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The Importance of Alignment for Better Balance

Without balance, life would be exceedingly difficult

Fortunately, we innately know how to balance. But that doesn't mean we should take such an incredible human process for granted- learning more about balance is a signal way of improving wellness, preventing injury and optimizing function. Balance keeps us upright and centered; it has implications in every movement we make. So how can we start paying more attention to balance to improve our wellbeing? Alignment is a good place to start. Read on to find out more.

Peak Balance: Chiropractic for Athletic Success

Chiropractic focuses on maximizing your biomechanical ability in the context of your sport

Whether you are a dedicated gym rat, a hardcore runner, or someone who barely has time to stretch, chiropractic can help improve the way your body responds to the physical stresses you choose and how you feel afterwards. At Bay Area Spine Care Office, we focus on helping athletes in the following areas:

Improving joint mobility to protect and promote pain-free movement
Preventing injury by balancing your body

Today, we are going to focus on balance: your innate ability to control equilibrium and stability. It incorporates musculoskeletal stability as well as the proprioreceptive system, which allows your muscles to communicate with the nervous system, helping to define exactly where you are within space. Both internal and external balance are key factors in any athlete's pursuit of perfection.

Activating Your Glutes Post-Sitting

After you sit for an extended period of time, be sure to wake up the muscles that matter

Everyone knows that sitting too much is bad for our health. But for those of us that sit for a living, it is hardly to be avoided. Which means that we must pay special attention to the muscles which suffer when we sit. For the purpose of this blog, we will focus on the three most endangered:

Glutes
Hamstrings
Hip flexors

After a long day of sitting, you need to wake up your butt to reactive its ability to support your spine and biomechanical movement. How do you go about this?

When to Choose Flexion-Based Exercise

Flexion-based exercises are useful if you know how to use them

Depending on the type of back pain you are experiencing, flexion may be the right choice for you. Flexion refers to bending forward, and incorporates a number of stretches, exercises and modalities that can help relieve pain, especially for people suffering from exaggerated curvature of the lower back, anterior pelvic tilt and weakness in the core. These three factors are present in people who spend all day in a single position, especially standing. With this posture (essentially: butt and belly stuck out in opposite directions), the spine is suffering from a lack of support at its very base. Flexion seeks to retrain your body into a more healthy posture, while strengthening the muscles that matter for maintaining this position.

You should not perform flexion if you are suffering from:

Severe acute or chronic back pain
Sciatica-like symptoms
Herniated discs

It is likely that the bending-forward motion could actually worsen your condition. Otherwise, read on to find out how flexion could benefit you.

Avoiding the Muscle Fatigue of Standing All Day

Standing = muscle fatigue

It's undeniable. Anyone who has had to stand, maintaining more or less the same position, for hours on end can attest to it: standing simply hurts. The human body detests static posture- even if you were able to maintain "perfect," neutral posture while you stood, your spine would still suffer from lack of circulation and compression, while your muscles would weaken and give in to fatigue. This potent combination then diminishes your body's capacity to maintain good posture in the first place, which is why many of us give in to leaning, stretching, sitting or just about any other position to find relief for those muscles. So what if you do have to stand all day, for a living say? Make sure you take steps to look out for your spine: