Happy Joints and Flexible Muscles!

Joint pain is one of the most common ailments that individuals experience as they age. Lack of activity or too much activity without countering the effects of these can lead to dysfunction that determines the stability and mobility of the joint. If a joint moves poorly due to tightness of the connective tissue or inflexibility of the muscles that move it, it will lose it's capacity to create fluidity of the body's skeleton. Our bodies are intended to move using sequential patterns of muscle action for functional and athletic activities. When mobility is restricted, these normal patterns are interupted and what replaces them are compensations that tend to be hard on the musculoskeletal system and can be a source of pain.

What is the solution to this aging issue? We can manage the change in function by performing exercises that mobilize and open the joints and improve the flexibility of the muscles and their connective tissue called fascia. This allows a joint to move fluidly through it's range of motion without undue pressure on anyone particular portion of it which can ultimately reduce the degree of wearing. Flexibility is as critical to the function of your joints as air is to the function of your lungs. Enabling the body to find correct movements by improving posture and flexibility is a long-term ticket to a healthy skeleton. This means that appropriate physical activity is essential to function. And while the skeleton is the particular topic of the moment, activity also facilitates optimal function of the other major systems of the body such as the immune and endocrine systems and the organ of the skin.

The best way to identify your areas of tightness and mis-alignment is to be evaluated by a professional such as a physical therapist. They will be able to assess the mobility of your joints and manually release and prescribe exercises that bring them back into their intended neutral positions. In addition, learning and maintaining good posture will support the balance of the muscles around the joints. When standing, the feet should be parallel to one another and at hip width unless there are issues of balance and then a wider stance is necessary for safety. Finding weighting in the feet on the 3 balance points will help you evenly activate the muscles up the leg and position the pelvis properly. These 3 points are the ball of the big toe, the ball of the little toe and the center of heel. This should allow the hips to have a slight bend in them with the middle of the shoulders lined with center of the hip when looking at the profile. Finally, the middle of the ear should align with the shoulder with the gaze level. Of course this is an ideal stance that you will not be able to hold all of the time, but the more your body learns proper position on a moment to moment basis, the more it will adopt these healthier patterns. And importantly, take the time to see a professional that can help you improve your flexibility in an effective manner that will help you maintain happy joints and muscles for life!