If you’ve ever crashed your bicycle and twisted the handle bars out of whack, you probably got up, stabilized the front tire between your knees and muscled the frame back into alignment before hopping on again. Everyone knows riding a bike with crooked steering could put you at risk for another spill down the road.
After you’ve crashed your body (i.e. lifted a heavy weight incorrectly, fell asleep on the couch or spent 8 hours sitting in front of a computer), your spine may also have slipped out alignment. A healthy posture requires your head, shoulder, hips and feet to line up properly for your spine to maintain functional integrity – just like handlebars of a bike need to line up with the frame and tires to steer properly. If one part of a mechanical structure becomes misaligned (like your head isn’t balance over your shoulders, or your hips aren’t balance over your feet) it will create undue stress on the rest of the system and increase the risk of catastrophic failure.
If riding with crooked handle bars feels awkward, just imagine how your muscles, joints and ligaments feel when you try to perform routine, daily activities with a crooked spine. Maybe those annoying aches and pains are telling you “…it’s time for a trip to the Chiropractor to get straightened out.”