Have you taken a look at the way your children spend their time sitting when they play? If you’re like a lot of parents, you might just be happy that they are finally sitting down, but the way they are sitting is important!
I primarily want to take a moment and focus on the W sitting. You’ve probably seen kids sitting on their tush, with their knees in front of them, and the feet sticking out on either side.There are a few reason why this is a habit you should break right away!
1. Sensation Development! As you develop there are certain steps that you should go through that allow your body to create healthy movement patterns. These include the way you sit up, the way you roll over, the way you start to crawl and eventually walk. By sitting in the W position you alter the movement patterns you learn. Think of it this way, if you’re sitting on your knees or squatting and you want to reach for a toy, your body will fire in a very predictable way. If you’re sitting in a W, when you go to reach for that toy you will have to use a completely different set of muscles and you will be unable to turn your trunk in a normal pattern.
2. Bone Growth: We all know that kids bones are still growing. At the most important areas for growth their bones are made of a softer, more mobile tissue. If you repeatedly sit in the W pattern, there is a good chance your child may have some changes in the way their bones develop. (I’m a prime example of this actually. My leg bones are definitely twisted!)
3. Long term pelvis position: By changing the bone shape and the pattern in which their muscles fire, you’ll likely see some very serious adaptations in gait. The way a person walks will long affect the way they sit, drive, run, and ultimately may affect their pain patterns.
So from now on, every time you see a child sitting in the W position, take a moment to tell them that its not good for them! Or to chat with their mother! In the long run, the small amount of effort it will take to change these patterns now will save the child a lot of work and pain in the future!
RockDoc
Following up on previous KinesioTape discussion, I wanted to share about the different brands, and why I use Rock Tape and their techniques over the KT tape or the KinesioTape brands.
Throughout school, we primarily used a system of taping that involved taping muscles to essentially turn them on or off. The idea being that you can utilize the touch receptors in your skin to cause a change in the muscle associated with that area of skin. I may still use this technique depending on your diagnosis. However since school ended, I have started to become fascinated with the actual movement PATTERNS of the body. This switch in my brain changed after meeting another chiropractor, Megan. We have since become great friends.I’m sure she’ll come up often in the future.
We attended a course held at Duke Integrative PT clinic in Durham that was taught by Perry Nickleston and Rock Tape. The differences between how they use the tape and how I was taught was incredible! Instead of using it to help specific muscles, they factor in a lot of details to help your body alter it’s entire movement pattern. The goal here is to help your body make long term, larger changes to truly STOP the repetitive pain cycle.
I’m not going to go into details about how the tape works. I think its often something you need to experience for yourself, and I’ll definitely explain it as I use it. I guess the point of today’s post is that if you’ve tried tape before, and it hasn’t worked…. maybe its not being applied properly, so let’s try it again!
Is it time to clean up your diet and get HEALTHY! Are you suffering from mild aches, pains, general fatigue or unexplained illnesses? Are you looking to start better habits and start taking care of yourself? If you don’t make any changes now, where will your health be in 1 year or 5 years?
