Day 5 - Form & FUNction

Several years back, my father, my sister, and I drove to Oklahoma for my aunt's funeral. We made the 1,200 mile trip in about 28 hours. We drove straight through, after renting a car - a Nissan Maxima. Upon our arrival, we dropped Dad off at his sister's house, where he would be staying, and my sister and I checked into our hotel. After getting our bags settled in the room, I noticed my lower back was KILLING me and I could barely move. I figured that between a strain on my back several months before and the long drive and the stress of getting everything together for the last-minute trip, I had pretty well wrecked my lower back. I used a topical cream that soaks into the muscles to help ease the pain, but nothing truly soothed the pain fully except time and trying to relax as much as possible during this whirlwind of a trip.
I had a revelation about that experience in class last night, which may take some explanation to understand it.
In Day 5 of the class, we covered "Form and Function" as well as being introduced to the Shoulder Girdle. Well, in the Form and Function section, we learned that 1) all parts of the body are connected and 2) how we use our bodies in our day to day lives affects the ability to achieve the Structural Objective - which is the goal of all the bones stacked in alignment.
We discussed how carrying a heavy purse on one side constantly can make the shoulder dip to one side, carrying a small child on the hip can make the hip tilt to one side, or being constantly on a computer all day can make the shoulders rotate toward the front of the body, creating a hunched posture. And get this - driving for long periods can create hunched shoulders or lower back pain!
The lower back pain may come from a muscle called the psoas muscle, and it goes around from the derriere around the hip and connects up front, around the groin. Well, how does that affect driving? Well, it's also the muscle that makes the leg move up and down when you're in a sitting position...like when you are using your foot to press on the gas or brake pedals. *Ding!* The light went on in my head and I understood why I had all that lower back pain after that long marathon drive to Oklahoma!
Wow!
Ok...it may not be big news to you, but it helped me realize that I need to be more aware of my posture and how I function...at least a few minutes a day and maybe I can reverse some of the really bad habits I've gotten into - slouching, hunching over the computer, and how I carry my purse.
In the next part of the class, we looked at the Shoulder Girdle, what parts it's comprised of, and how to work toward the Structural Objective for it. We learned the re-patterning exercises for it, which we worked on with a partner.
I'm almost getting a work-out during the part of the class where we work on the re-patterning techniques.
You know...almost.