Aug.2, 2015. Sunday Times Of India
Your mother was on to something when she told you to stand up straight. When I speak to people about posture, they immediately adjust themselves in their chairs, lift their heads and push their shoulders back. Is this what defines good posture? Is good posture even important?
Functional Manual Therapy submits that good posture is very important to overall health. Research has shown that pressure on lumbar discs is highest in the lower back when sitting in a slouched posture. Other studies have shown a relationship between neck and shoulder pain and forward head posture.
So, how is good posture defined? Any time we assess posture, we must start with the base of support. When standing, defining the base of support is easy. It’s your feet. More specifically the arches of your feet. The feet also make up part of the base of support in sitting. The rest of the base of support in sitting is the pelvis floor, the soft tissue area just in front of your sit bones.
After base of support comes alignment or how the rest of the body is arranged relative to the base of support. Efficient alignment should allow transmission of the force of gravity through the skeleton, through the feet and into the floor. If alignment is inefficient, the force of gravity will be absorbed by the body. It is this absorption of force by the body that leads to tissue breakdown and, ultimately, to pain.
With all this information why would someone need to visit a Functional Manual Therapist for their posture? FMT offers a system for evaluating posture through the vertical compression and elbow flexion tests. Through the evaluation of these tests and others, the FM therapist can determine if the cause of the postural inefficiency is mechanical, neuromuscular or motor control.
In the mechanical assessment, FMT looks at the body’s physical ability to achieve posture through the motion of the muscles and joints. Neuromuscular training focuses on the body’s ability to have initiation, strength and endurance of muscles or muscle groups. Motor control integrates movement at each body segment to form an efficient whole body posture.
Whatever your job or recreational activities—from office work and watching television to taking a morning walk—good posture is important in keeping the body healthy. FMT is the physiotherapy system that defines efficient posture, can test posture objectively, and has the treatment paradigm through mechanical, neuromuscular and motor control to help you achieve your most efficient and pain-free posture.
Dr Steven Kofsky (PT, DPT, CFMT) is a Certified Functional Manual Therapist at VARDAN, a wellness initiative by The Times Group in association with the Institute of Physical Art, USA
Functional Manual Therapy™ (FMT) is a comprehensive approach to physiotherapy, which identifies and facilitates your existing potential through an in-depth examination and treatment of your mechanical capacity, neuromuscular function and motor control. Discover your potential to have less pain and function better with FMT!
To schedule your appointment at the VARDAN Centre (New Delhi):
SMS VFMT to 58888
Call + 91-9971112446/9910955500 (9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday)
email vardan@timesgroup.com
For more information, log on to www.vardan.in