Distinctly Montana Magazine

d i s t i n c t ly m o n ta n a • w i n t e r 2 0 1 5 70 H ow often do we hear people talk about a mys- terious pain? The story goes something like this: I woke up this morning and I bent over to pick up a piece of paper and couldn't stand back up! The question is simple, why did this happen? I expect to be in pain if I tried to lift a refrigerator but not a piece of paper. It doesn't make sense unless you look at the system trying to lift the piece of paper. This is an article about the long and short of muscles and exercise. Our bodies are wired to survive at all costs. Not long ago we had to hunt and gather, activities that involved massive amounts of movement and exercise. Today, we can es- sentially thrive without any need of movement. So where does that leave us in relationship to health and the ability to combat the forces of gravity and friction? In order to answer the question we must understand how we learned to move ourselves initially. After birth, nature takes us through a progression in strength development. At first we lie on our backs and move our arms, head and legs thousands of times each day. Then we gain enough power to roll over. Lifting our head and getting on all fours are the next steps. We then learn to crawl. These events develop our spinal curves and our core strength. Soon we pull ourselves upright and stand for several weeks before we begin walking. It takes about eight to fourteen months of strength training to learn to walk. We continue to develop motor skills at an astonishing rate through adolescence. Unless we are not moving or we miss a step in nature's progression. As few as 20 years ago, children use to play and run and ride their bikes. Now we drive them around. Nintendo, television, and video games rob bodies of active functions. So by the time someone goes to pick up a piece of paper it might as well weigh 10 tons. The important thing to understand is we are still in control of our muscle destiny. We can look in the mirror and have a good idea if our body is even remotely close to functioning normally. The key is called the 90-degree rule. It basically states that if a structure has a 90-degree angle to the horizon it will basi- cally balance against gravity for all eternity it no other force bothers it. What this means is if your load joints -- the ankle, knee, hip and shoulder -- line up with the middle of your ear they are in balance. Also all of the joints of the body are in ideal position and all of the muscles are of ideal length. If I look at your body from the front, your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders should be perfectly horizontal to each other and be identical twins in appearance. If these two halves are in bal- ance your body is ready for work, or not! For example if you look in the mirror you should see this: If your body is slumped to the right and twisted to the left, you will expend more energy standing upright than will someone whose body is vertically and later- ally well aligned. Not to mention the extra amount What Caused that Pain? thE LoNg aND Short of aLIgNmENt by Dr. CLEtE LINEbargEr

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