In this episode, Laurel discusses whether it’s within a movement teacher’s scope of practice to help people with their posture. Here’s what this episode digs into:
- How Laurel formerly identified as an alignment-based teacher and why she no longer does
- The difference between “default-mode” alignment versus deliberate alignment
- Why Laurel views alignment less in binary terms of good v. bad and more as a neutral tool for helping to restore variability as well as influence adaptations toward specific capacities.
- A 1947 definition of posture from the Posture Committee of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and why it might need an update.
- How our beliefs about posture can produce a nocebic effect in our students.
- How Laurel sees posture and alignment instruction as being something well within a yoga teacher’s scope of practice to offer, but how she also sees movement teachers stepping outside of their scope of practice in providing this instruction, as well.
Reference links:
Research Paper: Therapists Perceptions of Optimal Sitting and Standing Posture
Research paper: Posture and time spent using a smartphone are not correlated with neck pain and disability in young adults: a cross-sectional study
Research paper: Is neck posture subgroup in late adolescence a risk factor for persistent neck pain in young adults? A prospective study
Research paper: Clinical measures of foot posture and ankle joint dorsiflexion do not differ in adults with and without plantar heel pain
Article about cortical maps and smudging by Todd Hardgrove: Great New Paper on Targeting the Brain for Treatment of Pain
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