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.

Implicit Bias

Based on what we have learned and experienced over the years, we may have developed some negative stereotypes towards groups and/or individuals. This is defined as implicit bias. In the 4 minute podcast with Alexis Johnson, she states that you can retrain your brain to see people differently. However, it takes a long period of time to actually do that.

It is interesting to see how our brains focus on certain bits of information in order to process things quicker. Like the implicit bias test I took, it wanted me to answer as fast as I could to see if my brain could keep up with the pace. Sometimes my brain would get ahead and cause my finger to hit the incorrect key. Same goes for the exercise given in the "4-Minute Listen" podcast. The start of the test administered, had phrases and to those phrases were answers that all seemed to rhyme with one another. When it came to  the phrase "the white part of the egg is called the..." Ailsa (podcaster) answered with the word yolk, when actually the answer was an egg white. Her brain didn't think about that fully, because each answer prior to had a connection and rhymed. I find it interesting that this exercise is used for implicit bias.

In the field of OT, it is important for us to challenge ourselves. We are human, but we want to train ourselves to remain open and overcome certain biases we may have.

Scapulohumeral Rhythm

Scapulohumeral rhythm is based on the ratio of movement between the scapula and humerus. For full ROM (range of motion), the humeral head must rotate laterally. It is important for the therapist to pay close attention to this movement. The glenoid fossa needs to maintain a good position in order to move correctly on the head of the humerus. By moving the scapula with one hand and the humerus with the other, the therapist is able to check and see if both are moving simultaneously. If not, this could be caused by impingement, where the scapula would not be able to participate in upward rotation. If the scapula doesn't move at all, that could also be another sign of impingement. Both cause pain for the client.
 Joint congruency results in decreased shear forces of both the glenohumeral joint and scapulothoracic joint. The ratio of both are 1:2 - where every 3° of shoulder movement, there is 1° of scapuloothoracic motion and 2° of glenohumeral motion. For example, shoulder flexion of 180° would be calculated as 120° of glenohumeral movement and 60° of scapulothoracic movement. To maintain pain-free scapulohumeral rhythm, the muscles and their movements must remain normal and in good-length.

Conceptual Model of Occupational Therapy

I decided to create a video for my conceptual model project! I hope you enjoy!

Please click the link below:

https://www.powtoon.com/m/diYZQVmwnMC/1/m?utm_source=email

Biomechanics Blog 2 - Test Positioning

When measuring range of motion (ROM), it is important to palpate for bony landmarks on the client. It is best we do that, in order for us to feel where each arm of the goniometer should be placed to get a more accurate number for ROM. That way, documentation would add up correctly.

The purpose of the "test position" in MMT, is to place our client where their muscle(s) are positioned for optimal muscle contraction. MMT measures strength in MID range. We use MMT to determine weak muscles, which can cause difficulty in the clients daily life and can cause more harm as they start compensating movements. We also use it for data collection to determine baselines, repeated measurements, and decrease the cause of dysfunction that could be happening. We want to make sure our treatment plan is working.