05/05/2022
Mainly why we start on the floor.
Why does Alignment Matter? You can’t strengthen a body that’s in the wrong alignment. Alignment first, strength second.
I’ve teamed up with Hypermobility MD for EDS & HSD Awareness Month to discuss why alignment is so important when you have hypermobility and / or pain.
A few months ago a client asked me why I only have pictures of the skeleton bones in my studio and not one with muscles. It’s because I like to show my clients where their bones are designed to be. No one has a perfect posture like in the drawings, but the closer we can get to that alignment, the happier the body is going to be 🦓💪.
So how do we work on this to help our Hypermobile bodies?
- I spend a lot of time initially with clients lying on their back. If you’ve watched any of my YouTube videos, you will hear me talking about softening and settling. This is key.
- If we start to settle our body, the bones can settle into the floor. We start to release muscular tension and allow the body to stop fighting gravity. Elevated shoulders and arched backs start to realign.
- We can never force or squeeze our body into alignment. That will cause more pain and stress and it would be temporary. That’s why I avoid words like squeeze or push in my YouTube videos.
- The more we settle, the more we create essential body awareness about where our bones actually sit and belong. We start to become aware of alignment.
- When the bones are in the right place, the muscles surrounding them have the opportunity to work correctly too. We get more gliding and more efficient mechanics. The body has a natural rhythm and we can get that back. That means less pain too because there are less tight muscles being held in the wrong alignment.
Dr Bluestein and I thought we could call this EDS /HSD Body Awareness Month too 😊. Building body awareness is the first step to easing tension, building control and stability and ultimately strength.
Remember - we can’t strengthen a body that’s in the wrong alignment. We need to get the alignment right first, then work on strength 🦓💪.
Happy EDS / HSD (Body) Awareness Month 😊.
