correcting bad posture

Can Myofascial Release Help With Bad Posture?

How Fascia Affects Posture

If you’re looking to fix bad posture, let me introduce you to fascia. Fascia is a tough connective tissue which spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional web from head to foot without interruption. A healthy fascia will be free of restrictions, a relaxed and wavy tissue that does not cause body misalignments. When fascia is misaligned, the fascia is restricted, and chronic conditions may occur. Bad posture is one of those misalignments. When you suffer from bad posture over a period of time, your body’s fascia can adapt to those improper positions. Thereby, causing poor posture issues. These posture issues can cause a lot of joint and muscle pain, and can even lead to degeneration and chronic issues.

Fascia is a very important part of the body, and it is divided for study purposes in three layers. The first layer is the superficial fascia directly under the skin. The second layer wraps around all your muscles, muscle fibers, tendons, and creates ligaments. The third layer is the subserous fascia, deep inside the body which wraps around and separates all our organs.

Although we divide the fascia into layers, to study it, they are actually, all interconnected. This means an issue in one of the layers, can have a ripple effect, and start causing issues all over the body. Because fascia is a continuous system of tissue, if something happens to your foot, it will have an impact on the rest of your body.

Causes of Bad Posture

Over time, restrictions and adherences develop in the fascia.  These restrictions can be caused by a wide variety of events:

  • Traumatic injury to an area will cause fascial restrictions to develop.
  • Being static in a certain position for a long time, (such as sitting at a computer all day, every day)
  • Being dehydrated (70% of the water in your body is stored in your fascia. This water helps keep all the fibers in the fascia apart so they don’t stick together and create restrictions
  • Emotional trauma, as per psychiatric research, can manifest itself as physical trauma. Emotional trauma is stored in the fascia and causes fascial restriction and physical pain.

Causes of Bad Posture

Examples of bad posture are:

  • Slouching posture
  • Bad neck posture
  • improper sitting posture (maybe at a computer or desk or even driving)
  • Poor shoulder posture
  • Incorrect sleeping positions
  • Incorrect standing positions

Regardless of how you developed these bad posture habits, traumatized fascia will quickly become tight and restricted to protect the body. Many times, this restriction will create bad postural habits.

Dangers of Poor Posture

If left untreated, poor posture can become a permanent issue. The fascia creating the bad posture can also mean muscles and organs are unable to glide freely over surrounding surfaces. When fascia is restricted, it squeezes whatever it is around of, such as nerves, blood vessels, spinal cord etc.  Every cell and cell organelles are surrounded by fascia.

A misaligned posture changes the relationship with the environment, it can produce anxiety, for example a misaligned pelvis, changes the length of one limb, the information sent to the central nervous system will be that you are constantly walking on uneven ground, it might trigger the fight and flight response, which sustained over time, my end up in a permanent anxiety status.

Self-Correcting Bad Posture

Throughout life, we are cognizant of maintaining good posture. However, if we experience any of the underlying conditions, maintaining good posture is more involved than trying to correct it consciously. Essentially, you are fighting the fascial restrictions that can produce pressures of 2,000 pounds per square inch. You’re literally fighting your own body when trying to maintain good posture with all these restrictions in your fascia. Therefore, you become easily exhausted trying to maintain good posture.

Correcting Bad Posture with Myofascial Release

Myofascial Release techniques work to change the density, viscosity and tone of the fascia in a permanent or semi-permanent way. Long-held gentle application of sustained pressure into the fascial restrictions will enable Fascia to ‘melt’ and release restrictions.  Think of a mix of cornflower and water, solidifying and resisting a spoon that is forcefully dug into it, but allowing the spoon to sink when it’s gently guided in.

As Fascia is affected by both physical and/or emotional trauma, Fascial Bodywork also allows for a release of emotional responses originating in the trauma.

Depending on the severity of your poor posture, Wholistic PT will develop a personalized treatment plan. By identifying the source of the fascia restrictions, your treatment plan will consist of consecutive myofascial release treatments that will address various parts of the body. (Remember fascia is all interconnected.) To help you further correct your posture, simple exercises are often given as homecare to help maintain the fascia and correct bad posture in between treatments.

Wholistic PT is a Myofascial Release Practitioner that will create a treatment plan for poor posture. Whether you’re suffering from bad sitting posture or neck posture, a Myofascial Release therapist can help patients find much sought-after relief from poor posture. If you’re tired of experiencing pain due to poor posture and ready to explore a more holistic and whole-body approach, contact us today for a consultation.

PRICING

Initial Evaluation & Treatment – $250
1-hour sessions – $125
1.5 hour sessions – $187.50
2-hour sessions -$ 250
Intensive treatment packages are available

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