Postural Alignment Therapy works through simple stretching and strengthening exercises to re balance the muscles of the body returning it to its natural alignment. When the muscles are balanced and the body is working as it was designed to you will feel an immediate reduction in pain and symptoms. Other benefits include standing taller, enhanced balance and improved performance.
The programme is effective in treating any musculoskeletal pain including:-
If you are suffering from back, neck, shoulder, knee or hip pain, rather than looking for activities, such as running, your job or lifting a heavy object as the cause of your pain, look at the body that you take to that activity.
When we look at the human body it should have eight load bearing joints, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles, stacked over the top of each other with no rotation (twisting) and no elevation (one side higher than the other). Stand in front of the mirror and see how well your joints are aligned in comparison to this diagram.
When it is in the correct position loaded by gravity from above and ground reaction force from below your body is pain free with maximum strength, flexibility and power. You can run, jump, twist and turn easily, demanding activity and movement from your body with confidence and returning back to neutral. When you are moving your muscles are pumping like the pistons in your car engine and when you stop they return to neutral like your car parked in the drive.
Your body is a unit and it always works as a unit. When one of the joints is moved out of alignment it affects all of the other joints throughout the chain. If you change the length and tension of one muscle group all the other muscles in the body have to reorganise themselves relative to this change of position. Other areas of the body have to take up the slack causing stress to the muscles and joints which are unevenly loaded resulting in wear and tear on the joints, injury to the muscles and pain which can be either acute or chronic.
I start by assessing and mapping your static posture and correcting the misalignment by creating a bespoke programme of simple stretching and strengthening exercises which you will run through in the first session. Your programme with pictures and explanations is printed out for you so you can get going with your exercises the next day! You will see and feel the effects such as symptom relief and improved balance after the first session and then consolidate the results by doing the exercises regularly. This entrains the correct movement patterns into the body so that your movement is based on a stable platform allowing you to enjoy a pain free active lifestyle.