Body Awareness

Body Awareness

 

Most people who are suffering from low back, knee, neck or other common conditions can greatly reduce their symptoms by simply correcting their posture, body mechanics, lifting techniques, etc..  However, this is not so simple.  Many people do not have the body awareness needed to perform correction techniques merely upon verbal cues by their trainer or therapist.  When I am faced with this client, I will allow them to rely on a mirror for feedback as well as providing them with manual cues.  Nowadays, everyone has a cell phone with camera capabilities.  I have taken pictures during a session and either emailed 'before' and 'after' photos to my clients for further education or I print out the photos to use during their sessions for visual feedback.  After educating my clients using these tools (mirror, photos, manual cues), I assess the carryover by removing those tools.  Once they are able to correctly perform the task at hand, I remove the external cues so that they further develop body awareness.  My goal is to ensure independence with body awareness.  After all, your client will not always have a camera, a trainer/therapist or a mirror available when performing daily activities.