Posture and Body Mechanics

It is so important to teach proper posture and body mechanics. I'm sure we have all been told to "stand up straight" at some point in our life. It is so easy to get into bad habits of slouching or poor posture. To have good posture, we must have good body mechanics. Poor body mechanics can cause problems with the lower part of the back. It is important to teach a person with poor posture/body mechanics to "stand up straight" so that we can prevent further damage to the lower back. It is important to teach clients with poor body mechanics how to lift things properly. By doing so, it will help reduce back pain and injuries. It is important to show them how to lift and bend properly so they can fix the bad habits they already have. I have seen first hand how fixing poor posture and body mechanics can help reduce pain in the lower back. I used to have a lot of back pain when I was in high school as a cheerleader. We were taught incorrectly how to lift other girls in the air. It wasn't until we got a new coach who had health care experience that we learned how to lift properly. This reduced a lot of pain my teammates and I were experiencing. It is important to learn proper body mechanics early so that you wont do more damage. With my own clients that experience back pain from poor posture and body mechanics, I would show them the right way to lift things and bend. I believe that visually showing someone what to do helps out a lot. I would start by showing them how they do it (which is the wrong way) and then show them how it is supposed to be done. I would explain that when bending to lift something, the proper technique would be to start bending with your knees, widening your base of support, and use your legs to lift the object. I would tell them that when you have your torso bent forward, it would cause strain in the back muscles. The next intervention I would do to help a client with poor posture and body mechanics is practice sitting straight and not slouched over. I would demonstrate again what they did wrong and how to do it right. I know it may be hard for a person who has slouched their whole life to start sitting up straight. A suggestion that I would give the person to help them remember to not slouch would be to buy a tennis ball or softball. Whenever they go to sit for a period of time, find a chair that has a back support. I would tell them to put the ball between their shoulder blades and sit back. The object of this is to not let the ball fall down and this helps with keeping a straight posture. It is so important that we educate clients on proper posture and body mechanics because it can help reduce pain and injury.

Advertisement and the Impact of the Human Nervous System

An ad that sticks out to me a lot is the Haribo Gold Gummy Bears commercial. They are promoting gummy bears. I am not even a fan of gummy bears but every time I see this commercial, I want to go buy some! The reason it sticks out to me the most is because you see a group of adults who look like they are in a serious business meeting sitting around a table. When they start to talk you hear little kids’ voices. Each adult has a voiceover of a little kid and they are trying to sell the gummy bears. It makes me laugh all the time because they even use grammar like little children would use. One guy is saying the red gummy bear is “more gooder” than the others!! To me, it makes me want to buy it to feel like a kid again! Emotions are controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain. Some of the important functions that the frontal lobe does when I watch the ad is emotional expression, memory, and judgement. It is considered our “control panel” of our personality. When watching this commercial, it brings back happy memories from my childhood of going to candy stores with my grandparents. This memory is caused by the amygdala. The emotional significance attached to this memory and experience is mediated by the amygdala in my brain. It integrates my emotions, my emotional behavior, and my motivation for wanting to buy these specific types of gummy bears. This commercial is brilliant because it hits towards emotions of the potential buyers. Most of us would love to go back to our childhood and eat all the candy we can without have to worry about all the calories  I always love this ad because it makes me laugh and smile every time!!

The link to enjoy this wonderful commercial!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAnwmmPFYgU

Man from the South

This was an interesting story to read about. We know that the story took place in 1948. Things were a lot different in terms of occupation for men and women in 1948. If the man had lost the bet, then he would have trouble doing his daily occupations. He thought it was a fair bet because he felt like he didn't use his pinky in his daily life activities. If the soldier would have lost, I believe he would have had many difficulties in his occupation as a soldier. He would have difficulty in shooting a gun, using a knife if they trained with those, and even his daily physical training that soldiers have to do. He would lose his grip strength when he looses his pinky. It is very important for a soldier to have good grip strength especially if he is a naval soldier. Being a Naval soldier, it is assumed that they have to do a lot of maintenance on the ship. There is a lot of cleaning of the boat, getting sails ready, and also tying ropes for sail. I think the soldier would have trouble in performing those skills because he wouldn't have the hand strength that he used to have. He would have to modify the way he learned how to tie ropes, how to fix the sails, and preparing the boat for sail. I believe the soldier would have a harder time adjusting to the loss of his finger than he expected. I was shocked to see how the story ended. I did not expect the wife to come in the room before the bet was over. I also didn't expect to find out she only had a thumb left on one hand. A woman's role in that time period was to be a wife. Most of her occupations would include cooking, cleaning, gardening, and taking care of her husband. It would take a lot of practice to adapt to cooking or cleaning with basically one hand. She would have to learn how to cook easy recipes that don't require you to do multiple things at one time. Since it stated that the woman was wealthy, she could hire someone to cook for her so it would be easier. Her daily routine of getting ready had to change tremendously. The first time we were introduced to the wife, we see she was coming back from getting her hair washed. I think that shows that she is not able to do it herself anymore or that it is too hard for her so she would rather pay someone to do it for her. Something that I think the wife could invest in since she had a lot of money is a multiple shower head. I think it would be helpful if she had three different shower heads, one up top and two on the sides. I feel like it would help the wife by being able to rinse her hair better. I feel that if the wife could get ready on her own, she would feel better about herself and feel more independent again. We can tell that she may regret betting to lose her fingers since she had to move her husband away from their home and stopped the soldier from losing his finger. I feel as if she thought her fingers weren't important just like the soldier did.

Neurotransmitter Project: Acetylcholine