Posture Therapy Blueprint
Freddie function is the model used by Egoscue Institute® in teaching posture alignment therapy. Freddy Function represents vertical alignment of the the main weight bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees and ankles)
The design of our body is to have all four sets of load joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles) level and parallel with one another. The two side of each shoulder should be mirror images for bilateral body symmetry. One should be balanced front to back and right to left. Decreasing these imbalances helps improve a myriad of bodily symptoms.
The closer our bodies are to this textbook posture the better we will feel. One analogy applicable to this philosophy pertains to car maintenance. To illustrate, if one has a tire that is bald or the thread is wearing thin, they expect a mechanic to change the tire, and do a balance and alignment, to prevent additional uneven wear. One can apply the same principle to our bodies, aligning ones body helps decrease or eliminate pain as well as improve other symptoms. When our internal organs are pushed together, this may decrease proper digestion. Improved alignment can help in this arena as well. Another example involves vertigo, and how it relates to head position. As we change the head position, the frequency and intensity of vertigo will decrease or disappear.
An interesting piece of information I learned during my training for Posture Alignment through Egoscue University relates to the direction of our feet when we stand. Most people stand with their feet turned out a bit. Although not as common, some individuals walk pigeon toed or with their feet turned in. If one were to sit on a bench as a passerby, they may observe that most people tend to walk with their feet turned out.
During physical therapy school, I learned that the normal stance was “feet facing forward” or turned out up to 7 degrees. Pete Egoscue wrote in his books that the ideal position is to have both feet facing forward. I returned to my textbooks and realized the feet being turned out or externally rotated is based on “norms.” A norm is different from an ideal. A norm is based on a measurement of a group of people and what the trend is. However, this is not what is best for our body. I have observed that most people do not have both feet turning out equally either. This means that their weight is not evenly distributed throughout their body. This lack of distribution may inadvertently cause pain to occur on one side of the body. It is interesting when many people come to see a physical therapist citing that one knee hurts more than the other one. The person may rationalize the pain by stating that they are getting older. However, I may pose the question and suggest that it is both knees that are getting older, and not just one. This has to do with our imbalances in our body.
Posture Alignment Therapy can help you realign your body to help minimize the physical consequences of being imbalanced. It may make you feel younger as you get older. Don’t we all want that!