Postural Restoration
by KFYR TV Juli McDonald
Posted on 3/7/2012
|
|
If you haven’t had to be treated with physical therapy for pain or an injury some time in your life, you’ve certainly heard of the process. But there’s an up-and-coming form of PT that uses different techniques. It’s called postural restoration. There are only 79 postural restoration therapists in the country. Two are at the St. Alexius Human Performance Center. It may look like a traditional physical therapy exercise to you, but this technique is different. While physical therapy treats the symptom, postural restoration looks to the cause.
(Jeanne DeKrey, Postural Restoration Specialist): “I think a lot of knee pain probably tends to be a combination of how your foot interacts with the ground and how your hip interacts in the pelvis.”
(Juli): Therapist Stephanie Boespflug added…
Stephanie Boespflug, Postural Restoration Specialist): “So if someone comes in with shoulder or knee pain, we’re going to treat with same approach. Looking at their whole body, both upper and lower segments, as well as how they walk, how they breathe and how things are working together.”
(Juli): Postural restoration analyzes how the body is positioned and how that position affects function. Therapists use techniques to do what the name says, restore posture.
(Boespflug): “A lot of us tend to be more right dominant. We tend to favor the right side of our bodies. We tend to forget about the left.”
(DeKrey): “Most people tend to stand on their right leg… un-weighting the left. The right shoulder is going to be back, the left shoulder is going to be forward. It’s going to be easier to rotate the neck to the right and easier to side bend it to the left. And we just get used to that.”
(Juli): Patients have an active role in the postural restoration process; it doesn’t stop when they exit the clinic. It’s their responsibility to incorporate their new breathing techniques and postural goals into their lifestyle at work and at home. To learn more about this form of therapy, visit the Postural Restoration Institute`s website.
Click play to watch the video above.