SIGNIFICANCE OF PROPER BODY POSITIONING & BODY ALIGNMENT

Did your mom ever tell you to sit up straight and stop slouching? Did your grandma tell you to keep your head up and not look down? If they did - thank them every day, because lots of people never get such valuable advice and enough pressure to follow through and maintain.

Holding proper body posture and using proper body positioning has an encompassing effect on an individual physically, physiologically, biomechanically, emotionally and psychologically. It is not a readily seen connection, but it is a very powerful one.

For a young individual, learning early on how to move right will make a huge difference for the rest of life. A kid able to successfully participate in games and actually be good at them will have the confidence to stand up for his thoughts, ideas and beliefs without being bullied by peers and life into a corner from which everything looks intimidating. The "I want to do" will turn into "I can do", opening the world of possibilities and an adventurous life full of potential.

Getting older doesn't have to mean becoming less able. But why do most of the people today start to literally fall apart shortly after they "clock" 30 or so? Pollution and stress aside, an overwhelming majority of people can't move right! The way we walk, the way we run, the way we move in general, often has much more to do with our personality rather than our physical body and it's biomechanics. So it is no surprise that eventually our body starts to give in and a lot of times it's really a surprise it lasted THAT long with such an amount of abuse going on. Even 1 year of abusing your hips and knees is dramatic, what on earth do we expect after 10, 20, 30 years?

As with lots of other things in life - we create the damage and we suffer the consequences. It is a very fine line between an active lifestyle that brings health and an active lifestyle that brings problems. Being active without any clue as to HOW TO DO the chosen activities causes more damage than most of us realize. Carefully weigh in the value of a morning jog that gives you plantar fasciitis or ITB when all you wanted was to make yourself feel better and stay healthy. A bit upside down? Couldn't agree more. Who is to blame? Some names, companies and whole industries could be thrown in here, but it's more productive to let them be and focus on what YOU can do about it.

It is not news that good posture is directly related to good health, but it is still considered somewhat of a folklore by most of the today's society and especially medical professionals. Instead, painkilling drugs and a lazy approach are promoted. Here, put this brace on! It will alleviate pain... especially when used along with painkillers. Here, put some ice on it! You won't feel the pain..... or anything else after a while. Lay down, get some rest, your back will feel better..... for the next 5 minutes. These magical shoes will make you faster - no effort required on your part, you don't need to use your legs to run... Or worse - take this medicine to help your joints... you might have a heart attack and die, but your joints will be like new! Advice and treatment like that does nothing to solve the problem and it will come back again and again and with vengeance.

Solution can be found in simple correction of movement that causes the pain and in correction of postural alignment. Specific body positioning can be found in some activities like ballet and martial arts, but they were never correlated with the work of gravity and in case of martial arts, some of the essential truths were lost in time, mysticism and translation.

Good posture is an important component of body positioning in movement. Without proper body alignment in stillness and in movement you're like a house with poor foundation. A well-built house on a well-built foundation will stand and remain usable for a longer time compared to a well-built house with a poor foundation.

Proper body alignment in stillness and proper body positioning in movement guarantees minimal wear and tear, if any at all. Leaning on one hip will eventually damage the hip joint. Lifting heavy objects with your back or arms' muscles will hurt and create lasting damage. Landing on the heels when running, putting pressure on your shoulders when swimming, etc. will eventually hurt not just the directly involved part of the body, but everything else as well, like a domino effect. The scary thing is the surgeries never bring about the desired results and often cause even more problems.

A much better and more effective thing to do is to change the way the person moves. Our natural components like cartilages and bones and such, as well as the artificial replacement materials, wear out for a reason. The wear and tear is caused mostly by the incorrect movements performed on a daily basis, year after year without proper adjustment or any correction.

There are also approaches that will compliment your efforts like chiropractic, massage, Rolfing, acupuncture. These will help you relieve various muscle tension and do other wonderful things that will allow you to better submerge into the discovery of better functioning self.

But as far as our body and its movement are concerned, there are two things that play the most significant role - body alignment and body positioning through key poses. Get those ingrained in your subconscious and you will help yourself remain healthy and injury free. That will allow you to enjoy your daily life more and from there you can take it a step or two further with practices like meditation, yoga, martial arts, etc.

Proper body positioning correlated with the work of the leading force on earth - gravity, is a new approach to better and more efficient human movement in athletics and in daily activities. But it is not enough to acknowledge and respect gravity, it is paramount to understand how it works and how it could work to your advantage instead of detriment. While most of us know the concept of gravitational pull, very few comprehend its work and full effect on a human body in motion.

Proper movement through correct body positioning has an incredible power, which seems to completely elude today's medical establishment. Some of the most serious injuries to our musculoskeletal structure can be prevented with the help of teaching or learning proper movement. Healing the already present injuries is a much tougher question, so we have to change the tides in our favor by putting in effort into prevention by proper education and extensive dispersing of the right information to the general public.

Article by Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Composed by L. Romanov