HABIT CHANGE 4 of 5: Which is your favorite leg to cross when sitting?
Right now, which leg is crossed or are you sitting upon?
Do you sit on a foot when at your desk or dinner table? If you saw which leg is crossed now, do you ever make the effort to switch it up?
Lateral shifts
Here's a great visual of what our spine does if we: sit on a foot, sit on a wallet/phone, or even when we cross our legs. The sitting on the foot and crossing of the legs isn't totally a bad thing... but it IS if you don't switch between sides equally.
Mechanical Scoliosis
As per the last habit change email, this 'favorite side posturing" lends to mechanical shifts of the spine that tend to be "stuck" unless you promote a combination of muscle/fascia release and joint work. A good example is the one of persisting neck pain that you've gotten massages and chiropractic adjustments for years for because it always comes back. If your neck is constantly adapting for your hip/pelvic shift, relief can never be long-lasting until you fix the below region first.
A habit psychologically takes 66 to 90days to form without need for conscious thought. Take that time to promote ONLY your unfavored side to allow it to build flexibility as well as to allow your body to laterally shift the "other" way. Then, take the next 66 to 90days to create a habit of having no favorite sides and shifting symmetrically between sides!
I want to give the best physical therapy care possible. This entails looking at the whole body and how it affects the areas that pain you as well as looking at how your functional habits affect WHY you have your pain. Hands-on, manual physical therapy calls for more than just exercise and stretches, it's about restoring HOW your body SHOULD move at each joint.