BREATHING ISSUES
The way we breathe has a significant impact on our posture, mobility, and gait pattern. A less-than-optimal breathing pattern causes tension and immobility, and immobility and tension prevent optimal breathing. As a result, breathing quality has the power to influence all aspects of our health and wellness, from how we feel and think, to how we sit, stand, and move.
Unlike most physiological functions, breathing can be controlled voluntarily and can serve as an entry point for physiological and psychological regulation. Improving respiratory efficiency from learning targeting breathing techniques will improve performance, enhance posture, reduce pain, and balance pressure, thus helping you move more efficiently and effectively.
Improving your breathing efficiently involves establishing a zone of apposition (ZOA). The Zone of Apposition is defined as the area of attachment between the diaphragm directly behind the inner aspect of the lower chest wall and rib cage. The internal obliques and lower abdominals help establish the ZOA. When the abdominals do not oppose the diaphragm effectively, hyperinflation results. Hyperinflation can lead to postural imbalance, pain, and dysfunction.
Schedule a visit to assess your breathing and change the way you move.
CHRONIC
PAIN
Sometimes acute pain can turn chronic and requires a fresh approach to treatment. Looking for the underlying source of continued pain can help identify effective treatment strategies. In addition to MDT and PRI treatment strategies, the tissues involved require closer evaluation.
Graston techniques, myofascial release, and manual therapy can be used to restore tissue and joint mobility. Postural stress, life stressors and alignment may need to be addressed to achieve optimal results. In addition, low level aerobic activities have also been shown to help decrease chronic pain over time.
Using multiple strategies, you can learn to manage your symptoms can improve your quality of life. Each person’s journey will be unique in their recovery.
HYPERMOBILITY
Often, people with hypermobility issues are used to being in pain. People with EDS, HSD, POTS, dysautonomia, MCAS, and other disorders often experience joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, fatigue, cognitive issues, heart rate variability and dizziness, among other symptoms.
Persons with hypermobility issues benefit from specific types of exercises to help them gain stability and core strength, improve grounding and prevent future injury. In addition, learning pacing techniques, postural training and support, lifestyle modification, assistive devices, pain relieving techniques and grade aerobic conditioning can assist people to improve mobility and enhance their quality of life.
Through education and collaboration, we can find solutions to your movement needs.
POSTURAL
ALIGNMENT
The body is not symmetrical. The right side and left side of our body function differently and our diaphragm is bigger and stronger in the right side. In addition, the right side of the diaphragm has more attachments to the spine than the left side. These asymmetries influence how we move and adapt our posture over time. Often, we can get stuck in non-optimal patterns of postural compensation and that can lead to pain and dysfunction.
Postural Restoration Certified (PRC) therapists recognize these asymmetries and patterns and have specific strategies to optimize movement patterns. Postural restoration physical therapy uses non-manual and manual techniques to address these imbalances, bring systems back into alignment to help the body move more efficiently with less pain.
Schedule an evaluation today and regain a balanced posture to help you return to life.
NERVOUS SYSTEM SENSITIVITY
Common patterns of muscular, mechanical, and sensory dysfunction can lead to nervous system hypersensitivity. If a person’s nervous system is heightened, it will be difficult to rest, relax, digest, and restore.
Nervous system sensitivity can also make movement challenging and contribute to difficulty sleeping. Learning self-regulation techniques allows your nervous system to function more optimally by increasing parasympathetic nervous system activity. Strategies that support a regulated nervous system can include exercise, appropriate shoe wear, grounding techniques and breathing strategies.
Schedule a visit to discover what strategies are right for you.
SPINAL
CONDITIONS
Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine conditions can decrease your ability to function. Often diagnoses like disc herniations, sciatica, degenerative disc disease, radicular pain, stenosis, SI joint dysfunction and facet syndrome can cause severe pain and movement limitations. Many times, these conditions are mechanical in nature.
Performing a full McKenzie Mechanical Diagnostic Evaluation and Treatment (MDT) of spinal movement helps determine a person’s directional preference and can centralize pain back to the source.
The treatment principles of the McKenzie Method promote the body’s potential to repair itself, helps restore motion and teach people specific activities to control their symptom. MDT can get you back into life quickly and efficiently and promotes lifelong strategies to prevent your symptoms from returning.
Schedule an evaluation today and find out if MDT is right for you.
RIB CAGE
DYSFUNCTION
Lack of movement and expansion in your rib cage can lead to pain, dysfunction, and limit your breathing efficiency. When you inhale the rib cage should expand and externally rotate. When you exhale, your rib cage should depress and internally rotate. Patterns of postural compensation can contribute to the rib cage getting stuck in a state of inhalation on the left side (ribs elevated and externally rotated) and in a state of exhalation on the right (ribs in internal rotation and depressed). This can lead to further postural compensation, pain, and limit your trunk’s ability to rotate.
Limited trunk rotation can put more stress and strain on the lumbar spine and lead to disc issues and muscle tightness. Restoring motion in the rib cage can assist in restoring reciprocal and alternating movement.
In addition, individual ribs can get stuck out of position and result in irritation of the intercostals and surrounding structures. Manual therapy, along with taping and bracing, may be required to restore proper alignment and reduce pain.
Schedule a visit to determine if targeted therapy to the rib cage is right for you.