A reduced range of motion, poor posture and decreased flexibility are all common ailments that come with a busy and full life. Many of us sit at a computer all day, or perhaps we’re often carrying children around, or we have trouble making the time for regular exercise – these often inevitable parts of life may leave us feeling hunched, inflexible and wondering, “how can I fix my posture?”.
Chiro corrections are able to help with each of these concerns (and often, if we’re suffering from one it’s likely we’re suffering from another). At Gateway to Wellness, we take a holistic approach to your care so, before we get to how we can improve flexibility and how a chiro will improve your posture, let’s take some time to understand why correct posture, a full range of motion and flexibility are interconnected and essential for our overall health and wellbeing.
What does range of motion mean and why is it important?
We’ll talk about flexibility and correct posture in a moment – these are two commonly understood terms. Perhaps less well understood, is range of motion; why it is important to our bodies’ optimal functioning and how chiropractic care can help maintain it.
A full range of motion is when your joints are able to complete their entire spectrum of movement. Depending on the joint, that could be bending, straightening or rotating.
While range of motion and flexibility are connected, they are different things; range of motion relates to your joints and flexibility is the expansion and contraction (or stretching) of your muscles and tendons.
So, when your joints are able to move with their full range of motion, your muscles are able to move with them, because they are flexible. Range of motion and flexibility are both essential for movement. And movement is, of course, essential in our everyday lives and for our physical and mental wellbeing. So when we are unable to move our muscles and joints comfortably, we compromise our quality of life.
As chiropractors we treat the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. This means we are perfectly placed to treat concerns about your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones and joints – everything you need to ensure a full range of motion, correct posture and ongoing flexibility.
While some people are naturally more flexible than others, in both their muscles and their joints, studies have identified an ideal range of motion for people based on age and gender.
If you are not within this range you may have an increased risk of injury – a reduced range of motion in one part of your body might mean that the rest of your body has to compensate. This puts pressure on other joints, overloading them and leading to a misalignment. That’s where chiro adjustments can help.
How can chiro corrections help with me improve flexibility and range of motion?
As chiros we’ll use manual manipulations, spinal adjustments and various other techniques to realign your joints and improve your range of motion.
There’s many studies that demonstrate that chiropractic care improves range of motion; one particular study in Australia showed significant increase in the range of motion in the spine after chiropractic care.
At Gateway to Wellness, before we start to treat the symptoms we’ll make sure we identify why you’ve lost range of motion in that area; it could be an injury, an infection or that you are recovering from surgery. It could also be a case of inactivity. We take the time to understand your symptoms so that we can provide effective care, and support you through your recovery.
Will a chiro improve my posture?
If you’re wondering, how can I become more flexible – consider whether your range of motion is compromised. Once you’ve addressed that, then you can focus on exercises that correct posture and enhance flexibility.
Back exercises are recommended if you’re looking to improve posture, and to do back exercises you need a healthy back. While chiropractic care is often simply (and incorrectly!) understood as just spinal adjustments (we can do so much for your overall health and wellbeing) starting with the spine is useful as it is such an integral part of our skeletal system and has an impact on some of the most important facets of health; range of motion, posture and flexibility.
So if you’re wondering, how can I become more flexible and fix my posture; start by checking your range of motion in your joints – particularly your spine. You might be feeling stiff but unsure where or why.
As chiros, we can help to identify both the symptoms and, importantly, the cause and help you get back to moving well, standing tall and living a full and healthy life.
