Is your exercise program getting harder? Or just regular activities taking more out of you? Have you lost your bounce?
Stress, and the inability to relax and recover, can wear you down over time. Crooked posture will make you work harder just to stand up, and when exercising or doing chores. Activities that used to be simple become more difficult, and take more out of us. But you can re-learn to deeply relax and recover. Both Bowen therapy and Postural Alignment will improve your ability to perform, whether in competitive sports or handling day-to-day tasks.
How’s Your Posture? We’re not talking about your mother poking between your shoulder blades and saying, “stand up straight!” Instead, if your entire skeleton is aligned, you will settle into erect posture. This allows optimal use of your existing strength and capacity.
Really? Does being crooked matter? Let’s experiment. The human head weighs about 10-11 pounds. That’s about 1¼ gallons of water. To make this easy, get a full gallon jug of water. Stand up (or try this one sitting at your desk!), and hold the jug with two hands, extending your arms straight out. Start counting…notice what parts of your body are being used to hold that jug out there. How much work is your lower back doing? Stop when you start to think “this is the wrong way to carry a jug of water.” Immediately, bring the jug straight to your chest. Notice the difference. Not so hard, is it?
When our posture is aligned, our ear, shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle can be seen to be stacked, one above and below the other, when viewed from the side. This makes us move with ease and minimal energy – and without pain.
When you exercise – whether it is competitive running, cycling, or weight lifting, or you’re chasing a toddler or carrying grocery bags, you accentuate all these imbalances. It’s like you’re moving that jug of water around all day long. A sure sign your body is out of alignment is that only one knee consistently hurts, or your head can turn more to one side than the other.
Postural alignment exercises will put your body back in alignment. These gentle exercises realign the body, recruiting parallel muscles to work equally. This reduces the effort necessary for your exercise, or household tasks, as the various parts of your body work in harmony.
Bowen Therapy restores the body’s ability to heal, allowing you to connect to your parasympathetic nervous system, escaping from the fight and flight stress response of your sympathetic nervous system. But periodic Bowen increases your ability to bounce back from physical stress, by gently reminding your body how to relax. One athlete has described how it shortened his recovery time between competitions. Many Bowen therapy clients know how a busy Saturday in the garden used to mean a sprung back or deep soreness the next day, but with Bowen they are ready to go the day afterwards. Everyone can bring this improved energy, relaxation, and flexibility that Bowen therapy bring to everyday life.