Posture, Part 2... The Muscle Spindle!

Last time we covered some basics on the importance of posture, including how most of us have bad posture due to our constant habits.  I briefly mentioned the altered lengths/positions of the muscles and soft tissue surrounding our neck.  Today we'll be hitting that concept more in depth.  Within this altered musculature resides the muscle spindle.

Think of the muscle spindle as being your body's sophisticated measuring tape.  Within each muscle (in fact, within every muscle fiber of every muscle) we have this amazing measuring tape, constantly keeping track of the changes in muscle length.  This information is sent to our brain (specifically, the cerebellum) via afferent nerve pathways.  The cerebellum allows us to have the ability known as "Proprioception".

Proprioception enables us to know where we are in space (no, not outer space).  In other words, when we close our eyes, we should still be able to fairly accurately know exactly where one part of our body is, relative to the rest of our body.  As an example, when police suspect a drunk driver, they administer the eyes closed, finger to nose test-- alcohol impairs proprioception, and the drunk driver is fairly inaccurate.

So what does any of this have to do with posture?  Hang with me, I'm getting there!  We just considered the example of the drunk driver, showing that our proprioception can be diminished.  So we see that proprioception isn't always automatic; it can be lost.  Another way our proprioception can be reduced happens when our muscle spindles have been altered.  What do I mean?  Remember the altered lengths in the muscles that occurs when we have bad posture?  Recall that the muscles behind the cervical (neck) spine become chronically lengthened, and the muscles in front become chronically shortened.  BOTH the chronic lengthening and the chronic shortening of these muscles impairs, to some degree (depending on the severity), the ability of the muscle spindles to send the "measuring tape" message to our cerebellum.

The reason this is so important is due to the fact that there is a meaningful neurological pathway from the cerebellum to the frontal lobe of our brain.  As our cerebellum is adequately stimulated, it will in turn stimulate the frontal lobe.  The frontal lobe is what primarily makes up our personality.  It is very service-oriented.  It is responsible for thinking at a more intelligent, cognitive level.

So can you think of the neurological consequences of having bad posture?  I'll bet you could if you took a moment to piece the puzzle together.  Here's the sequential steps you should be considering:

1. A consistent, bad posture.
2. Chronically lengthened posterior muscles and chronically shortened anterior muscles.
3. Headaches, Neck pain, Shoulder pain, Low back pain.
• In addition to diminished abilities of our muscle spindles!!!
4. The muscle spindles don't stimulate the cerebellum as adequately as before.
5. The cerebellum doesn't stimulate the frontal lobe as much as it should.
6. The frontal lobe isn't able to think as clearly or intelligently as it should.
7. EVERY aspect of this person's life is diminished.

"Every aspect, Doc?"  Yep.  If your brain isn't working at its optimal function, your mentality, your physicality, your emotional health, your spirituality, etc. -- it all goes down!

Conversely, as you work on correcting your posture and getting your spine re-aligned (including re-training/re-calibrating/re-educating your muscles), you re-create/re-stimulate the neurological pathways!  The muscle spindles fire more sufficiently, the cerebellum is more ideally stimulated, and the frontal lobe is awake and alive!  You enable yourself to thrive!

There's a couple more aspects to this equation.  First, when the frontal lobe is stimulated, it will utilize a pathway to inhibit our flexor muscles-- the flexor muscles are predominantly the ones firing in poor posture positions.  Think of your shortened anterior neck muscles, your pecs, your biceps, basically creating the fetal position again.  Secondly, when the frontal lobe is stimulated, it will also inhibit the behavioral drives of the temporal lobe.  The temporal lobe is very self-centered; it's the "me, myself, and I" lobe.  It's also highly responsible for temper tantrums, anxiety and depression, and other self-sabotaging behaviors.  Wouldn't it be nice to significantly reduce those experiences?

Hopefully by now you're starting to see the benefits of better posture.  There's a reason why so many people feel so good after their visits to the chiropractor.  Here's a quick wrap-up of the benefits that come from improving our posture:

1. Better respiration:  With better posture, we open up our rib cage and allow deeper breathing patterns to occur.
2. Less strain on our soft tissue anatomy:  The strains we place on our musculature and other surrounding soft tissue is lessened, and as a result, the painful symptoms too many people have go away.  Goodbye headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, and low back pain!
3. Better muscle spindle potential:  Higher, more accurate muscle spindle firing rates = stimulated cerebellum = stimulated frontal lobe, inhibited temporal lobe and flexor muscles = better able to thrive!
4. Confidence:  People with proper posture look better!  Once your posture is restored, your life will never be the same!
5. Higher energy levels:  This comes as a result of the combination of our first four benefits already listed.

And as you can imagine, there's many more!  These concepts are a huge part of the reasons I love doing what I do.  As I've said before, getting you out of pain is the easy part-- I want to enable your brain and body to thrive, and these concepts are largely the reason I can facilitate that as your chiropractor.  I encourage you to give yourself the gift of better health; I'd love to hear from you.  Until then...

Get Moving!  Get Performing!

Contact info:

Dr. Kelby Martin
(929) 33-KELBY   [929-335-3529]

South Jordan Chiropractic
10456 S Redwood Road
South Jordan, UT 84095
Office phone:  (801) 446-5100