January / February 2022 - Newsletter

Happy New Year and welcome to 2022 

MarionCC welcomed Teagan in late November. Teagan has taken over Kim’s end of week shifts so you’ll see or hear from her on a Thursday and Friday. After finishing exams Kim found a Summer job with more hours until Uni goes back so sadly she has moved on. Teagan is a Uni student studying Nursing and she’s also a sports trainer so she’s used to taking care of people and will continue with doing so in her chosen career.

I’m sure you’re all sick of us telling you to walk after your adjustment and banging on about how important walking is but we probably haven’t talked about how to walk before? Tracey and Kit recently completed some continuing education on that very topic. Presented by a Gonstead Fellow whose special interest is pelvic movement, he explained the best way to walk by engaging your “spinal engine”. He talked about 4 different ways of walking and commented that most people walk very inefficiently in Type 1 and 2 gaits. He encouraged us to teach others about Type 3 and 4 gaits to engage core muscles to support and strengthen the spine and to make walking easier.

Unfortunately those of you who walk with a dog usually use Type 1 gait (no arm swinging and head down watching the dog and where you’re going) while your dog gets an excellent walk! Type 3 and 4 gaits require 30-45 degrees of arm swing while looking straight ahead-try it? You’ll notice by swinging your arms so much it increases your stride length and you really feel your tummy muscles working differently. It feels a little odd…a bit like you’re marching and have somewhere important to go but it feels good and better that how most of us generally walk. My only hesitation is making sure you’re keeping your eyes on your path ahead, which you can do without dropping your head. It just takes a little getting used to like most things that are new. Happy walking!