Opinion on chiropractic perspective

I was recently talking to a chiropractor about training. A variety of topics came up but one chiropratic angle that I struggle to see is this. 

We were taking about strength training, mobility etc and posture. The the subject can up of alignment and that certain positions needed to be avoided because whilst the body can do them they come at structural cost. 

Further to this without external alignment no matter how much mobility etc we do ourselves well never effectively undo this. An example would be the first rib and how the shoulders hang once this is adjusted. It doesn’t require strength to maintain posture. 

I brought up examples of athletes or mobility athletes (many of which are held up as examples here) who are able to handle misalignment and sre not troubled by excessive back flexion or extension because they’ve built strength in the range. 

His is counter argument was that the only reason they have good posture was that they are strong enough to hold themselves against misalignment and collapse on structure. Where they to not be so conscious of their movement t they would find that they hold a lot of rotation, torque and tension. 

 The final point and please forgive me my knowledge of chiropractic techniques is limited  we’re they to have regular adjustment they’d be able handle higher loads and be able to live with out the compensation costs that they may be unaware of. 

So my issue is how can an organism evolve to need so much external help?plus if we build the range of day a gymnast or ido portal etc. is not strength in a dymnic strength the entire points of good posture 

any thoughts because I felt ill  equipped to have a counter argument. 

My argument was we need to prepare for misalignment because that’s sport we need to build strength in difficult positions which may mean we are amateurs for a long time which will be at slight odds with our body. But through practice we can realign our body without external help in most cases. 

MAy be we actually agree!

11 hours ago, Paul Bassett said:

So my issue is how can an organism evolve to need so much external help

No organism evolves to need "external help". That's just marketing, and to be told, constantly, that you're 'broken' and 'out of alignment' and therefore is, in my opinion, unethical.

Even if you feel better after an 'adjustment', there is no justification for not telling you how to maintain it yourself. Having worked as a massage therapist, though, there are different groups of people

• people who are actively involved in trying to get the most performance out of their bodies, and who chose to to get treated regularly, because they didn't know how to, or couldn't,  treat themselves.
• people who are in the habit of being treated, mainly because they can afford it and they feel better afterwards
• people who outsource their wellbeing to others and who remain passive participants (never do any suggest rehab,for example).

This is a bit random, but from my own clinical observations (maybe some of the osteos here might chime in as well):

1. no-one is completely symmetric. Everyone has a bias towards using one side, or front or back, or is tighter or stiffer on one side more than the other side. As long as it doesn't interfere with your activity, it's not a problem AND DOES NOT NEED FIXING.
2. if your chosen activity needs equal strength or ROM (eg thoracic rotation in SL/PE10), and you can rotate all the way to the right, but only 45 degrees to the left, then there's a problem. Or not being able to go above 180 degrees in shoulder flexion in handstands. It's not a defect, you simply haven't trained enough to develop the ROM/strength/etc. I really dislike some of the language used by medical and allied health practitioners in this respect. Your spine itself is fine, maybe some of the tissue around the joints is a bit stiff, but you're misaligned? Maybe if you've been in a high-speed collision.
3. Sometimes a ROM or stiff joint DOES respond to treatment, eg cervical or thoracic mobilisations, however the benefits come from you MAINTAINING the new ROM, not so much from the treatment itself. The reasons are complex and I don't pretend to understand all the nuances, but forcing the body into a new range can be interpreted by the body (this is really oversimplifying) as a "threat",and as a result the treated area can stiffen up even more. Moving into, and out of, the new range (if it's a ROM thing you've been treated for) A LOT in the week after any treatment will make the new range your body's "new normal". That's real progress.
4. Sometimes you just have to spend time building strength or ROM, much more time than you think you will.  No physical treatment can actually stretch muscle (unless you're an orthopaedic surgeon and you're lengthening a limb, and even then it takes a long time).

Anyway, this is just my 2 cents worth.

Actually, one more thing. There's a criticism of GB that the progressions are too slow, and that mobility holds everyone back. There's certainly more than the GB way of learning gymnastic strength. However, the good thing about this is that it DOES give your nervous system (which, importantly) makes your muscles work time to adapt, it gives your connective tissue time to adapt, and most importantly, it gives your attitude time to adapt.

Anecdotally - I have no real data to support this, just my own reading - GB seems to result in fewer injuries. People who try to make up their own program, though (such as those following Stephen Lowe's "Overcoming Gravity"), well, the subReddit is full of people who appear to have pushed themselves beyond what their bodies can handle, especially work using rings.

As an osteopath-in-training, I fully agree with Nick's post. I have nothing to add, except that I come from a family with five chiropractors and while I am sure that their treatments sometimes provide results, in my humble opinion they are missing the big picture with all the focus on alignment of the spinal column. I don't know where you are based Paul, but it might be worthwhile to consult an osteopath in the future. Having said that, osteopathy isn't practiced in the same way everywhere - osteopaths in the US and UK tend to have a somewhat different approach than 'continental' European osteopaths. But they will always have a broader perspective than the average chiropractor.