Can I adjust myself?

How convenient it would be to safely and properly adjust ourselves! The reality is, there is an important distinction between “cracking” your own spine and receive an adjustment to your spine. The latter can not be done by ourselves, thus the reason why even chiropractors need to be adjusted by other chiropractors!

The adjustment

The adjustment is a very precise manipulation of the joints between the spine’s vertebrae, or between the joints of the pelvis. Prior to delivering an adjustment, the chiropractor conducts an assessment to determine what joint is subluxated (fixed in a malposition), and in what direction it needs to be restored. Then, the chiropractor adjusts the segment in a very precise vector, with an the appropriate force and speed. Voilà!

Why you can’t do a real adjustment on yourself

Many things have to come together for an adjustment to happen. The patient has to be in the right position, the joint needs to be taken to its physiological end play,  and the chiropractor must chose a precise point of the contact on the joint. Then, the thrust happens, in all it’s specific vector, speed and force. It is physically impossible to transfer the energy to create the thrust from your body to your own body, all while taking the specific contact on the joint and tension out of it.

Why your friend or family member can’t adjust you either

Anyone can make a joint “crack”. We’ve heard it all: the wife who steps on her husband’s back to help crack it, or the the soccer coach giving the “bear hug” to his players before a game. Even if the joint has an audible release, it does not make it an adjustment. These “back crackings” lack the assessment as to WHY that joint has to be adjusted, what direction it needs to be adjusted in, and what other segments need to be adjusted to maximize the effect. Without a proper chiropractic assessment of the spine, the cracking of it has no meaning.