Sitting. Yes, sitting!
I know…. It seems innocent enough, right?
We may have different occupational and sleeping positions, but one thing all of us have in common is sitting each day, even for a portion of the day. Here’s what happens:
Our attention is focused on our task at hand, be it work or school tasks, scrolling through our phones, tablets, driving. Whatever the task, we are typically focused and may have stress about it.
- Abdominal/ trunk muscles relax since we are held up by a chair
- Head begins to reach forward intently
- Shoulders begin to round forward as we fatigue
- The pelvis may tilt forward as our abdomen turns off and we try to hold ourselves up by arching our back
- Or our back may flatten with pelvis tilted back if we slouch in our seat.
Well, as the areas on the front of us relax over time, they start to shut off. Maybe not completely, but the level of activation may decrease, like trying to make a phone call with bad reception. The brain is trying to communicate with muscles, but not getting the signals needed to go through. It’s as if they forget what they are capable of!
This inactive state becomes its new “normal”. Since this inactive state is recognized as the new normal, we likely won’t notice anything until we try to move these areas through their normal range of motion. Meantime, the surrounding fascial tissue becomes restricted. These restrictions can then hold us in a position of limited motion.
The brain realizes a lack of communication with muscles. To protect your weak areas, it can limit use of these muscles by recruiting new muscles to help. Compensation works great short- term. Over the long -term, it can cause problems. We end up with pain in the back of our neck, upper back tightness, low back pain, or even tension headaches
Often we are given a diagnosis with limited options. But here at Moment of Truth PT, we focus on issues that may be contributing to many of these symptoms; removing structural barriers and scar tissue present within the body that can be contributing to pain or interfering with our function. We use visceral and fascial techniques to reduce restrictions, improve circulation and decrease inflammation. We then work with you to re-connect the brain and body signals in order to build strength. And we provide the hope many are missing…the hope of living free from pain and limited function.
Much love- Janna!
0 comments