Proper Posture and Body Mechanics: Biomechanics Blog Post 5

The right way to sit and the right way to move; could it be life changing? 4 main reasons to adjust your posture and movement for improvement!

1. Maintaining natural curvatures of the spine. There are two lordotic curve and two kyphotic curves. Deformation of these curves can lead to a plethora of issues such as thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, flatback, swayback, or kyphosis-lordosis. 
2. Alignment of the body parts. The ideal position would have gravity centered over the base of support. This allows body systems to function properly.
3. To avoid disc compression. When the spine is overly flexed or extended it has the potential to result in a bulging, herniated, ruptured, or even fragmented disc. 
4. Prevent back pain. Back pain is a result of bad posture, lack of flexibility, improper body mechanics, or excessive stress in various aspects of life.

Using OT to intervene with issues of improper posture and poor body mechanics:

1. Demonstrate proper lifting techniques; using the rod to show the erect back, bending of the legs, and the weight being as close to your body as possible.
2. Go through various therapies in different sitting positions explaining the different positions and their importance. Examples being anterior sitting prior to standing to catch a ball or middle sitting to play cards.

A Strange Short Story: Biomechanics Blog Post Four

Man from the South

The man from the south is a short story about a betting man and a solider he encounters on a sunny day at the pool. In the story the betting man habitually bets his car or the cutting off of a finger. In the end we come to find that his wife has been betting him for quite some time and has lost three fingers in the process. 

For the purpose of this blog post I will be focusing on the wife and her unfortunate finger loss. She has been left with a thumb and index finger. Many activities of daily life will be affected but since it is told in the story she has a car I have decided to focus on her ability to drive. Driving will be affected because the wife will have trouble gripping the steering wheel with only two fingers. The typical grip for holding a steering wheel would be a power grip however with only a thumb and index finger this may be challenging. Strategies to combat this barrier would be grip strength exercises to improve pinch grip. 1 modification I came up with would be adding velcro to the steering wheel and making her a velcro glove. This way she can use her palm and ensure that it is on the wheel, while using grip from the two fingers to turn the wheel back and forth.