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Charleston Acupuncture
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2015!
  Hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start! If you're looking to start fresh and get out all of that holiday food and fun we've got the perfect detox kit to get you started and headed in the right direction.
Biomechanical Muscle Imbalances
   This is one of the leading pain generators affecting almost everyone, although no one is talking about it. What is biomechanical muscle imbalance? It is best described as a phenomena of muscular and structural imbalances causing strain and overexertion upon one or multiple parts of the body.
    An example of this would be agonist and antagonist muscles. This might beg another, what is agnostic and antagonist? One of these muscle groups initiates movements, while the other controls it. One flexes, the other extends, one internally rotates, the other externally rotates, etc. When one of these muscle groups becomes chronically tight, and the other weak, it sets the body up for injury. Your quads and hamstrings make for a good illustration of this. Many people who work desk jobs have chronically shortened quads from sitting throughput the day, while also tightening and weakening their hamstrings. This combination causes people to walk ever so slightly hunched over, thus straining their lower back and setting themselves up for injury. 
    Another more constitutional example of biomechanical imbalance would be the pronation or supination of your feet. This is when the feet either naturally roll inward towards the arch or outwards towards the edge of the foot. This would strain the medial part of the leg encouraging plantar fasciitis, medial knee injury, etc. When the feet roll slightly outward it sets people up sprained ankles, strained IT Bands, and glutes. 
    There are various ways in which these imbalances can be corrected. Orthotics, or custom shoe inserts, are an easy way to correct supination or pronation of the feet. Custom orthotics ordered from a chiropractor or podiatrist can cost hundreds of dollars. Personally, I've had success with inserts from Fleet Feet in Mt. Pleasant. 
     As far as muscular imbalances, this is a matter of diligence to treat. Foam rolling on a regular basis would encourage loosening of the muscles and connective tissue that are throwing your body into misalignment. This would also need to be coupled with strength training on the weaker muscle groups. Depending on the severity of the condition you may want to enlist the help of physical therapist or personal trainer to give you some exercises specifically designed to strengthen target areas. 
    Next, get up and move! For hundreds of thousands of years humans have done physical labor to survive. Only recently has modern society placed us at desks in cubicles. Our bodies are not designed to sit all day. If you find yourself in this predicament, get yourself a fit bit, or at the very least get up and stretch every hour. There is actually have an app for it, called UP. Yoga is also a wonderful way to lengthen and relax all the flexor muscles that become tight and weak from sitting at a computer all day. 
    If after all this you're still in pain, or not performing at the level you desire, this would be a good time to get some acupuncture. Acupuncture can help re-balance the the musculature of the body. It increases blood circulation to the muscles softening them and breaking up scar tissue. It will release trigger points and motor points-areas which can cause the muscle to twitch, returning to its relaxed, elongated state. Acupuncture can also encourage muscles to start firing again after being turned off due to inactivity or overexertion. So you can see, there are many modalities you can use to treat these biomechanical imbalances. For further information or any questions, feel free to contact me at 843-670-3817.
Here's to working on the best 2015 you can possibly have!
 
 

Help us snag "Best of Charleston" for the second year in a row! Voting starts January 20th so make sure to pencil us in as your favorite acupuncturist!
                                 


 
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