Posture Correction – Tweed Heads Chiropractor

So who really cares about posture anyway? Well….if you don’t, you really should!

This is one of our patients showing her posture change over the course of treatment with us.

***Please note; the woman pictured is not trying to hold herself up! She is simply told to breathe in, out and to let their bodies relax in all photos! ***

If you have correct posture all of your bones and joints are in their proper alignment. This means you have less stress on your joints, tendons, muscles and central nervous system (since the spinal bones house your spinal cord). Even heart and lung function is improved.

Quite often postural alignment is completely overlooked by even the healthiest of people.

Good Posture Means Good Health

In short, if have good posture you will:

• Have less pain and greater flexibility
• Greatly increased energy levels
• Better coordination and resistance to injury
• A longer lifespan (mostly due to less heart issues)
• Less Osteoarthritis as you age (Osteoarthritis is basically wear and tear of your joints)
• Look younger and more attractive

So what does good posture look like?

Looking from the side, a perfect standing posture would show a straight line running vertically from the ankle through the hip, then through the shoulder and finally through the ear. (This is shown in the left picture where the grey line runs through these points.)

Looking at a person front on, we want the shoulders and the hips to be even, with the spine running perfectly vertically.

Generally speaking, how your posture looks front the side is much more important than how it looks from the front or back.

For example, people really tend to notice if your shoulders are rounded and your head sticks forwards like a goose; but they probably won’t notice if one shoulder is a little higher than the other or if your pelvis is slightly uneven. That’s why our main focus is to fix your lateral (from the side) posture first.

Slumped or relaxed posture is what really matters!

To really know how good your posture is you to really let your body slump and see where it falls.

We can all hold ourselves up…at least temporarily, but this is not really showing how good our posture is. Someone with good posture will be in an upright position even when they are relaxed and this should happen with very little muscular effort.

So how do we fix it?

Below are the common methods people use to fix their posture:

• Yoga and pilates
• Stretching and strengthening exercises (especially core exercises)
• Simply paying attention and sitting or standing more upright
• Practising walking around with a book on your head

The basic premise of all of these methods is to stretch tight muscles and strengthen weak ones which certainly has its benefits but in my opinion falls well short of correcting the root cause of the issue.

Remember we are interested in a person slumped or relaxed posture which means their muscles are not very active whilst doing this.

So what do we do?

We use a method called Advanced Biostructural Correction to correct the alignment of the vertebrae and break up scar tissue along the spine. To find out more about this method and how it works click here.

This allows people to stand better without even knowing they are doing it, meaning even when they slump their body will stay in and upright position.

Here is an example of another patient of ours and the improvement in her posture over time.

Please note that she is not trying to hold herself up! She is simply told to breathe in, out and to let her body relax in all photos! ***

Our Chiropractor at Tweed Heads, Dr Scott Barbary has used the Advanced Biostructural Correction™ method to treat her which does not involve any strengthening exercises. She has done no extra exercise or therapy over the course of her treatment but as you can see her body stays upright all by itself.

Please note we are not saying that these other treatment methods aren’t useful rather that they are not the full picture. We often suggest that our patients do some form of exercise along side their treatment here.

Get your spine in line today an call us on 07 5523 4757