positive to our lives? This could be adding an Egoscue e-cise menu to your life to correct your joint position or choosing to do your Egoscue more regularly. When we add positive health choices to our life, even once a week, our body and our health change immensely.

In our culture, going to the gym the first month of the new year is a tradition for many. Many of us believe “moving more” is “exercising more”. This year, we’d like to encourage you change the way you think about movement. Moving more could be taking breaks every twenty minutes from sitting or standing at work. Take a walk around the office or out to the mailbox.  Moving more could be sitting on the floor to watch tv at night instead of collapsing into our couch or comfy chair. The more resistant surface of the floor encourages increased blood flow – seems crazy, but this is sooo good for your body! And, it’s so simple.

When we move in any which way, our bones our nourished and joints have enhanced flexibility. If your goal is to be pain free or enhance your health this new year, consider adding more movement to your life outside of the gym. Be creative. There are no rules to how you have to move just move as often as possible!

Set In Our Ways

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The modern era has provided us with many benefits. Enhanced technology has changed our health care, our connections with one another, and increased our access to opportunities we would not have had without it. We see the changes with our children and their relationships with their peers. As technology changes our lives, we adapt socially and our bodies physically adapt.

Most of us have had periods in our life that require us to commute long distances or work in front of a screen. In order to live our lives, we frequently sit. Sitting or holding any position for an extended period of time changes our muscles, our joints and our cardiovascular system. These changes can decrease blood flow throughout our body and make our muscles atrophy. When we sit or hold any position for too long, some muscles shorten and other muscles stretch. Our body begins to adapt to the improper muscle length change which pulls our joints out of alignment. That’s when the pain begins.

At Pain Free, we use the Egoscue method that considers the whole body and the relationship of all muscles and joints to each other. We understand that a patient’s health history and movement history has created adaptations and changes in their musculoskeletal system. These changes have affected their body’s mobility, blood flow, and led to pain. This could be back pain, knee pain, hip pain, foot pain, or any part of the body that has had to adapt to hours of holding a position. With time, we are able to realign the body and nourish muscles that support the body. When muscles work the way they were designed to, we are pain free!

The Whole Picture of Being Pain Free

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As Egoscue certified therapists, when we look at the body, we do not isolate it into individual bones or parts. We hear our clients when they identify the quality and site of their pain whether it’s knee pain, back pain, hip pain, or foot pain. This information is used as a tool to provide appropriate care for our client, but we continue to treat the whole body. In order to eliminate pain long term, we must work to correct the imbalance of the body as a whole unit.

When our client’s come to Pain Free Performance, we encourage them to “listen to their bodies”. This means to acknowledge when they have pain, to not complete exercises that bring on pain, and identify changes within their body after completing a musculoskeletal exercise.

In an Egoscue therapy session, we might encourage our client to stand with their backs against the wall and have their heels, hips, shoulders, and head touching the wall for two minutes. For some clients, not all of their body parts will be able to touch the wall in the beginning. During these two minutes, a client could feel that their body is falling forward, that the muscles behind their knee could be stretching, or they could notice that their head is forward. After two minutes of holding this exercise, we watch the client walk and ask them to consider if anything in their gait is different which could include:

Are they lighter on their feet?

Are they standing straighter?

Has their knee pain decreased?

Do they feel equal weight bear in both feet?

As therapists, we are looking for a change in the function of their body. We are assessing whether the exercise restored the client’s ankle function or created a lighter load in the client’s steps. In the beginning pain level or quality might not change, but it is through restored function of the musculoskeletal system that our clients will not only have improved posture, but improved quality of life without limitations. Balance and restored function of the musculoskeletal system are the key to becoming pain free.