I know, the title is probably throwing you off since I’m a chiropractor and alignment may be why you see a chiropractor in the first place. However, hear me out for a few short minutes as I attempt to make you feel a whole lot better about your spine health and/or any pain you may be experiencing.
“Alignment” is a term that is used often about what a chiropractic adjustment can help with. Although, what exactly *is* perfect alignment? Is there such a thing?
The short of it — no, there is no such thing as “perfect alignment”.
Think about it… do you think that your spine can or should look like someone else’s? Why? Someone else has experienced life incredibly different than you — different accidents, falls, injuries, sports or no sport playing, illnesses, genetics, development… how can you standardize something that’s so variable?
You just… can’t.
Also, if we think that we can “correct your alignment” with some simple adjustments that have a little pressure followed by a popping noise, you may want to think again. That would mean every time you fell, stretched, lifted weights, did manual labor, got in car accidents, did yoga, sneezed, or danced… our spine would "go out of alignment"; when in fact, that doesn’t happen at all.
There have even been recorded cases of surgeries performed to correct severe scoliosis that fail because the spine ends up bending the metal rods surgically placed in the back. Yeah... your back is THAT strong.
Your spine includes intervertebral discs, which are gelatinous fluid filled sacs located in between your vertebrae to lubricate your spine FOR movement purposes, along with tons of surrounding musculature, ligaments, tendons, and other connective tissues for structural support throughout movement. Because of all of these things working together in our bodies to support our frame, we can withstand doing things like squatting our bodyweight on our back, deadlifting 3-4x our bodyweight, pull 18 wheelers with a rope, run marathons in 2 hours, ski down double black diamond slopes, run up and down mountains, and even try bungee jumping with NO pain or alignment issues.
Instead of using adjustments to help with your alignment, I utilize adjustments instead to help increase range of motion, decrease pain, and relieve that sensation of tight musculature to certain areas. It can be a great starting point to alleviating pain in combination with stretches and exercises to build up your tolerance to doing more, so we can reduce the likelihood of your complaint resurfacing.
Our bodies are anything but fragile, though it can feel like that when we’re in pain.
If you’re struggling with pain and looking for help, fill out the contact form and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
Let’s get you to hurt less, so you can do more.