Recognizing asymmetry, a key concept in the Postural Restoration world : Part 1

Look around you, you can see it. The human body is not symmetrical, and never will be. I did not learn that in school, but I see it everywhere now. (Even my kids see it now or so they say, probably because they are tired of me pointing it out where ever we go.) More people with left shoulders higher than the right,  right side of the torso looking "crunched" and left side elongated. Left ribcage flaring out more than the right, people standing more on their right leg, with their upper body trying to turn left. Right arm swinging a lot less than the left, the right leg toeing out more than the left.  I could probably go on, but you get the picture.
 Why does this happen ? You may say because we are right handed or right side dominant. Yes, that does play a role, but how/where does this begin ?  Ever considered internal organ asymmetry ? Well, we have a huge liver on the right, three lobes of the lung on the right vs two on the left. A right diaphragm that is anatomically larger ( both the leaflet as well as the attachment to the spine). The result ? Our weight is distributed more to the right, so our spine and pelvis are oriented to the right. Out torso tries to counter rotate back to the left (so we walk facing straight) , in the process creating a left rib flare and a higher left shoulder. Starting to see it now ? Just look around you, or look in the mirror. We'll continue in part 2 in a few days.

Postural Restoration, an interesting journey................

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year and welcome to the first blog post of 2012 ! In these pages, I would like to invite you to explore the world of postural restoration, an innovative treatment approach that addresses the primary cause of postural movement dysfunction.
For me, this has certainly been an exciting journey, one that began in 2002 and remains just as exciting and interesting as it did it back then. I had been practicing traditional physical therapy for about 18 years and although was getting fairly good outcomes with my patients with what I did at the time, there was this nagging feeling that I was missing something. Why did some patients whose primary complaint had been resolved, return with a recurrence of the same or a new seemingly (?) unrelated problem a few years down the road ? Why was it that certain problems/injuries seemed more common on one side of the body than the other ? And then, I met Ron Hruska, PT founder of the Postural Restoration Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska and it totally changed the way I practiced. In the next few days, you will see just how and why.