How to test if you have good posture

We all know that we need good posture.  So today I wanted to share with you how to test if you have good posture.

The Wall Test – Stand with the back of your head touching the wall and your heels six inches from the baseboard. With your buttocks touching the wall, check the distance with your hand between your lower back and the wall, and your neck and the wall. If you can get within an inch or two at the low back and two inches at the neck, you are close to having excellent posture. If not, your posture may need professional attention to restore the normal curves of your spine.

The ‘Jump’ Test – Feel the muscles of your neck and shoulders. Do you find areas that are tender and sensitive? Are the buttock muscles sore when you apply pressure? What about the chest muscles?

If any of your muscles feel tight, sore or achy then why not book in for a massage.

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  • Why do runners to get injured?

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  • So how does massage help “tired” muscles?

    Many clients come to our clinics a few days after vigorous work outs or competing in sporting competition because their legs feel tried or heavy.  These clients often book a sports massage, but is their any scientific evidence to explain what is happening in the body during the treatment? Massage dilates superficial blood vessels and increases the rate of blood flow.  In addition if a deeper pressure is used like in sports or deep tissue massage on a healthy adult it improves the venous return.  Both of these changes to the blood flow represent a potent means to accelerate healing.  For example, it suggests that massage should improve the performance of fatigued muscles.  In addition, Goats asserts that massaged muscle fibres display less spasm, an increased force of contraction and enhanced endurance compared with muscles simply rested.  Which suggests that massage will assist in the improvement of sporting performance where it has been compromised. References Scull CD (1945) Massage - Physiologic Basis.  Archive of Physical Medicine 26: 159-67 Wilkins RW, Halperin MH, Litter J. (1950)  The effects of various physical procedures on circulation in human limbs.  Ann Intern Med 33: 1232-45 Goats GC (1994) Massage - the scientific basis of an ancient art: part 2.  Physiological and therapeutic effects Br J Sp Med 28(3)

  • How does NMT work?

    I previously explain what NMT or Neuromuscular Technique is.  In this blog post I want to focus on how NMT works. With NMT when the static pressure is applied to the muscle, a message is sent from the muscles (via the golgi tendons & the muscles spindles both of which are part of the nervous system) to the brain and then the muscle relaxes.  Within the muscles

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    • Muscle spindles respond to the length of the muscle
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