People seeking a spinal decompression treatment typically want pain relief. They want the immediate results of feeling better. What they do not anticipate is the profound mobility gain that occurs alongside pain relief. People notice mobility gains in many different ways, in almost every movement they perform daily as they take for granted mobility that has been lost to them over time due to pain.
Manual spinal decompression allows space between compressed vertebrae, but the impacts that space has improve all other types of movements. When vertebrae are compressed, that does not just create a pain issue at the site of compression. Compression restricts rotation, bending forward and back, and tends to lock the spine into a compensation pattern that requires the body to compensate in other areas for the missing space in the joint that was affected. When the joints are finally decompressed, the body begins to move as it should.
The First Mobility Improvements People Notice
After manual spinal decompression, patients notice that it becomes remarkably easy to perform everyday activities. People can feel joy in tying their shoes again, reaching above their head to pull something down from a shelf, or even in turning their body around to look back at traffic while driving.
This change happens for a specific reason. When the vertebrae are decompressed, there is finally space to allow the intervertebral disc between the bones to return to some of its previous height. The additional height it regains creates a space for facet joints to move against one another instead of becoming ground down and restricted. These micro-joints have been under pressure for some time. Once pressure is removed, they are finally free to move without restriction to their full capacity.
Patients repeatedly say that they can once again rotate their body after the treatment improves their ability to perform a variety of movements. The rotational ability tends to be significantly impacted by spinal compression as it often locks this movement pattern down. For those seeking to improve their rotational mobility, a ring dinger chiropractor can help by performing intense manual spinal decompression, treating the spine and joints with immediate gains. The gains will often be immediately visible due to the speed of this technique.
Why Flexibility Returns Faster Than Expected
Not only do people notice a difference in their flexibility after spinal decompression manual treatment, but also the fact that it seems surprising how quickly the body regains flexibility back after manual decompression treatment. Many people have become accustomed to tight muscles that have become accustomed to being in pain for long periods, but tightness can be a result of the best of intentions and attempts to stretch the pain away.
Tightness in the muscles becomes so often that it seems impossible to treat the tightness with stretching alone. This stretching is usually rendered ineffective. Muscle tightness can sometimes be the cause of the pain, but more often than not, this tightness is a protective reaction to pain. When the spine is compressed, a protective response is activated in tight muscles. The muscle attempts to protect an unstable spine by stabilizing it. Once the spine has been manually decompressed, the source of the tightening is released, and the body sends different signals from the nervous system that effectively dissolve some of the threat or fight/flight responses.
Pain patients consistently find that they can bend forward to touch their toes (if they can, as they may have lost this ability over the years!), bend backward, and side bend without thinking. Sometimes, these patients even report regaining previous poses in yoga that seemed impossible to return to! This seems to surprise people because many have tried for weeks and months to return to fitness and yoga with little to no success at stretching their body back into the shape it once was before injury or pain developed.
Increases in Fitness and Athletic Performance
One’s ability to move within sports or exercise also improves after manual spinal decompression treatment. Specific exercise protocols feel easier to perform after treatment, allowing patients to experience gains in their fitness performance once again.
Running feels smoother as the spine absorbs the shock as it was intended to! Swimming becomes an easier feat as intercostal muscles regain their former glory and find rotation from one side of the body upon each stroke of the swim.
Weight training feels like an old friend. These movements tend to come back into people’s lives rather easily after feeling difficult for such an extended period. Using proper form becomes effortless as people finally use their spine instead of compensating structures to perform these movements again.
The spine is not the only key component of performing fitness and athletic tasks, but it is one of the most important team players on these fields or in these activities.
The power produced by one’s legs or lower body can flow through the core to these other areas of the body without restriction. Patients report improvements in performing everyday sport tasks such as golfing and golfing in a single swing after manual spinal decompression treatment by regaining speed again!
Yoga becomes easier to perform as restrictions dissolve and poses return more readily once decompression treatments are complete.
Changes in Balance & Coordination
Another gain people notice after manual spinal decompression treatments is an improvement in balance and coordination. Few expect their balance could be impacted by this injury, but the alignment of our spine has everything to do with balance.
Prone proprioceptors located in the vertebrae play an essential role in a person’s coordination and balance. When these vertebrae are compressed, these proprioceptors become ineffective. After treatment, patients quickly regain their balance as they begin to trust their newly returned proprioceptive signals once their spines are realigned.
Walking across uneven surfaces becomes easier without fumbling and nearly falling over! Patients learn how to stand on one leg without falling over again and can finally return to yoga poses or balance poses again!
One of the long-term gains from spinal decompression manual treatment is that these mobility changes are not only short-lived. It also protects long-term mobility!
Once proper wear patterns are established, slowing down or stopping the wearing down of vertebrae becomes easier than before. When good treatment patterns develop, it becomes easier to ensure that the vertebrae remain aligned instead of overworked areas compensating for one another.
After manual spinal decompression, patients can not only avoid compensating patterns throughout their spine but also avoid overworking certain areas becoming arthritic while keeping other areas pain-free!
Manual spinal decompression allows one to age in their spine without suffering from stiffness that they might have otherwise expected as the years go by.
Manual spinal decompression opens a world of motion! Once motion is regained in the spine, the pain stops becoming the center of every daily task. Regaining a sense of normalcy once again in life becomes possible. Whether this means returning to these activities or finding new ways to regain mobility in one’s spine again after pain or injury, manual spinal decompression treatments make this a possibility! After all these years, experiencing posture benefits post-decompression treatment makes sense again!