Are you Moving toward balance?-Longevity and Micro Trauma

The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Wallden explains that the average person takes around 10,000 steps a day. With each step a person received a compressive force of about 1 to 3 times their body weight. If we take an average person who sits at a desk for many hours with a flat- backed (hypolordotic) posture and look at how this, plus compressive forces effect his/her potential for micro trauma, we use this formula.

The equation is 10,000(steps a day) x 145 lbs. (average weight) x 3 (return ground force)= 4,350,000 lbs.(The maximum amount of weight that the spine receives daily!). This is 4,350,000 lbs. a day on a spine that does not have a balanced tension in the muscles that causes a misalignment of bones.

Not having a balance of pressure on the bones result in micro traumas. Walden, goes on to explain that the integrity of the spine is severely compromised with this combination of a flat- backed position coupled with activities like walking,exercise and all the varieties of other movements we do daily . The body looses it ability to reset to a neutral position, the longer it is in a non-neutral position. (p.354, vol. 13, 2009) 4 Ways to better understand balance in your body. - Get a postural analysis from a fitness professional. - Become aware of opposites. When something goes up something else has to ground down. - Work with speed, how fast can you go or how slow. - Practice balancing on a unstable surfaces, to understand dynamic tension. Not too tight, not too loose.