Why Chiropractic and Posture Exercises Work Well Together
A difficult task for any discipline is to create a paradigm shift in how something is perceived. We, as chiropractors, know the value of an adjustment and the deleterious effect of subluxations. Frequently patients just want a quick-fix to their problem. Educating patients to want care after initial treatment is marred with various rates of success at best. Reaching a goal of having patients easily grasp and share rationale of treatment for health, not just crisis care is a lofty aspiration.
We can all remember our parents, grandparents and even teachers instructing us and even commanding us to stand up straighter, not to slouch, and to have better posture. Tapping into that experience and making it now a positive learning tool, with the research collected by Body Zone and educational material Dr. Weiniger has presented, we can validate that our elders were correct. Evidence shows better posture is a major key to improved health. Simply having the patient observe other shoppers at the grocery store with good body posture versus “old” slouched forward posture; who moves better, who moves more easily getting in and out of the car, which of those observed would they want to be in ten years?
Enter chiropractic care into the picture. The marriage of chiropractic care and active posture correction is analogous to a symphony orchestra performance. All sections of the orchestra play a part and with the conductor, the sections shine greater as a whole versus existing in parts. Adjustments, soft tissue work, global and specific exercises are all more effective when combined and orchestrated to work together.
Posture pictures for comparison, before and during care, are dramatic for the patient to see and reinforce their efforts of daily posture exercise regime. This validates chiropractic care to the patient with treatment no longer just for a symptom.
The combination of presenting chiropractic care and posture exercise would seem obvious. The thoroughness and integration of these two areas has been made complete by Body Zone. We now have a roadmap with standardized protocol for introduction of levels of exercise while the patient is receiving chiropractic care. This approach can now uniformly be implemented all over the country regardless of which adjusting technique is favored. We all have to resist gravity: posture is how we do it. The Body Zone posture exercise protocols help to maintain the subluxation corrections; the adjustments allow better posture correction via reduced nerve irritation and improved function. It’s a match made at Body Zone.
Dr. Alan W. Thompson, DC, CPEP
