Self Adjusting

by Wm. Moritz Hardwick, D.C.

My first experience with a Chiropractor was back during high school (he’s still my favorite chiropractor). Like most chiropractors, he would adjust my spine for many different reasons (those reasons are for another subject). Afterward, I would leave feeling better and looser.

However, between visits I discovered I could adjust my own back and neck. Got pretty good at it too. So good I thought, “Hey, why should I go back to him when I can do it my self?” Boy was I wrong.

Picture if you will 7 tuna fish can’s stacked atop one another. Now put 6 circular kitchen sponges between each can. They’re all stacked upon the table in front of you and stuck together with glue. Now stick a bowling ball on top of it all. That’s your head, and the cans are your neck. Make sure the kitchen sponges are nice and wet so they can be pliable. Since they’re stuck together, you can grab the bowling ball and lean it side to side and the cans will tend to open up on the bending away side while closing down on the bending toward side. Now, picture the sponge between cans three and four all dry and hard. It doesn’t stretch or expand with the bending. It’s what we Chiropractors call, ‘Fixated’. In other words, locked up and not mobile.

A person who self adjusts will bend their neck side to side, however instead of freeing up the fixated sections, we’re actually making the joints above and below more movable. Which is what we Chiropractors call ‘loose’ or ‘hyper mobile’. Essentially the self adjuster is not moving the right segment and thus making his neck worse even though it feels better for a short period afterward.

This is why you come to see me (or any Chiropractor). So we can move/adjust the fixated segment, freeing it up so it will move properly.