do you have strange posture

Post Reply New Topic

I guess surgery is only necessary for those who are unable to walk properly or have an hunchback. That's not my case. Spinal surgery is too much of a risc and it's not recomended if I can fix it wearing braces (tight vests). ^_^

omg ive got that too ( scheurmermans kyphosis ) i ve always wanted to fnd out if there was a link between that and autistic spectrum disorders

I would think that the stick would make you stand straighter and improve your posture.

Only joking. Sometimes I feel like I am walking strange too. Don't know if It looks that way to others.

I have a bad posture. I slouch a lot.

I tend to slouch in my chair and when I walk I usually look down, i dont keep my back and neck strait.

I do. I got made fun of A LOT because of it. Being called hunchback and whatnot. I was constantly being told by adults to sit up straight, stop slouching, etc.

Actually It's not slouching at all. My shoulders turn inward, and the alignment of my neck vertebrae is this rigid straight line, as opposed to having the normal sloping curve. Carrying backpacks was torture for me, and the fact that we didn't have lockers and therefor I had to be burdened with about thirty to forty lbs. of books made things even more painful. I get a lot of pain in my shoulders, especially when I lay down- which is this warm aching feeling like something is wedged underneath my shoulder blades, and the sensation travels down my left arm.

I've gone to a chiropractor, but to be honest I only noticed a temporary improvement and actually became addicted to having my back cracked. Stimming, anyone?

When I was a teenager, people commented the same thing. Even my grandma stated "you walk like you have a corn cob up your ass!" My friend once commented when I was 15 that I walk like a serial killer and move my arms too much.

I also walk with my head down. Helps me see what's directly in front of me so I don't trip over something, and also helps keep the sunlight out of my eyes.

(º>
∫∫
╚

I always wanted a portrait of myself!

Self-portrait, actually.

yeah, i have that hunch-back bad posture thingy going too... so does my mom, who i strongly suspect has AS.. and her mom... and a couple of my cousins... and aunt.. and.. umm.. yes. anyways.. i do walk funny.. but i always figured it was because i have ankle/leg issues (e.g. achilles tendons too short, volgus (sp?) deformity, hypermobility, lack of elasticity, ect. ect. ect.) but now i wonder if maybe those things aren't tied in with AS as well...

Okay, I have the exact same thing in my back, neck, and shoulders.

It's like this super-tight fiery little line going down your left arm, right? I've noticed there's a lot going on with the left side of my body, with a visible change describing a line going down the center of my body. I have slightly different muscle tone on my left side than my right (left shoulder sticks out farther than my right, larger left arm muscles than my right, and a RMT I went to just about shat when he found out I was right handed!), my left side is slightly larger overall than my right, visible difference in abs, and when I'm standing there and just seem to tip over, its to the left in a corkscrewing, pivoting on my left foot kind of motion.

My left foot is slightly smaller than my right, but the arch is visibly higher, and when I do my "forget how to walk" trick it's usually because I mess up with my left foot, digging my toe into the ground.

I had been going to chiropractors too and got the same effects - none. I ended up going to this really cool old guy, the RMT I mentioned above, and his approach was quite different from what I had expected, given that he was a massage therapist.

What he did was get me to lie on my back while he held my arms out in different positions for several minutes at a time. At first I though I had wasted a lot of money, but after about 20 minutes I was totally loosened up, and it lasted for months. I had asked him when I should schedule another appointment, and he looked at me like I was from Mars (I'm used to it) and said, "when your back gets worse." I had been used to chiros telling me to come back once a week for the rest of my life.

FYI, he didn't "massage" any part of my neck or back, so you'd be comfortable with that sort of manipulation, I bet.

Yes, exactly! And I'll lie there, and stretch my arm as far as I can over my head, trying to extend the muscles- and it doesn't help. The left side of my neck is always a problem area as well; like the muscles are wound tighter than piano wires.




Oh, I had to go five days a week. (At $250 a month, no less.)



Hmmm maybe. Can you describe it to me?

AAAAAH!



Yeah.

The main idea is to improve circulation. You know that feeling you get sometimes when there's thus cooling rush that spreads through your arms and back? That's from lactic acid being flushed away, apparently. It seems that your back, shoulders and neck are in a constant state of tension, which causes inflammation, which causes tension, which causes inflammation...in short, there's a bunch of stuff built up that your circulatory system is not able to get rid of because your lymph ducts are being constricted. Makes more sense than the chiropractors' idea of "sublaxations", which is caused by excess phlogiston in your homunculus; might as well shake a feathered stick at you.

I know that you feel like you have to stretch it up over your head, but that is actually cutting off the circulation even more. The interesting thing to me was that this is not about muscles as much as it was about the lymphatic system.

It was my left side that hurt, but he stretched my right side first by holding my arm out 90 degrees to my body, half-Jesus style, while his left hand was on the left side of my neck, checking my pulse, I think. Then, it was lowered to 45 degrees, so if I were standing my palm heel would be at hipbone height. Then, same thing, then to the other 45. This was then all repeated for my left side.

Another thing he did was to cradle my head in his hands and get me to push my head against his hands in various directions for set amounts of time. This might sound scary to you, but it was almost sensationless, and when I was there my neck was in full lockdown mode, just agony. I was used to the more dramatic (and ultimately meaningless) crunching and popping I got from my asswipe chiropractor.

Okay, I've just been messing around on Wikipedia (as usual) and I found the technique that the guy used - not all RMTs do this, so shopping around is a good idea. Manual lymphatic drainage:



I know you're into anatomy, so I'm sure you can apply this understanding to what's going on with you. The biggest lymph ducts are under your shoulder blades and your clavicles, two of my bad areas, and yours as well. (Actually, this explains why I'd get this horrible electric shock type of spasm where my pec meets my collarbone when I was under massive stress. I never FELT stressed on an intellectual or emotional level, either, a purely physical, somaticised event. I thought I was having a heart attack or something. Scared the crap out of me!)

If you want to try some stuff on your own, there's a few things that I find help me. I use my 3 foot hittin' stick for gentle exercises that work my shoulders, back, neck, etc. This is so that I can keep my movements even and linear, not for the weight. An old broom handle cut down is ideal. I find that lifting weights is one of the least productive things I can do, exercise-wise.

These are all good not just for muscle tone, but for a full awareness of all those little muscles we didn't even know we had until we wrench the hell out of them...

Just concentrate on making a full, controlled motion, and how your muscles move and feel, breathing in when you pull back, out when you push. Think, "lungs empty on the push, lungs full on the return." This focus on breathing stops this from being an "exercise", and makes it a "relaxation routine". This is YOU TIME, a treat for yourself, not a chore. You will gain an awareness of your nerves like you wouldn't believe, and you feel a sort of stoned afterglow from the oxygen.

The first one is a variation on the "military press", where I sit down and hold the stick at either end, and put it behind my head. Then, I lift it up really slowly, and when I bring it back down, I exhale slowly and concentrate on feeling how my back muscles move, really feeling them flex, making sure I pull all the way down so the stick touches my shoulders. Don't worry about counting reps, just try and zone out and focus on the sensation. This is great for the shoulder blade area, and simultaneously stretches and exercises the muscles.

Another is to stand, holding the stick at nipple-height, feet shoulder-width apart, and do a bench press motion, just focusing on the movement, not worrying about reps or speed of movement.

One I came up with: stand up with your feet shoulder width apart, and hold your hands out in front of you, palms facing away from you. Move your hands together and make a triangle by touching your thumbs and index fingers together. Sight through the triangle to a spot in front of you to keep consistency of motion. Slowly move your hands apart, but keep your hands as they are angle-wise, wrists locked . Nice and slow, make a swimming motion, and concentrate on that little strip of muscle that runs from the front of your shoulder down to the outside of the pec muscle; you should feel a nice cooling stretch. I like to make this last five seconds, exhaling the whole time, wringing that last bit of air from my lungs. Then, bring your hands back together to form that triangle again.

Instead of feeling beat up and tired, you'll be relaxed and calm, and somehow more solid. This is surprisingly intense, and you really work up a sweat. This is great for your posture, so that you CAN sit up and stand up straight.

When you've been a huncher your whole life like we have, sitting or standing up straight isn't something you can just DO, it hurts like a bastard! It's these small, gentle, focused exercises that make a huge difference, as they help your body to learn how to make your muscles work in concert. You get relaxation, coordination, fitness, and its all for free, and you don't need to knock yourself out. In time, your posture will be improved because your muscles have been trained to pull your skeleton into the right shape, properly distributing your body weight.

I don't see it as exercise, I see it as getting to know yourself.

I hope this helps, I know exactly how it feels to just hurt all over all the time.

My posture is slightly odd, yeah. It's not super-exaggerated or anything, but I do walk almost with a limp because of it (one leg falls heavier than the other).

I have scoliosis, and feel exactly the same way. I get really paranoid about people thinking I'm lazy actually.