bottom line:

Designing a year of abundant health starts with ensuring you’re setting SMART goals and taking proactive daily steps to help your body function at its best. 

Motion is life. 

Movement and exercise are the essential foundations to living your best life. 

Not only does motion help you feel better physically - research also shows daily movement and exercise can help your brain stay sharp and focused.‍

why it matters:

Before you can begin a daily exercise routine, you'll want to ensure your spine and joints are moving well. 

If any of your joints aren’t moving properly, it's going to be difficult to move through your entire range of motion safely and painlessly. 

In fact, when any number of joints aren’t moving properly, that usually means other joints have had to compensate, which means they may become overloaded, which puts you at an increased risk for injury.

Maintaining the following 3 types of movement is key to optimizing how your body functions and improving your health in the new year....

• Segmental. As the foundation of your spinal motion, segmental movement describes the motion that happens between each set of bones in your spine.
   
  
• Regional. Your spine is divided into four primary regions: cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), lumbar (low back), and sacral (tail bone).
   
  
• Whole Body. When you combine the segmental and regional movements of your spine with the movement of your extremities, you have whole-body motion.

next steps: 

Abundant health starts with moving well and feeling great.

As you probably noticed, each of these movement types builds upon the other. 

Problems with segmental motion can cause problems with your regional and whole-body movement, so to have optimal whole-body movement, you'll want to ensure that both your regional and segmental motion is in tip-top shape. 

So, if you notice any pain or limitations in your movement patterns and you’re near Edwardsville / Glen Carbon, IL be sure to schedule a visit with us today!