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Spinal Curves, Posture and Traction

They say your posture is a window to your spine. When your spine is aligned properly you have three 60 degree arcs that form your cervical, thoracic, and lumbar curves. When we are born we have one big "C Shaped" curve. Then at about 6-8 weeks of age when we begin to lift our little heads up to observe our environments, we form (because of the forces of gravity acting on the skull and spine) our neck curve (cervical curve). This is also how we develop our neck muscles as they now have to perform work to balance the skull. A little while later when we begin to crawl, we form our low back (lumbar) curve. Then, when we attempt to stand and start waddling around, we develop our lumbar spinal muscles. At this point, unless something went wrong, we should have three curves that will actually make the spine very strong and better able to protect and house the nervous system.

According to science, curves actually make the spine 10x stronger. This is why it is so important to maintain them. When we lose our spinal curves we become much more susceptible to injuries which can result in things like disk herniations and vertebral subluxations. Even poor lifting techniques such as bending over and picking something up (which straightens the spine) instead of squatting (which maintains the curves and mechanical advantage) can put great forces on the disk and ligaments causing herniations.