Aligning The Spine To Live A Healthy Life

Aligning the spine is not as easy as it should be. 

Humans are the first, and only, mammals with a curve in the lumbar spine.

The lumbar curve is the most important aspect of upright posture and walking on two legs. 

Unfortunately, it also allows us to lean backward habitually which messes mightily with aligning the spine successfully.

My approach to teaching about the body is to simplify everything as much as possible. 

Here is the simplest way I describe the way our body works: The bones hold you up, the muscles move you, and the nerves tell the muscles to move the bones.

There are exceptions to this image but I find it to be extremely useful.  

If the bones don’t hold you up in and of themselves, your ligaments are forced to help.  This puts strain on your ligaments and misaligned bones inhibit the nerves from moving as freely as they should.

Our nervous system runs the show that is our life. 

Anything we do, see, or feel is because of the magnificent human nervous system. 

The central nervous system is simple— it is the brain and the spinal cord housed in the middle of the spine.

The peripheral nervous system has a lot more going on. But essentially it is the nerves that pass through holes in the spine to travel throughout your body.

These peripheral nerves gather and send information back to the central nervous system essentially running the show that is our life.

To this end, since all of your peripheral nerves pass through your spinal column, your body works as well as your spine is aligned. Simple as that.

Aligning the spine successfully depends on two main factors. 

1. How well your bones hold you up. 
2. If your opposing muscle groups are balanced. 

Opposing muscle groups cannot be balanced if the bones are misaligned. And therein lies the rub.

From my perspective, we are all splayed open in the front of the body and short and tight in the back of the body. This prevents us from aligning the spine. 

Everything I teach in my yoga classes, in my walking program, my psoas program, and write about is an attempt to help others reverse this pattern.

I have been working on this reversal in my own body for about twenty years.

And believe me when I tell you that it is still a work in progress.

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