ReAlignment: The Magic Formula for Life?

Our body is a unique and amazing machine. However, occasionally it can develop habits that enable it to still perform a function, regardless of pain, injury or weakness. Your body will always try to do what you ask of it, its almost too good at saying yes, like a people pleaser. Giving and giving until one day it gives up. It’ll perform the function the best it can even if its not a healthy way to do it.

We call these compensation patterns.

If a muscle, or muscle group is performing an action that it was not designed to do, potentially picking up ‘the slack’ of a weak or injured area. It will slowly become overworked and can result in further dysfunction, pain or create more compensation patterns, like a domino effect.

Compensation patterns can develop over months or over years, but can be rehabilitated with specific strength training, mobility and soft tissue therapy.

OK, so now I know what a compensation pattern is, but I still don’t understand how I woke up injured or with severe pain?

Great now let me paint the whole picture for you…

You work at a desk, 40+ hours a week (this doesn’t include any sitting from driving, eating, socializing or relaxing). You always feel tight and stiff, especially in the morning, but it’s nothing that stops you from doing what you want, or any of your activities so its ok.

This week has been stressful, there’s a deadline due, you had a lot going on at home, the dog was sick, kept you up all night so you haven’t been sleeping that well either.

Thursday night was work drinks, so another late night, then you felt a bit dehydrated and hungover Friday morning. Then the weekend rolls around and you get outdoors for an epic bike ride, followed by a long hike with friends, and maybe some lake time.

Sounds not too bad right?

Here is what I see…Your soft tissue is tight and dehydrated from a weeks worth of computer time at your desk, which you then topped off with that epic bike ride and long hike on the weekend, followed by a few beers during the week, and some sun time at the lake. You didn’t hydrate, refuel, stretch or foam roll before bed at all this week, because you forgot, were too tired or just couldn’t be bothered.

All that adds up, and you bet there’s a high chance you will wake up feeling pretty lousy.

Now imagine that this is your ‘norm’. You don’t have a self-care routine that regularly address your soft tissue. Also maybe you also don’t ever get regular massages or any manual therapy to help keep your body feeling mobile. Because you only go and see a therapist when you are in pain right?

This lack of self care, over the long term, will start to create misalignment and compensation pattern that will eventually lead to pain and/or injuries.

The above story is a typical lifestyle pattern that has lots of areas needing attention to create better health and a happier body, but I want to explain a little further how those habits result in muscle imbalances, compensation patterns and eventually pain.

From sitting at your desk for work, your hip flexors will tighten and shorten. Your glutes and core will get tired and weak from lack of use. Then your quads will tighten, and you wont even notice, but I bet you will notice the tight hamstrings, these guys decided to join the party because they’ve now got no room to move against the excessive tightness in your hip flexors and quads, so they’ll feel tight, even though they are overstretched.

Now go for that epic ride (which is more sitting) and that long hike, and let me know if your knees and lower back got sore by the end of the day, yes? Good chance that’s because you’re now operating as quad dominant with little or no support from your glutes, which means the knee joint is getting overloaded and starts to break down. The downhill is the worst right?

How about you lower back? Bit sore too huh? That’s because your core was having a siesta from disuse at the office and decided to extend that into the weekend, so no core means more load through the back, especially the spine, yikes! And since the glutes aren’t helping to support either that’s more load on the back and the front of your legs.

This is just one example of a compensation pattern (tight overactive hip flexors and quads, weak core and glutes) that leads to misalignment (anterior pelvic tilt, knee hyperextension, decreased ankle mobility and upper cross syndrome) which eventually can lead to pain and dysfunction and sometimes immobility.

Crazy huh… it sounds pretty overwhelming doesn’t it, and unfortunately there are numerous versions and stories that go just like that.

The good news is, it does not have to be this way.

As I mentioned earlier, compensation and misalignment can be fixed with manual therapy, specific exercises, a regular self care routine and lifestyle and behaviour modifications.

When we discuss our findings and compensation patterns with our clients, most of the time they are shocked and surprised at how their choices and habits are in fact creating and contributing to their pain.

You cannot be at fault for not knowing that your lifestyle and habits are creating issues or pain. But you can recognize discomfort and take control by seeking out help and instilling an attitude towards better health and self care.

However, once you are educated and made aware on what is potentially happening with your body, it is up to you to fix it. Taking responsibility and being accountable to yourself is what ultimately shifts the narrative around pain and compensation patterns.

I often say to my clients, that I’m not here to fix you. It is usually met with a confused face. And I understand why. We seek out health professionals to ‘fix us’, but when we have an expectation like this, we are inadvertently shifting the responsibility to someone else to do the work, and make the change for us.

A health professional’s role is to help guide you, support you and educate you.

They do this by giving you knowledge about your situation, providing feedback about your progression and to educate you on the best course of action. This will include treating you with manual therapy, medication, prescribing exercises and referring you to other, maybe better suited professionals.

Basically using their education and experience to help steer you towards success.

Outside their time with you, you are with your body the rest of the time, so it’s in those periods where the most change and transformation can and should take place.

Recognizing that your time and effort towards your body and health is in your hands, not a health professional’s, is the most important step in fixing yourself.

With that in mind, here are my top 6 recommendations that Kyle and I use to stay as healthy as we can: