Blame the Brain

A poorly aligned body uses inappropriate muscle activity to move resulting in mechanically inefficient movement of the joints and leading to potential injury. When talking about actual prevention, posture can not longer be overlooked.

Tonic posture is the resultant of sensory input being processed by the central computer, the brain! The quality of movement is determined by the tonic muscular system. So you can’t actually try harder to have good posture, as tonic muscle are under the influence of the sensory input received by various ‘sensors’ of the body.

Based on recent neuroscientific findings, it is known that not only the inner ear but also the eyes, feet and jaw truly position us in space, giving us proper spatial awareness and equilibrium. It is possible to change someone’s faulty motor patterns by stimulating 4 key sensory receptors: the feet, eyes, jaw, and the skin.

• The skin of the feet tell the brain where the body is on the ground (1).
• The eye muscles telegraph the position of the head to the brain (2).

Sensory systems provide information to the brain/body concerning its own state and that of its surroundings. This information is transferred from sensory receptors to the central nervous system via afferent (sensory nerve) pathways.

On a sensory level, the foot is exemplified as an exteroceptor (the sole of the foot) and as a proprioceptor (composed of muscles, tendons and joints). Unfortunately, many people have feet that do not rest evenly on the ground and eyes that do not track symmetrically. When feet are uneven on the ground, an entire body will be uneven.

Trying to correct posture through exercise involves the same faulty motor patterns which are guided by a poor sense of proprioception (body awareness). If we can unknowingly get ourselves into bad posture habits, how are we to know the way out of it? Exercises does not change habits – they re-enforce them!

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