Episode #37: Talking Posture with Dr. Krista Burns of The American Posture Institute

Show Notes:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey everybody, what's going on? Dr. Chad Woolner here, and we have a special guest on today's episode. This is episode 37 of the health fundamentals podcast. And we're going to be talking to Dr. Krista burns on posture. So let's get started.

Speaker 2: (00:13)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm Dr. Chad Woolner and I'm Dr. Buddy Allen. And this show was about giving you the simple but powerful cutting edge tools you need to change your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show as we show you the path to your best life down to a science.

Speaker 1: (00:32)
So, Hey everybody, I am super excited about today's episode. We have a good friend of ours, dr Krista burns here with us. Thank you so much for being here with us. Dr. Krista,

Speaker 3: (00:42)
thanks so much, dr Chad. I appreciate the opportunity of sharing today with you and your audience and look forward to Shelly sharing more about health.

Speaker 1: (00:49)
Yeah, awesome. So, uh, for those who are watching here, uh, we have kind of a local connection here. So, uh, this podcast obviously, uh, uh, we have a clinic here in Meridian, Idaho. For those who are local for those obviously not local, um, that, that may or may not mean anything. But, uh, dr Krista, you're an Idaho native yourself, is that correct?

Speaker 3: (01:11)
Yes, I grew up skiing in sun Valley, so just right down the road.

Speaker 1: (01:16)
Yeah. So not, not too far from us. So perhaps maybe that's a good place to start. You know, when we talk about, um, the American posture Institute, which you and uh, Dr. Mark Wade founded, um, several years ago, uh, the story actually starts probably in sun Valley doesn't it? Yes. When I was about three years old, because that's when I started ski school and ski

Speaker 3: (01:40)
school, I won, I had the dream of being an Olympic skier. And so I was on sun Valley ski team. I was skiing every day of the week. I was just so committed to this, this goal that I had for mogul skiing. And so I was skiing seven days a week. I was competing at a national level. I was doing junior national championships, national championships, you name it. And it was actually the morning of us ski team tryouts in winter park, Colorado. And I suffered a fall that morning and I hurt my back. And so I got pulled from the competition and this was a big national competition. And that morning I didn't realize it but that would actually be the last competition I would ever compete in. And when I got to the bottom of the course, I remember hugging my coach and I was crying cause I got pulled out of the competition and he said, well don't worry, I have the solution for you.

Speaker 3: (02:27)
And so he recommended that I take weekly flights over to Seattle actually. And I was flying weekly and I was instructed to get injections into my spine cause I was told that this was the conservative care to prevent surgery. And so my senior year of high school, I would leave whatever river high school and go over to Seattle each week, spend two days, miss two days of school and get injections in my spine under anesthesia. And after this grueling process of eight weeks in a row, not only could I not ski, but I could barely walk. I had visual bruising that lasted on my for two years after the injections. Every time I would bend forward to put my socks on, it was like breathtaking pain like I would scratch because it hurts so bad. And so just like that from the time I was three years old, I had dreamed of being an Olympic skier and that was taken away from me.

Speaker 3: (03:14)
And what I learned from that process was that there had to be a better way. You know, I was a young union tool, I was in great shape. Like how could I not overcome back pain? What somebody that's so common. And so from that point I really became obsessed with back pain. And what I wish is that at the time I knew people like dr Chad who could have taken care of me because really what I had was postural distortion patterns. And had I prevented this from a young age, I could have gone all the way to the Olympics who skiing. And so from that point I became obsessed with back pain, went to chiropractic school and then created the American posture Institute for complete postural correction systems. So that leads us to where we are today. But I know exactly how anybody who's listening to this right now who has ever experienced back pain, I want you to know that I'd been in your shoes. I know that it hurts and I do want to tell you that there is definitely a better way. And people like dr Chad can take such good care of you to prevent you from getting to the point where I got where I was flying, you know, across the country to get injections in my spine that then made it so much worse than the end. So there is a better way and I'm glad that you listen to this podcast to learn more.

Speaker 1: (04:18)
Yeah, well and, and I appreciate that. But the thing that I think that people could take home really fundamentally from the story, which is really cool, is that it might sound a bit cliche, but it's that classic when one door closes, another door opens, you know, you're looking, looking back at it now years afterwards. Uh, I mean the trajectory and course of your life completely changed as a result of that. And, and while, you know, some people could have like taken that as like, well my life is over cause I'm, I'm sure that was probably pretty devastating. You don't, you don't get to that level of competition and then, and then have that taken away without that being pretty traumatic. And yet, um, you use that as fuel to change the course and you did some pretty remarkable things. And so you, you know, you did chiropractic college. Where did you go to chiropractic college app in Davenport, Iowa. At Palmer college.

Speaker 1: (05:09)
You finished chiropractic college. And this is where I love where your story kind of begins, which is so cool, is that most people like myself, we go to chiropractic college and we say, you know, I'm going to set up for us. We lived in Portland and we, we really loved Idaho, so we're like, we're going to set up shop in Idaho. That's not what you did though. You said, we love what we're going to head to Italy of all places we're going to, did you guys like spin the globe and like point your finger? Is that what happened or how'd that old process come? Undergraduate

Speaker 3: (05:38)
study is, I had spent about six months over in Italy doing undergrad. I'm doing study abroad and I had such a phenomenal time. I just fell in love with the Italian culture. After graduating from chiropractic school about four years later I thought, Oh, I want to go back so badly. And of course a little bit of fear sat in and I thought, can I really do this in the second language? Can I really go start a practice over in Italy? And I knew from that moment that if I started a practice in the U S I'd never end up going because as you know, I mean when you, when you start a business, you're very dedicated to the growth and the development.

Speaker 1: (06:10)
Yeah. A plant deep roots.

Speaker 3: (06:12)
Exactly. And you want it to be a legacy, that lid that you leave behind. And so I said, if I don't go now, I'm never going to end up going. And so right after school packed our bags, my partner and I, dr Mark, and we moved over to Italy. And what was so crazy about that experience is we didn't know anybody. We didn't speak the language. If you guys remember about that time in 2011 Italy was in the worst economic crisis of Italian history. I mean, it was just all odds against our success. Like we've had no entrepreneurial experience whatsoever. We were fresh out of school and we said, let's go do this. So full of passion. We went over there. We struggled our first year, but we learned a lot of lessons, especially about specializing in our practice. And that's where with the Italian culture combined with, um, the injuries that we had seen personally as well as with our patients. We really honed in on postural correction build the greatest postural correction systems that have been, that have worked for me personally, which was really transformative for my perspective, but also watching this help thousands of patients. And then other practitioners were asking us, well, how'd you make all of this happen? How'd you move to a foreign country? And you know, create a big practice. And that's where the American posture Institute was really born, was sharing our postural correction systems with other people, other practitioners who are then implementing with patients as well throughout the world.

Speaker 1: (07:28)
That's, that's amazing. Like the, the courage and the determination that you guys took to do that. It's just always been so neat to, to hear about. Um, so, so let's talk a little bit about kind of a posture Institute a little bit more about that. And then specifically like posture, like what are some things that people, cause I think most people, at least this is my impression, I could be wrong, but I think most people, the furthest that they go with posture is that it's, it's slouching and that you shouldn't do this. Lao Ching and that's pretty much it. It's a nuisance, right? But obviously there's a lot more depth that especially when you start talking about these implicate longterm implications of what you're saying. Basically what you're saying here is posture is the root cause behind so many of these issues, if not the vast majority of them. So, so maybe start there, let's talk kind of some of the science behind posture and the, the health implications and then maybe kind of circle back on the American posture Institute and what that really is all about and everything. Is that cool?

Speaker 3: (08:24)
That sounds great. So first of all, when dr Chad does said the word posture, what did you do naturally? If you're listening, you probably did what most people do, which is you sat up a little bit straighter. You heard this one word and you physiologically changed the entire structure of your body because you heard a word, we've all heard the word posture before. Likely your mom told you to sit up straight. Your grandma told you to sit up straight. Your teacher told you to sit up straight. And so we know it's been ingrained within our physiology that good posture is associated with good health. What most of us don't realize is that poor posture, not just lead to neck pain and back pain and headaches, which it definitely does associated with that, but it also impacts the function of your body. You see that your posture is the structural framework within you within which you have your organs.

Speaker 3: (09:09)
So your, your structural framework is protecting your organic system. And so when we have compressed closed posture, we're pressing down on our organs. So when I go forward a slash posture in this position, not only is my head forward creating more pressure on my cervical spine or on my neck, but also I'm compressing my diaphragm. So if you guys want to try this with me right now, as you're listening, if you have a hunch, your shoulders forward, try taking a deep breath in from this position you feel really restricted. Whereas when you're seated up straight and you take a full depth, deep breath in and out, you have full range of motion of your diaphragm, which is your muscle of respiration, meaning you can breathe so much better. Now if you have poor posture for one breath does a banner, no, not so much, but now imagine 20 years of slouched posture.

Speaker 3: (09:55)
How that's impacting your entire respiration system and how this is showing up for a lot of adults is asthma and problems with their breathing. They feel out of breath. Whereas if they just changed their posture, they'd been changed the entire function of their body or their physiology, their ability to function at a high level. Some other examples that posture is related to is your balance. So how you balance upright against gravity. Now what's interesting is gravity's always pressing down on our bodies. So naturally if we lack fitness, we tend to go forward with gravity. And then from here we have less postural stabilization, meaning that you're setting yourself up for falls or rolling your ankle when you go out for a run or feeling more out of breath because you're in this compressed posture. So it's important to stand upright. Now, one of the greatest inhibitors of good posture in the digital age is smartphones.

Speaker 3: (10:43)
So how many of us have one of these in our pockets, right? And every time we look down at our phone, what happens to our posture? We completely collapse forward. It's called tech neck posture. Now this posture right here actually adds up to 60 pounds of pressure to your cervical spine, to your neck every time you look down at your smartphone. So I really encourage everybody, what we'll talk about, some posture tips quickly before we wrap up today. But I really encourage you that when you're looking at your devices, make sure to bring those devices up to eye level. So instead of collapsing forward with gravity while it can at your devices, you can maintain nice upright posture. I always say that posture is declining at the speed of technology in the digital age because we spend so much time like this hunch forward on our computers or staring down at our cell phones. So if you walk away with knowing one thing from today's conversation, it's that in the digital age we need to have better posture. And the best way of doing that is bringing our devices up to eye level.

Speaker 1: (11:38)
Yeah. I, you know, I saw on social media the other day, uh, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, maybe it was you that even posted it. Uh, some scientists did like a model of what they said the future humans are going to look like. If you saw that, you know what I'm talking about, they basically did like a like wax model or whatever. What a human's going to look like if things don't change, uh, for better in terms of posture. And basically they, it was like this hunchback of Notre Dame looking type person. It was, it was frightening. It was, it was crazy. Um, and then the other thing that I was going to see too is, you know, I've found it really, uh, very easy to grasp concept that we've been sharing with our patients that that balance and, or posture, they go hand in hand together. But balance is such an easy window into how the brain is communicating with the body and how the body is communicating back with the brain.

Speaker 1: (12:29)
And that's one of the things that we test for with all of our patients is we do a simple digital balanced assessment. And that is something that people just get. So instinctively they understand like, Oh, that makes perfect sense, that balance. And on top of that, when you look at that, if you're having balanced disturbances, which I w in our experience, I don't know what your experience has been clinically Christa, but our experiences, you know, probably a good 75, 80% of our patients if not have significant disturbances with their balance or balance problems. And, and when we actually test that with them, when they'll do like eyes closed balance tests and stuff, they're, they're, it's, it's, uh, it's eyeopening. Ironically, right. Having them close their eyes is very eyeopening. It is, it's very shocking for them to see significant disturbances with their balance. And that opens up that conversation to help them kind of begin to see that, that, that we're starting to get it more of the root of, of some of these problems.

Speaker 1: (13:26)
Because, uh, you know, again, I would say a very significant percentage of people who come into us can't readily point to a, um, a mechanism act of action to their problem. Right. That they're saying, I don't know what I did. I just woke up or I just been [inaudible] tied my shoes in my back or my neck quote unquote went out on me, or I quote unquote slipped a disc or I pinched a nerve or whatever the, the, the thing that they say, but they can't really point to like a car accident. I mean, obviously if you slip and you fall or if you're in a car accident, that's easy to point to. But a lot of these, I would say the vast majority are what we would call the clinical term insidious onset. You know, where it's, it's not something normal, it kinda came out of the blue or out of nowhere. And it's real easy for us to point to this fact that Oh well chances are it's been building for a while. Meaning it's been a postural problem and or a balance related problem or some other problem that has grown over time. And so, uh, you, you kind of talked about and hinted at, you know, what are some of the things that you guys recommend or that you do intervention wise in terms of posture to help people kind of correct some of these issues?

Speaker 3: (14:34)
Yeah, that's a great question. And the whole purpose of this is having better posture habits so that we can build our posture fitness. Because as dr Chad just mentioned, it's, you know, that feeling of, I bent over to put on my shoes and then my back went out. Like what happened with that? What happened was your inability a posturally your body upright, right? And so it went out so you collapsed forward. So what we want to do is have better posture habits throughout our daily life so that our bodies can function better. But also so we can have better postural stabilization to prevent our bodies from collapsing forward with gravity. And then leading to, you know, excruciating back pain like sciatica or you know, a slip desk or a hot low back. So some of the recommendations that I have, number one is bringing devices up to eye level.

Speaker 3: (15:17)
I'm going to resay that because it's so important. So if you work in a theater instead of being hunched over in this posture, bring your monitor up to eye level. So you're looking straight at it with your iPhone and you're gonna feel uncomfortable just holding your iPhone up here. So what I recommend doing is bring your elbows in close to your body so that they feel supported and then have your phone up in this position. So from here I'm at eye level, my arms are supported so that they don't get tired and I can still do everything I need to on my phone. I can still text message or scroll through social media, whatever it is I need to do. Number two is we need to move more more throughout the day. So in addition to going to the gym for 30 minutes in the morning or going for a run, you also need to move more throughout your day.

Speaker 3: (16:00)
So it's actually not enough to offset being sedentary eight hours a day by just going to the gym for 30 minutes in the morning. That is such a good habit. Keep doing that. In addition to it, we need to take more time for movement. So for example, if you have meetings, plug in your iPhone and walk and talk, do a walk and talk meeting. Get a standing desk where you can stand up more often. Also active sitting. So for example, if you sit on an exercise ball or a posture cushion, it's an in stable surface. So I'm naturally more active, meaning that I'm engaging my brain and my muscles to hold my body upright. Okay? Instead of just being completely slouched. And what you'll notice on an exercise ball when you're seated is that if you start to slouch, the ball starts to roll. And so what happens is that you naturally bring your body back into an upright position so that you can prevent yourself from falling over.

Speaker 3: (16:48)
So this is good because you're required to utilize your core musculature and it activates a part of your brain called the vestibular system for better balance. And then the third thing I want to leave you with is called a posture break. So everybody should do a posture break for 30 seconds, every hour of your work day. And we can perform this together right now. What I want to encourage you to do is bring your arms out to the side, straighten your arms, or bring your hands out to the side, straighten your arms, push your chest forward to drop your head back and just hold that position for 30 seconds.

Speaker 4: (17:18)
I'm doing this along with you here for everybody to see if they're, if they can't see you, I'm doing it here for you. I'm going to be your model.

Speaker 3: (17:25)
Perfect. So just for form of posture break cause what's going to happen is with gravity it presses down on your body so you feel like you that you naturally go into a slumped position. So let's offset that by going anti-gravity with a posture break. And so for 30 seconds, every hour of your work day, especially if you're seated at a computer, just perform a posture break. And what's going to happen is afterwards you go, Oh I feel so much better and it's so much more natural to then up straight because you just took a posture break to stretch the musculature that gets so tight from some forward posture. Okay, so those are some easy posture tips. Bring your devices up to eye level, encourage more movement throughout your work day with a standing desk or active sitting solution and take posture breaks for 30 seconds every hour of your Workday and that's going to help you have better posture to help your body function better, to prevent pain and to live a healthier life.

Speaker 1: (18:14)
That's awesome. I love the simplicity of it. And the thing that I would just caution, which is so common, the case, you know, sometimes people can be so quickly dismissive of simple solutions because they're just that they're, that's almost too simple. But the reality of it is, is that with these things, you know, we talk about, uh, in, in the health with the health fundamentals podcast, we talk about this concept of five fundamentals of health. Uh, the first fundamental is that health comes from the inside. But the second one is simplicity and consistency that we are, we are going to achieve the goals that we want with our health. When we approach it from simplicity and consistency, far too often we want some sort of magic, exciting, really cool. Like, okay, no, really, really, what's the secret? You know, and you're like, no, the secret is just do these simple little things consistently and it's gonna make a huge difference. So I, I love that fact that what you're sharing here, anyone can do. It doesn't require some new fancy piece of equipment or, you know, some expensive approach or anything. These are all really, really practical strategies. So, um, so

Speaker 3: (19:17)
at dr Chad, I just want to set up everybody for success. You've had your posture for years and years before listening today to today's conversation. So you're going to have all the best intentions in mind, but as dr Chad mentioned, it needs to be simple and consistent. So what you should do is just grab a little sticker and put it on your computer. Every time you see that sticker, it's a reminder to check your posture. It's a reminder to bring them up to eye level, to move more throughout your day and to take posture breaks. So use a posture reminder or even set one on your phone that reminds you to take your posture breaks so that you can maintain these simple yet consistent habits for health fundamentals.

Speaker 1: (19:52)
That's perfect. Perfect. I love it. So in closing, let's kind of wrap up, maybe kind of come full circle. You know, you're obviously the founder of the American posture Institute. Maybe let's talk about kind of a little bit about your mission purpose, what you do at the American posture Institute, and then obviously for people who may or may not have questions or want to connect with you on social media, maybe give them some information there in terms of how they can reach out to you and and and the American posture Institute.

Speaker 3: (20:19)
Thanks so much. Well, posture is declining at the speed of technology in the digital age. At the American posture Institute. We are committed to helping people just like you to prevent postural decline from impacting your health and your family's health. So with that being said, we'd love it if you joined us on Facebook [email protected] forward slash American posture Institute for ongoing free trainings and information for you. In addition to that, you can always check out our website, American posture institute.com and a huge props. Congratulations everybody who's listening in on today's podcast because honestly, you're in the right place to learn more about important health fundamentals. And dr Chad really is a health hero. So if you're local within the Boise Meridian area, be sure to go in and check him out. He's going to help you have a better health for a better life.

Speaker 1: (21:04)
Awesome. Thank you so much. And in closing, you know, for, for docs who are like, that's awesome, but I don't live in the Boise area. I live in wherever you guys have certified partners. Correct. Uh, through the American posture Institute, uh, healthcare professionals literally all over the world. Do you not? And, and on, on 50 countries. So in on your website, are they listed there? Is there a way for people to reach out and find out about, like, I need to get an NC, somebody who's been trained by dr Krista, uh, is there a way for them to find that out?

Speaker 3: (21:37)
100%. Just go to our website, American posture institute.com. Shoot us over a message and we'll make sure that you get taken care of.

Speaker 1: (21:44)
That's awesome. Yeah. Cause I know, um, they've done some pretty incredible training that I've seen and been through. Uh, we've actually, you, you had a kind of a micro training that we had our team go through all on posture taping, which was really, really cool. Um, and, and a bunch of other different trainings that they've had. And so, uh, for those who are like, man, I don't live in the Boise area or, uh, in sun Valley or, or, or whatever. Uh, there's literally, uh, you know, people who have specialized and have had this advanced training through a dr Krista and her team. And so, um, yeah, they'll be able to help you, uh, in those areas. But, uh, anyways, thank you so much, dr Krista. Uh, this has been incredible. One other cool little fun fact for everybody who's watching here. Um, you know, we, we really first met in person, was it three years ago, um, dr Christa and her, uh, significant other, uh, Dr. Wade, Dr. Mark Wade, two of the most wonderful people, uh, in the world. They're such good people. They host a really fun event called the Puerto Rico masterminds, which is a, a business networking event. Uh, an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get together in your little Island. They're down in Puerto Rico. Um, maybe just do a quick plug for that. Tell them about kind of what that's about and then we can kind of wrap up there. Is that cool?

Speaker 3: (22:59)
Yeah. Well, Puerto Rico masterminds, number one is a blast and number two, you're going to learn incredible information for your business. So we believe in strategizing, networking and para dicing. So it's um, you know, learning and connecting with other entrepreneurs in a paradise atmosphere in Puerto Rico. So it's a great time. We've had incredible speakers just like dr Chad share their wisdom with business growth.

Speaker 4: (23:20)
Yeah, no, we went to, I've been to two of them and they had been phenomenal and I am crossing my fingers that I'm going to be able to get to this year's as well. It's going to be amazing. So looking forward to hanging out with you guys again down there. But again, uh, I know you're crazy busy, but yet you were gracious enough to take time out of your schedule and be here with us. Dr [inaudible], thank you so much. And for those watching, if you thought that this was a beneficial and valuable, obviously share with friends and family, subscribed to the podcast, uh, obviously follow, uh, what dr Christa is doing over at the American posture Institute because she's continuing to just pour her heart. And so I see how hard she works, uh, with everything that they're doing to ultimately serve, uh, their community and serve the world. That doesn't sound too crazy or corny. I mean, it really is the truth. They're really working hard to do that. So we really love dr Krista and everything she's doing. So, uh, thank you guys so much for watching. We'll talk to you on the next episode.

Speaker 2: (24:13)
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