Posture up for health and confidence

What is good posture?  When you have good posture you allow for equal distribution of weight of your head onto multiple muscle groups and joints.  To obtain good posture elongate the back of your neck, tuck your chin in comfortably and pull your shoulder blades down.  This will put your upper head, neck and upper body in a better position.  As your chin drops forward when you are on the computer use these cues to get you back.

Posture also effects how you feel.  See the following link from a Ted Talk that will tell you how.

Lets talk Injury Prevention

When it comes to injury prevention during activity, whether that be your zumba class, kickboxing or lifting, it all comes down to alignment.  When your joints are properly lined up your body is strong and able to produce force optimally.  Proper alignment also prevents injury.  Any deviations from proper alignment put additional stress onto the muscles and/or ligaments of the joint.  Take for instance your ankle.  This image of the right foot viewed from the front, demonstrates the proper or normal alignment of the ankle in the middle. You’ll notice the two lines on each side in blue representing equal and proper distribution of stress and force.

On the left, we have inversion where stretching or tensile stress (in red) is placed on the outside of the ankle and compressive forces (in brown) on the inside.  The opposite is true for the image on the right or eversion.  When the body cannot handle the stresses placed on the joint, you get injury to the surrounding structures.  This is just a simple example of how proper alignment prevents injury!

For more information come into the clinic or join me this Saturday, December 6th at noon within the fitness studio at Club Markham where I will be giving a talk on injury prevention focusing on the back, knees and wrist.  Email info@formfunctionclinic.com with your name and phone number to sign up today.

Lets talk Injury Prevention

When it comes to injury prevention during activity, whether that be your zumba class, kickboxing or lifting, it all comes down to alignment.  When your joints are properly lined up your body is strong and able to produce force optimally.  Proper alignment also prevents injury.  Any deviations from proper alignment put additional stress onto the muscles and/or ligaments of the joint.  Take for instance your ankle.  This image of the right foot viewed from the front, demonstrates the proper or normal alignment of the ankle in the middle. You’ll notice the two lines on each side in blue representing equal and proper distribution of stress and force.

On the left, we have inversion where stretching or tensile stress (in red) is placed on the outside of the ankle and compressive forces (in brown) on the inside.  The opposite is true for the image on the right or eversion.  When the body cannot handle the stresses placed on the joint, you get injury to the surrounding structures.  This is just a simple example of how proper alignment prevents injury!

For more information come into the clinic or join me this Saturday, December 6th at noon within the fitness studio at Club Markham where I will be giving a talk on injury prevention focusing on the back, knees and wrist.  Email info@formfunctionclinic.com with your name and phone number to sign up today.