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 Functional Body Alignment
A Practical Strategy for Chronic Pain
What is Functional Body Alignment?
Functional Body Alignment is a strategy that I have developed for treating chronic pain. This method utilizes functional exercises and specific bodywork designed to put the body back into its functional design pattern. This functional design pattern consists of bilateral movement at all eight right angles of the body; The shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. The body also has a spine with four degrees of movement in between the vertebrae. The spine should have a natural S curve. So a body that is in perfect alignment would have the feet pointing straight ahead, as well as the knees, hips and shoulders. The head would not be jutting forward. Both the hips and the shoulders would be even. The shoulders would not be rounded.
A body that exhibits poor posture violates the functional design of the body. Therefore, any movement under these circumstances would cause pain eventually because the misalignment causes secondary muscles to do primary functions. The pain is coming from the misalignment of the body. We are becoming more and more sedentary in our lifestyles due to technological advances. Most people spend 6 – 8 hours a day sitting at a desk or standing in one place performing the same repetitive motions. We drive instead of walk. Our body was designed to move. The body’s design has not changed since we were hunters and gatherers and our survival depended on movement. Our body’s design hasn’t changed, but our lifestyles sure have. This method helps to address the source of the pain rather than the symptom.
What would an ideal posture mean for you? It could mean not having that hip replaced or that rotator cuff surgery. Or how about foregoing that carpel tunnel surgery, or that knee replacement? What if you could swing your golf clubs without lower back pain? Or play a game of tennis without paying for it with a nice dose of tennis elbow or worse? What if you could run again without shin splints or plantarfascitis?
I think a better question would be, what wouldn’t it mean? I have been in the business of “fixing” chronic pain for nine years now. I have worked with hundreds of people who got temporary relief from surgery, pain medication, regular chiropractic visits and even massage therapy. The problem is that the bones and nerves do what the muscles tell them to do. So, if we never address the muscles as the primary cause of misalignment and pain, then we miss an opportunity to treat the cause and we are simply treating the symptom.
This strategy targets the muscle and the source of postural dysfunction by using both strengthening and lengthening techniques. The specialist uses specific bodywork to lengthen the short muscles and functional exercises to strengthen the stretched and atrophied muscles. It takes a trained eye to see dysfunction sometimes because we are so used to looking at it. Most people have everted or inverted feet and a dysfunctional pelvic tilt and a forward head. It doesn’t take much time and effort to learn how you can take responsibility for your health and begin to transform your body and experience a better lifestyle. It just takes a desire to learn and care for yourself.
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