AILMENTS OF POOR ALIGNMENT

When you were a teenager, being ordered to “stand up straight” certainly seemed like a rite of passage, but those nagging adults were on to something. The importance of optimal alignment for general wellness cannot be overstated. Body alignment can help you avoid pain and injury while also boosting your confidence and attitude.

 

It will most certainly take some time and intentional work to improve your alignment and posture, but the advantages are well worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

What does it mean to be properly aligned?

 

The first step should be to determine how well your overall alignment is. To find out, we recommend conducting the “wall test”: (Healthline)

 

Stand such that the back of your head, shoulder blades, and buttocks are all in contact with the wall, and your heels are 2 to 4 inches away.

Place a flat hand behind your lower back. For a proper lower back curve, you should be able to just slide your palm between your lower back and the wall.

Draw your bellybutton toward your spine if there’s too much room behind your lower back. The curve in your back will be flattened, and your lower back will be gently brought closer to the wall.

If there isn’t enough room behind your lower back, arch your back slightly to allow your hand to slide behind you.

Maintain appropriate posture as you walk away from the wall. Return to the wall to see if you maintained proper posture.

The Consequences of Bad Alignment

 

After you’ve completed the “wall test,” keep in mind that good posture is more typically the exception than the rule. Poor posture is fairly common, and it can affect you from head to toe, causing a variety of issues. These issues include, but are not limited to, the following: (U.S. News & World Report)

 

Headache. The muscles in the back of your head, neck, upper back, and jaw can be strained by poor posture. Tension-type or muscle-spasm headaches might result as a result of this pressure on surrounding nerves.

Pain in the back and neck. Injury and other illnesses such as arthritis, herniated disks, and osteoporosis can cause pain and stiffness in the back and neck, but poor posture is a major culprit. Back and neck discomfort can be chronic and degrade your quality of life, even if it is rarely life-threatening.

Pain in the knees, hips, and feet. Your kneecap (patella) may not slide easily over your femur due to muscle weakness, tightness, or imbalances, lack of flexibility, and poor hip, knee, and foot alignment. Friction can create irritation and soreness in the front of the knee as a result of this. Plantar fasciitis, a condition in which the thick band of tissue linking your heel to the ball of your foot (plantar fascia) becomes inflamed and causes heel discomfort, can also be caused by poor foot and ankle alignment.

Shoulder impingement and discomfort. The rotator cuff is a collection of muscles and tendons that link your upper arm and shoulder. Muscle tightness, weakness, or imbalances caused by poor alignment and posture can irritate the rotator cuff tendons, resulting in pain and weakness. Pinched tendons can also be caused by a forward, slumped posture (impinged). This can eventually develop to a rotator cuff tear, a more serious injury that can cause significant discomfort and weakness, as well as limiting your ability to perform daily tasks.

Jaw ache. The muscles under your chin may be strained, and your temporomandibular joint (often referred to as “TMJ”) may get overworked, if you have a forward head position. Pain, weariness, and popping in your jaw, as well as trouble opening your mouth, headaches, and neck pain, may be the outcome.

There’s a lot of fatigue and you’re having trouble breathing. Your rib cage may be restricted and your diaphragm compressed due to poor alignment and unfavorable postural habits. This can lower lung capacity, resulting in shallow or laborious breathing, weariness, and a lack of energy, all of which can have an impact on your overall productivity.

BETTER LIFE WITH BETTER ALIGNMENT!

 

Many of these diseases can be avoided or reversed by improving your alignment and posture. You’ll be surprised at how much your living quality can improve.

 

Simple stretches to keep your muscles and tendons limber and not too tense are one of the most basic ways to improve your posture from the ground up. Stretching your calves, fascia, and other muscles and tendons in your feet and legs just a few minutes each day can make a huge difference. You’ll avoid a situation where one group of muscles is softly tugging another forward or backward, throwing off your stride, if your muscles are loose and stretched. Yoga positions in general are excellent for overall stretching.

 

AILMENTS OF POOR ALIGNMENT

 

The next step, and maybe most importantly, is to ensure that your feet are adequately supported. When you run, stroll, jump, or stand, your feet are your foundation. The weight of the human body, combined with the impact from these simple daily tasks, can put a lot of strain on the heel and arch of the foot. Gait irregularities might develop over time as the body tries to compensate for the tension and pain, resulting in bad posture.

 

Because the way the feet absorb and distribute impact has a large impact on the rest of the body, wearing orthotics can have a huge positive impact on proper posture. The feet (and hence the ankles, legs, hips, and other body parts) are more balanced with quality orthotics, which helps you prevent stumbles and falls that can damage or throw any number of the body’s muscle groups, bones, or tissues out of alignment, resulting in poor posture.

The PowerLift Arch is a trademarked arch elevating technique used by IDEASTEP insoles. The PowerLift Arch has three levels of support for the arch and dynamic alignment with each step. With each stride, our innovative arch technology dynamically raises your arch into a soothing sine wave action, providing up to 89 percent more arch support.