10/01/2023
A picture paints a thousand words....
Postural pictures for this patient from left to right session 1, session 2, and 3rd session today.
This patient attended with neck pain, something he explained he has suffered with on and off for 20yrs. He put it down to a bad rubgy tackle that he never seemed to fully recover from. However, upon testing his compensation pattern, we established that he is a bilateral Jaw driver. Which in simple terms means, when he is weak in the hip and pelvic area, his leg muscles shorten and tighten to work with the Jaw and neck muscles which also shorten and tighten to help compensate and power the hips. This forces his body to compress, which, over the years took its toll on his posture, as seen in the 1st picture pulling his neck and shoulders forward resulting in the ongoing intermittent neck pain he complains of.
He had session 3 today, where I worked on his upper body for the first time with the beactivated approach. He had some beautiful visual shifts in his posture, and he also felt very different. One of the things he verbalised at the end of the session was that his neck felt about 4 inches longer.
Our bodies slowly adapt to negative postural changes, and we don't realise how much space we are losing. It's normally pain that eventually prompts people to go to physio. But don't wait for pain to prompt you. If you feel your posture is worsening, get help, the sooner the better.
