Frequently Asked Questions About Posture and Pain
The following are questions people often ask at Upright Health. If Matt Hsu hasn’t answered your question here, please get in touch.
- Why should I see you?
- What is Posture Alignment Therapy?
- How do I know if I need to improve my posture?
- Isn’t my pain just from my body getting older and falling apart?
- Isn’t my pain from a pinched nerve or a slipped disc?
- Why shouldn’t I just get surgery or continue on my regimen of mind-altering and liver-rotting painkillers?
- What exactly do you do?
- How long will it take before I feel the effects?
- Are there any reasons I shouldn’t come see you?
- Where can I buy Egoscue® Posture Alignment Therapy tools for my own home or office?
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Why should I see you?
You want to feel good in your body. Whether you’re looking to improve your posture, reduce chronic or acute pain, or get your body moving better so that you can take your athletic activities to the next level, I can help. My ultimate goal is to get you on the road to health without having to rely on endless ergonomic products, bottles of herbal supplements, or an endless treatment regimen for the rest of your life to keep your body feeling right.
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What is Posture Alignment Therapy?
Posture Alignment Therapy is the key to a long term posture solution. It is a systematic way of addressing your body's misalignments with gentle stretches and exercises (some of which you may have seen, some of which you definitely haven't).
Personalized to your body and your needs, the self-care regimen you develop with your practitioner goes beyond the quick-fix mentality of the ineffective stretches and exercises circulating the fitness, chiropractic, medical, and physical therapy worlds.
It is effective in addressing structural issues in your body, and, unlike the pills you might otherwise use to keep your pain at bay, addiction to these posture-improving regimens is actually good for you.
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How do I know if I need to improve my posture?
Go to the DIY posture assessment and find out!
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Isn’t my pain just from my body getting older and falling apart?
While I can’t deny that you are getting older, a lot of that “falling apart” is just a matter of imbalances in your body that you can address. I work with clients everyday who see the results of a dedicated effort to rebalance their bodies, so I know that a dedicated, intelligent effort makes a huge difference for even the worst pain. I have personally dealt with chronic pain and fatigue since I was 16, so I know that falling apart is not just a question of age: it’s a question of misalignment.
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Isn’t my pain from a pinched nerve or a slipped disc?
Sure! But how did your nerve get pinched? How did your disc slip? Is the nerve always pinched all the time? Does the slipped disc always cause you pain? If not, why not? What’s keeping these things out of position and what are you going to do to make sure they actually stay in the right position?
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Why shouldn’t I just get surgery or continue on my regimen of mind-altering and liver-rotting painkillers?
If you’re considering surgery to deal with your pain, I encourage you to look into the available research literature for the surgery you’re considering. The long-term effectiveness of most “pain-curing” surgeries tends to be rather discouraging and the loss in quality of life is immeasurable.
As for mind-altering painkillers, if you’re happy operating in a fog while continuing to do more damage to your body, by all means do so! If you’re at this website, you probably aren’t happy with that.
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What exactly do you do?
I use advanced, hands-on, targeted manual therapy techniques to balance tensions across the joints of your entire body and give you exercises that help you maintain and improve that balance. You and I work as a team to figure out how to get your body moving as best it can. I explain to you what I see happening, how we might address it, and we see what kind of improvement we can get by working with specific problems. Maybe your shoulders are causing strain on your knees or your ankles are causing your hip to ache; we figure out whatever it is that is keeping you from moving and feeling right. After we’ve removed any soft-tissue restrictions or adhesions that are blocking proper movement, I coach you in different maintenance exercises and habits that you can use to maintain proper balance to keep things from flaring up or popping out again.
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How long will it take before I feel the effects?
You should start feeling the effects after the first session. If you notice no positive changes at all within three sessions, you should stop working with me. Period. Full stop. The end.
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Are there any reasons I shouldn’t come see you?
If you have cancer, hemophilia, blood clotting issues, phlebitis, or aneurysms, please consult with a doctor before undergoing any manual therapy or deep tissue work so that you are aware of your body’s safe limits. That being said, even with the aforementioned issues, it is often still possible for us to work together to get your body balanced again.
However, if you have a contagious disease that I could possibly catch (including the common cold), I’d appreciate it if you didn’t come in until you are healthy again.
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Where can I buy Egoscue® Posture Alignment Therapy tools for my own home or office?
