Is your posture to blame for your hip pain??
Did you know that your posture may be to blame for pain in your knees, hips and even your feet? It’s true!
Proper posture is assessed by drawing an imaginary line down the side view of your body. This line should pass through the hole in your ear, through your shoulder, along the line of your arm pit, through the midpoint of your hip, through the upper thigh and down your lower leg just in front of the bump on the outside of your ankle.
When our body falls forward of this imaginary line, as it often does with a forward head posture, the weight distribution in our body is changed. While this isn’t “stressful” to us it does become a stress to the brain. The brain is constantly surveying our environment in and around our body and when our posture falls out of this imaginary line our brain often interprets it as falling forward.
Because the goal of our brain is to keep our body upright in gravity the brain will send out direction to other muscles to keep us upright.
What I often see in practice (and in people watching out in public) is in people with a forward head posture they often have a more exaggerated curve in their lower back; think of a woman who is late in their pregnancy, how they often have to arch their back to make up for the additional weight of the baby that they are carrying in the front of their body.
When we use the muscles of our lower back to off-set the forwardness of our upper body for a prolonged period of time the result is often pain in the lower back. As our body continues to compensate for these changes in posture it will affect the way the joints in our spine move, which will eventually impact bigger joints like our hips, knees and feet.
Alterations in posture are often the result of physical or emotional stress in our life. Jobs that require prolonged sitting, standing or lifting can alter our posture over time. Emotional stress can also impact our posture as it can cause tension and tightness in our muscles.
If left untreated this dysfunctional posture becomes a “habit” for the body. Regular chiropractic care helps to interrupt these patterns and restore proper alignment to the spine, the result is improved posture as well as improved health as your entire body functions better.
Posted In:
Chiropractic
Chiropractor
chronic pain
