When I was in my 20’s I suffered from a barrage of chronic pain issues including knee, hip and back pain. After undergoing multiple surgeries and seeking every medical treatment under the sun, including injections, prescription drugs, chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy I was left broke, still in pain, and with nowhere left to turn but my own personal search for a solution to chronic pain and physical limitations.
I discovered that the source of the pain that I was dealing with was as simple as postural imbalance. I did the work to restore postural balance to my body and as a result healed a labral tear in my right hip, SI joint and low back pain and condromalacia patella in my right knee after undergoing an ACL replacement in the same knee 10 years prior.
The crux of it all was that even though I was a seemingly active individual, a personal trainer and fitness fanatic at the time, I was still a member of a society in which we are not required to move in order to make a living and in order to survive. I, like everyone else, despite my 60 – 90 minutes in the gym 5 times per week, spent 6-8 hours per day sitting in school and after school studying as a teen and early adult. Since the age of 16 I have sat in a car and driven mostly every where, and I, like everyone else, own a smart phone, computer, and TV — the use of all of which keep my body still…not moving…while I participates in many of my day to day activities.
I want people in the world to realize that this motion deprived lifestyle is something we all suffer from. The degree to which lack of movement is having a negative impact on our health today is mostly unacknowledged, over looked and ignored.
My proof for this statement is that even though doctors are promoting that we all need to move more and exercise, they are still prescribing cortisone injections, drugs, and surgery, none of which, in most cases, address the root cause of the problem and for the most part keep people in a self-perpetuating state of never getting better and needing more medical treatment.
The solution to many of the musculoskeletal issues (i.e. hip, back, knee and shoulder pain) that people deal with today is as simple as restoring postural balance to the body.
My mission is to spread this message to the world.
I say “the solution” with confidence because I know that treatments that leave out restoring anatomical functions to the body are only skimming the surface and not truly getting to the root cause of the problem.
Doctors, physical therapists, and even chiropractors are focused on treating the symptom, or the site of the pain, and they end up not addressing the root cause of pain, which in most cases, with the exception of acute injuries and accidents, is lack of movement and muscular dysfunction throughout the entire body.
These medical professionals mean well, and are highly specialized and educated in their fields. The problem is that they are all functioning within an outdated western medical system that originated during a time when humans still moved enough to maintain basic anatomical functions in their day to day lives. At that time, taking someone with shoulder pain for example, and giving them an anti-inflammatory medication as a way to give their body a reprieve from inflammation and a chance at healing, then having them do some simple restorative shoulder exercises…at this time when people moved enough, was sufficient.
The problem we are running into today is that we do not move even nearly enough in our day to day lives to maintain postural integrity of our bodies, but our medical system is still providing us with these symptom focused treatments (let’s take down the inflammation then treat the symptom) which simply do not work with severely imbalanced and dysfunctional bodies.
In my opinion, this is a huge blind spot within the medical community, and amongst lay people who are seeking a solution to their problem.
Lack of movement and postural imbalance is even the source in most cases of many unsuspecting symptoms such as TMJ, sinus issues, migraine headaches and painful bunions. My mission is to:
- Promote awareness amongst medical professionals and lay people alike of the negative impact lack of movement is having on our health.
- To highlight the simple fact that restoring lost anatomical functions to the human body is the most direct, total, permanent and all encompassing way to mitigate pain, to reduce and eliminate pain and injuries and to prevent pain from returning.
About Realign Therapy Maryann has been in business as an independent Posture Alignment Specialist since 2010. The Posture Workout was recently created in 2016 as a way to make learning the daily practice of posture correction available to people in a way that is affordable and easy to access.
Maryann conducts one on one Posture Alignment Therapy in-person at her home studio in Encinitas, California. She also works with people around the world online via Skype and has helped individuals in Canada, Japan, Scotland, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Spain, in several regions of the US, and several other locations around the world.