Hey everyone, my name is Belinda. When I was a young girl, I injured the muscles in my legs performing complex gymnastic moves. I was under the care of an orthopedist for several months during the recovery period. I had to complete a number of strengthening exercises to regain my range of motion and mobility. The orthopedist performed regular examinations to determine if the given treatment was working. I will use this site to talk about different orthopedic treatments. I hope you will visit my site often to learn about this fascinating subject.
If you use a wheelchair, poor postural alignment may be responsible for causing your back, neck, and shoulder pain. Although the purpose of your wheelchair is to provide mobility, a wheelchair can also help stabilize weak torso muscles to keep you upright when you sit. As a result, using proper posture when you are sitting in your wheelchair can prevent unnecessary backaches and muscle pain.
Why You Feel Pain
Generally, people tend to slump back and slide themselves forward in a wheelchair in an effort to feel more stable. But sitting in that position for extended periods of time every day can eventually lead to posture problems that contribute to pain.
Whether you are paralyzed or need a wheelchair because you have another mobility problem, fewer muscles in your body are able to their work or move normally. Consequently, you must rely on other muscles in the body to do work they weren't designed to do. But when muscles become stretched or shortened because of poor posture, they become weak and start to hurt.
Problem Wheelchair Postures
The position of the backrest in the design of most traditional wheelchairs thrusts the neck forward and causes your bottom to slide forward in the wheelchair. Both these body mechanics make it difficult to maintain proper sitting posture. To be in the correct sitting position, your buttocks should be touching the back of the wheelchair.
When you aren't sitting properly, your muscles have to work harder to keep your body in a stable position. While reclining the backrest helps keep your back against the seat back of the wheelchair, it pushes your neck forward. Sitting in this position can be tiring and make your neck hurt.
Posture Corrections That Help
To maintain normal spinal curves when sitting in a wheelchair, your ears should be positioned over your shoulders, which should be positioned in alignment with your hips. A healthy spine curves out slightly in the area of the middle back and slightly inward in the neck and lumbar regions.
Positioning the height of your wheelchair's backrest to just below the thoracic curve in your upper back, along with making sure the backrest touches the bottom of the lumbar region (lower back), will give you more stability. By helping to support the natural curves of the spine, proper sitting posture keeps you more balanced and steady. Even if you have a power wheelchair that requires a higher backrest, the backrest can still be positioned to improve your posture and allow for normal spinal curves.
Also, to prevent forming bad posture habits, you should shift your position in the chair frequently throughout the day. Adjust your posture to the tasks you perform. For example, keep objects close to you so you don't have to reach out as far.
For professional rehabilitation services and physical therapy, contact a company such as Hand & Orthopedic Rehabilitation Specialists.
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