EXERCISE: The ELDOA Method: Unlocking the Spine's Mobility & Improving Posture
The ELDOA are postural exercises (LOADS in English) that you can do yourself with the primary goal being to increase the space within a chosen articulation. As the ELDOA ‘create' space, there is an improvement in joint mechanics, increased blood flow, reduced pressure on the discs, a reduction of pain, spinal disc rehydration, better muscle tone, improved posture, and a sense of wellbeing and awareness… Designed by French osteopath Guy Voyer DO, the ELDOA (Etirements Longitudinaux avec Decoaptition Osteo-Articulaire utilize myofascial stretching to put tension around a primary lesion making it the center of “separating forces.” The myofascial tension solicits a postural normalization in a specific joint resulting in numerous benefits.
So how does ELDOA work?
ELDOA consists of multiple postures/positions that maximize fascial tension. This is accomplished by first stabilizing one part of the body and then moving another in a stepwise progression. Most postures will have 4 transitions that progressively increase fascial tension and cause de-coaptation at the desired spinal level.
De-coaptation: is the terminology used to describe reduction in compression forces at a joint, which is the primary purpose of ELDOA.
Fascia: a thin sheath of fibrous tissue enclosing a muscle or other organ, which is the “connecting” piece that allows for tensegrity in the body
What Are the Benefits to The ELDOA Method?
The ELDOA method has an extremely wide array of benefits in both self-administration as well as clinical application. Here are a few of the major benefits seen via this method:
- Improved Posture
- Improved Postural Awareness
- Improvement in joint mechanics
- Improved strength
- Reduced Pain
ELDOA is an also a great method to supplement into physical therapy or clinical rehabilitation. Some of the major benefits for clinical application include:
- Positions/postures can be used diagnostically in order to determine dynamic fascial mobility for specific spinal segments or fascial chains.
- Strengthening secondary to end range eccentrics and isometrics.
- Supplement to commonly used postural exercises such as dead bug or bird-dog
- Spinal segment specific fascial stretching
- Muscle specific fascial stretching
- Commonly Treated impairments with good outcomes in clinical rehabilitation include:
- Forward head posture
- Headaches
- Increased thoracic kyphosis.
- Increased lordosis
- Decreased posterior chain proprioception.
- Decreased posterior chain tissue extensibility.
- Decreased posterior chain strength.
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