Posture alignment therapy isn’t one of those phrases you hear as a kid. What you hear are phrases like “stop slouching” or “sit up straight.”
If you heard that a lot, you may have thought your mother or perhaps one of your teachers was picking on you. In reality, they were trying to do you a favor.
Posture is the position you naturally hold yourself. Whether you’re sitting, standing or lying down, good posture puts the least amount of strain on the underlying structures that are holding you up.
If you took your mother’s words to heart as a youngster, you may be enjoying wonderful posture as an adult. Unfortunately, for quite a few people, that isn’t the case.
Poor posture over a long period leads to the body operating in an uneconomical way. Since gravity is always pulling down on the body, the body has to compensate. This results in wear and tear on the joints, strain on the ligaments in the spine, backaches and muscular pain.
While it would be nice to be able to hop into a time machine and do the stop slouching thing all over again, a more realistic way to deal with that pain is posture alignment therapy.
What Does PAT Do?
Postural alignment therapy uses your own body weight to help improve the spine’s alignment and balance.
The basic concept involves looking at the root cause of pain in your body’s eight load bearing joints. These include the joints in your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles.
The same way a house needs a solid foundation and strong load bearing walls to remain standing, your body relies on your spine and joints to operate efficiently and avoid pain.
Benefits of Postural Alignment Therapy
The most important benefit of Postural Alignment Therapy is its approach to pain relief. Unlike drug based remedies that address what you’re feeling. Postural Alignment Therapy seeks to eliminate what’s causing your pain.
This is a much better approach, because masking the pain could result in the underlying reason getting much worse.
Postural Alignment Therapy looks at the body as a whole, not just where you are feeling the pain. It looks at your posture as a puzzle and attempts to put the pieces together through gentle stretches and movements that target the muscle groups that aren’t working properly and provide relief the ones that are overworking.
Your body is a miraculous system, and it takes a little detective work to determine the true cause of your pain. Often, pain relief is simply a matter of discovering the postural elements in the body that aren’t working properly and applying the right amount of stimulation to regain your function and mobility.
By gently stretching, engaging and strengthening the deeper postural muscles, we can coax them back to functioning properly to maintain your body’s correct alignment
That’s when the body can begin the healing process. Without it, your body will continue to compensate as best it can and continue to cause damage.
Not a Quick Fix
Postural Alignment Therapy is a process, not an event. Post postural alignment doesn’t happen overnight. Returning to proper postural alignment likewise will not happen overnight.
The first step is a significant adjustment in lifestyle to allow the body to heal. While quick fixes like surgery or medication may seem like the right answer, without a change in lifestyle, your body will still be compensating and eventually the pain will return.
Expect to engage in postural alignment therapy for at least 4-6 months to see long term relief.
Call Pain Management Massage LV to schedule for an assessment to see if Postural Alignment Therapy is a possible option to relieve your long term pain.