Our body is the most important vehicle we own, but most people take better care of the vehicle they drive around town. The problem with that is that you can purchase a new car, you can’t purchase a new body, you only get one of those.
When we buy a new a car, we don’t just drive it off the lot and expect it to keep running indefinitely without ever doing anything to maintain it. We put gas in the engine regularly. We change the oil every 3,000 miles. We put air in the tires and rotate them. We get tune-ups when needed. Or when we don’t do these things, the car breaks down. We all know that repairing a broken down car is more expensive than doing the required maintenance to avoid the breakdown.
Our bodies need routine maintenance as well. Unfortunately, most people wait until their bodies breakdown to get help. A broken body takes a lot more time and a lot more money to repair than it does to maintain a healthy well balanced body.
People often make the mistake of thinking that when pain goes away, the body is healed. The truth is, when the pain goes away, the body has learned to compensate for the problem. Unless you go in and correct the cause of the problem, the pain will eventually return, possibly even in a new location.
Just because you feel strong and you have no pain, does not mean that your body is functioning optimally. If our structure is not aligned properly and our muscles and brain are not communicating efficiently, over time, our body will start to break down. This can go on for years without any outward symptoms to let you know something is wrong. If left unchecked, this can lead to irreparable damage.
So how do you avoid breakdown? There are things you can do on your own to maintain your body such as eating well and exercising, but some thing we can’t do on our own. Structure dictates function. In the case of our body, structure is our skeleton. For our body to function optimally we must keep our skeleton balanced. How do you keep your skeleton balanced? Schedule regular tune-ups of your body with your physical therapist or chiropractor. They can assess and find where the imbalances are and correct them to keep you functioning at your best.
How often should you get your body balanced? Depending on your age and your activity level, how often you need tune-ups will vary. Some people can get away with 2-3 times per year. Those of you that are pushing your body to it’s limits should look at every month or every other month to make sure everything is balanced. Also, if something that happens that has the likelihood of putting you out of balance such as a fall or an accident, even if you have no pain, you should get checked out because most likely, something is out of balance that will create issues down the road. When in doubt, get it checked out. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
What are you waiting for? It’s time to practice some self love and take care of your body. Your body will thank you for it.
