Introduction
One of my joys in life is teaching the PosturePro method to people around the world. I’ve been in the fitness, rehab and healthcare field for more than 12 years. And when you have been in an industry that long, it’s very hard to feel impressed by anything.
But the PosturePro method (what we call “Posture Therapy” at Genesis Gym) is truly light years ahead of any rehab method out there.
If it was not so, I wouldn’t waste time attaching my name and company reputation to it. And I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable travelling around the world to teach it!
After all, as Benjamin Franklin said, “It takes many good deeds to build a reputation but only one bad one to lose it.”
Simply put, it is the only system of therapy that takes the brain into account when trying to remove the root causes of pain and injury.
Note: For a more detailed explanation of how Genesis Posture Therapy works, check out my article “How to Get Posture a Ballet Dancer Would Envy”.
After all, bones are aligned by the pull of muscles, and muscles are under the control of our brains. If our brains send bad signals to muscles, there is no way to get aligned bones.
Posture Therapy is the only way to fix the brain so that we get perfect alignment.
This leads to removal of chronic pain. Increases in strength and massive reduction of injury risk.
But there are common problems that are obstacles on your journey to perfect posture. I see these in the patients our team helps. Here are three very common problems and how you can
Poor Shoe Choices
It is common for a patient for achieve near perfect alignment during our first session. Only to lose the alignment once they go about their daily tasks at work or at home. This has NOTHING to do with their work desk, their work chair, or their high heel shoes.
Your foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 20 muscles (in 4 layers). It is designed for strength and power to run, as well as to give precise data to your brain about what the body and the ground are doing.
The softness and supportive nature of most shoes give your feet a poor perception of the ground – so your brain doesn’t get good information to give you perfect alignment.
Any arch support over 3mm touches the skin of your foot. It does two bad things. It blocks your foot from fully flattening out to push through your big toe to walk or run. And it also presses into the pressure sensors of your foot’s skin. Again giving unnatural signals to your brain, thus affecting perfect alignment.
Finally, many people wear shoes that are too small and/or compress their toes together. The muscles and ligaments of the foot also perceive this compression as a unnatural signal and this will turn off muscles further up your body and affect alignment.
How to choose shoes
- Correct size: Put your foot on top of the shoe with your heel all the way to the back. There should be at least one finger space between the end of your foot and the end of the shoe. Also, the toes should be free to move!
- Flat on the inside: No arch supports.
- Flexible: The middle of the shoe should be bendable so your foot has freedom of movement.
- Shoes I have seen good success with aqua shoes and barefoot shoes. They meet all the above criteria.
Tooth Fillings
You probably know that your brain communicates with your muscles through nerves, and what passes through nerves are small electrical charges.
Unfortunately tooth fillings are often metals which also conduct electrical charges. These can disrupt nerve signals leading to misalignment especially in the neck and jaw.
However the jaw muscles are also connected to the shoulders, which often get misaligned and get increased injury risk.
The best way is to replace any metallic fillings with ceramic ones with a qualified dentist. But even if you don’t do this, you will need to discharge the fillings’ electrical charge so it doesn’t affect your nerves. This can be done as part of our posture therapy consultations.
Uneven Spectacles
We know that in Singapore many people start wearing glasses even from an early age. I too was a kid who needed glasses. And when I played sports they often got dropped, bumped or hit by balls. This often twists the spectacles.
The problem is that twisted spectacles make your eyes focus on points which are not exactly the same on both sides of the head. The brain gets uneven signals from the eyes, and that means uneven alignment of the shoulders as well.
Conclusion
These are 3 things we don’t often think about when talking about good posture. Yet, they can be so problematic that if not resolved, patients may not get the complete, permanent results that are usually achieved by Genesis Posture Therapy! Hope this article helps you choose good shoes, avoid dental fillings, and keep your spectacles in line!
How can I start on Genesis Posture Therapy?
If you have any kind of nagging aches and pains that don’t seem to go away with stretching, massage or other kinds of therapy, then your brain control of alignment is almost always the root cause of the problem. Only Genesis Posture Therapy is able to fix this. Click the button below to get started.
To your continued strength, health and perfect posture,
Coach Jonathan Wong
Director,
Genesis Gym Singapore