Posture and Body Mechanics

How is your posture when you are lifting a box or sitting on the couch watching TV? Body mechanics is actually an important concept when it comes to posture. Several people experience back pain throughout their life and that could be due to bad posture, faulty body mechanics, lack of exercise, and stressful situations. A few statistical facts that I found interesting, are 80% of the adult population will have low back pain at some point in their life. Along with 90% of the time the low back pain will reoccur. Typically the peak age for this to happen is around 30-50 years old. One fact that stood out to me, is that 90% of the population has bulging discs. How crazy is that!? When it comes to assisting a client, it is very important they practice proper body mechanics. We want to prevent them from having disc injury (bulging/herniation), reoccurring pain, back issues that limit their ability to work (which can be costly) and that can limit them from doing their ADLs. 

There are two ways I would teach my client in an intervention, one being the slouch-overcorrect technique to correct posture. For this exercise, you lean forward by taking your arms down your legs and creating "bad posture," then slide arms back up the legs and straighten the spine into the best posture position. Secondly, I would have them stand frequently and do back extensions. I would also recommend that they place a pillow or towel roll behind them, if they don't have a ergonomic seat, to help with posture.

Advertisement + The Human Nervous System

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7I3z/1-800-beaches-best-time-of-all-song-by-onerepublic 

I am sure you have seen the “Sandals” or “Beaches” commercials where the couples look so happy and relaxed, the beaches themselves look amazing, and the commercial itself is typically synced to some up-beat music. They even have the Sesame Street characters on there! It just makes me not only wish I was there, but it also puts me in a good mood. The reason it stands out to me, is because since I was little, I have always had the opportunity to be at the beach every summer. It is my favorite place to be, because I feel like I can just breathe easier, relax, and just watch the world go by. It is just something about that salty air that makes things better! I have never been to an all-inclusive resort such as this, but that will change one of these days! :)

I am telling you how I feel after watching this commercial, because I want to relate it to the human nervous system.

"Man from the South"

Biomechanics Blog 4:

The story "Man from the South," it based around a U.S. naval soldier that was in training, a man from South America and a local man that is from Jamaica who is narrating and watching the "bet" between the two. The man from South America was trying to get the U.S. soldier to place a bet with him, based on the boys lighter would light 10 times in a row. The thing was, if the U.S. soldier won, he would get the South American man's Cadillac. However, if the boy was to lose, then he would have his pinky finger chopped off by the South American man. On the eighth strike of the lighter, a woman comes charging in and ends the bet. She states how he has done this numerous times and they have had to move, because of people threatening to put him away. Concluding the story, it makes mention that the woman has only 2 fingers left on her hand, because she won it all from him and that Cadillac he was betting was actually hers.

I found this story to be actually interesting.