The Straw That Broke The Camels Back

If you've ever suffered from muscle or joint pain, there's a good chance you blamed it on a specific event or activity (or maybe even your age).

It's not uncommon to hear runners, for example, blame running for their knee pain. Just as it's not uncommon for folks to blame bending over for their back pain.

Now, while running can certainly trigger knee pain and bending over can trigger back pain, neither of these activities are the cause of the problem.

Let's illustrate the point to make it a little clearer...


Let's say Alex were to come along and throw a bucket of water over you and your friend Sam. You'd both get wet, right?

In fact, it doesn't matter who Alex throws the water over, it will always cause a person to get wet. Water causes wetness - it gets the same result every time.

Now let's say that when Alex threw the water over you, you found it cool and refeshing. But when Alex threw the water over Sam, s/he became angry and clearly wasn't amused.

The two reactions to the same event were different. Therefore, we can say that water was the trigger for your refreshed feeling and for Sam's anger... It didn't cause those feelings.

A cause gets the same results everytime. A trigger produces results that vary.

So, while running can trigger knee pain and bending over can trigger back pain, neither knee pain nor back pain are caused by running or bending over.

The knee pain and the back pain were both "accidents waiting to happen" due to postural misalignment. The running and the bending were "the straw that broke the camels back".

It's your posture - the position of the joint, not the condition - that causes the problem. Change the position through posture realignment, and you can enjoy running, gardening or any of your other favourite activities without pain!

(More about the cause of back pain here...)

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