Posture is the outward expression of your self-image to the world. That might seem like a fairly esoteric thing to say but consider this; your posture as a child, was excellent. Almost every pre-adolescent child you see moves extremely fluidly, with their head right on top of their shoulders. And this posture required zero conscious effort. No will power whatsoever had to be exerted to maintain it…

…so what happened???

As children enter adolescence they begin to have an idea of how they’re “supposed” to look. Skinny waists and expansive chests are what’s attractive. A “lady” sits with her legs closed. Some … Read More »

In the last blog we discussed how posture is largely a function of how aroused your brain is. The higher level of activity your brain is currently working at the more upright and, generally, relaxed your posture is. There’s another important component to brain function though and that’s body awareness. Essentially, the ability to feel your body. The ability to execute different movements, the ability to relax, knowing where you are in space, are all functions of body awareness, and these can all be trained. Individuals with poor awareness of certain body parts will almost always have distorted muscle tone, … Read More »

Very few people think of posture and muscle tone as being a function of brain activity. But it’s absolutely true. If a muscle is contracting, it’s because your nervous system is telling it to. To exemplify this let’s look at a few different situations of varying brain states:

The newborn state:

At this point only the very basic neurological structures to keep you alive have yet developed. You have not learned how to move or to resist gravity and your posture is … Read More »

In the last blog we discussed how nociception, your body’s stress signal, can increase muscle tone completely independent of any conscious pain experience. The next reason for increased muscle tone is joint instability. For instance, if the ligaments surrounding a joint aren’t doing their job well enough, due to injury or general laxity, then the muscles around that joint are going to tighten up to keep that area stable. A far more common reason for instability, though, is muscular inhibition. If the primary stabilizing muscles around a joint aren’t doing their job, then secondary stabilizing muscles are going to increase … Read More »

Why do muscles tighten? Almost everyone has excess muscle tension that they’re carrying. It’s a major complaint in chiropractic and massage therapy offices. It’s also the target of most therapies and muscle overuse is almost ubiquitously blamed as being the cause of clients’ pain. However, a muscle only ever contracts if the nervous system tells it to; and the nervous system can just as easily release that contraction and allow the muscle to relax. The question that has to be asked before you ever blame a muscle for being tight is “Why is the nervous system telling that muscle to … Read More »

In part two we discussed the concept of central sensitization and how over time a smaller and smaller stimulus was necessary to create the same pain experience.

Another process that occurs as chronic pain continues is a gradual loss of body awareness. What I mean by this is your ability to really feel that part of your body. Your ability to relax a muscle or to activate a muscle or make very smooth or minute movements are all a function of your body awareness. As chronic pain continues and your body awareness decreases muscle tone (muscle tension) around that area … Read More »

In part one we discussed the different components of a pain experience, the role fear can play in pain and how your brain prioritizes your pain experience based on different contexts.

Another phenomenon that is highly characteristic of chronic pain is called central sensitization. Basically, the more frequent a certain neural pathway is stimulated, the stronger that pathway becomes. Just like learning a skill, the more you repeat that skill the easier it becomes and the more efficient your nervous system becomes at it. Unfortunately, this is equally true for pain. What this means … Read More »

Chronic pain is very different from acute pain. With acute pain, you injure an area, it swells, it hurts, movement makes it worse, rest and nsaids make it better, the tissue heals and the pain goes away. Simple.

With chronic pain the pain doesn’t go away; at least not permanently. It goes away, it comes back, it gets worse, it stops making sense, nothing seems to make it better, everything makes it worse, you may lose your sense of control and the process continues.

But first lets start with a couple definitions.

Nociceptor: A sensory receptor that detects actual or potential tissue damage.

Pain: … Read More »