If you’ve just started out on your chiropractic journey with Chiropractic Life, you may have heard your chiropractor mention the ‘3-legged stool’ when explaining your corrective care program. Alternatively, if you’re still considering chiropractic care and have yet to visit one of our chiropractors, listen up – reading this will make you look like a star student.

As you may know, Chiropractic Life has an intensive first few visits to delve into the problems each individual is facing. We focus on getting to the cause of the issue so that we can help you, via corrective care, to achieve long-term results. Essentially, we like to see you thrive in life, not just survive.

Part of this involves having open and honest conversations about where you are currently in your health (good and bad), setting some goals to improve your situation and providing you with the most important tools to achieve them – empowerment through knowledge & accountability. If you thought getting adjustments from your chiropractor was the solution to all your health problems, then I’m sorry to tell you that adjustments are just the tip of the iceberg in achieving true health.

So, let’s get back to the 3 legged stool analogy that your chiropractor has or will mention…

The 3-legged stool of corrective chiropractic

So it goes without saying that a 3 legged stool needs all of its legs to provide a safe seat for you to plant your tush. If you take away one leg, you can balance for a while, using your own legs and core to support you, but eventually, something is going to give, right? If you take away 2 legs, you’re left trying to balance but ultimately wobbling around and using both your legs and arms to try and stay upright – unless you’re an avid unicycler, this isn’t sustainable either. 

 Chiropractic care is much the same, requiring all ‘3 legs’ for you to thrive. So what are each of the legs of corrective chiropractic care?

1.  The first leg establishes your best program of adjustments: Your chiropractor will work out exactly what you need after your initial appointments and tailor a corrective care plan specific to your health needs. It’s important to remember that each adjustment you receive builds on the progress from those before. With time and repetitive adjustments, your chiropractor can improve the  movement and alignment of your spine – essentially allowing your nervous system to have better control over your body [1].

2.  The second leg is to remove bad habits: Poor day-to-day habits can make your progress go backwards and reduce the effectiveness of your adjustments. Some common, everyday bad habits are sitting or standing incorrectly or sleeping improperly. Your chiropractor will help you to identify what habits might be inhibiting your care and suggest some lifestyle adjustments to create good habits.

3.  The third leg is stretches and exercises for spinal health: Your chiropractor will likely provide you with exercises and/or spinal orthotics for specific spinal stretches, these are to maximise your results. They will SUPPORT the adjustments you receive in practice and ultimately help stabilise your spine, so you’re less likely to suffer an episode of the pain that likely brought you to our chiropractor initially.

Chiropractic is Teamwork

So now you know what the 3 legged stool is all about, I’ve got one final truth bomb to leave you with, and that is that chiropractic is 50/50 Teamwork.

50% is what WE do in practice with you – adjustments, prescribing exercises, giving you knowledge, and holding you accountable for the goals that you have set.

50% is what you do to SUPPORT your care- sticking to your adjustment schedule, doing the exercises/stretches you’ve been given, focusing on eliminating your bad habits and making moves to achieve your personal goals.

We only see you for a small portion of your adjustment days, and we want to see you sitting comfortably on your 3 legged stool to achieve your goals and ideal health outcomes. CONSISTENCY with your care plan and always keeping the 3 legged stool in your mind’s eye will greatly improve your results.

Remember, it’s like exercise, you need to show up even on the days you don’t want to. 

By attending your regular appointments, focusing on turning your bad habits into good ones and completing your exercises/stretches, you will be working towards achieving your goals and true health.

As we said earlier, our Chiropractic Life difference wants to set you up to thrive, and you can only do that when your body functions at its best ability. We know that getting better is a lifestyle choice, not a quick fix, and we’re here to hold up our 50% as long as you are. 

Prioritise your health so you can sit, stand, walk, run and throw that 3 legged stool around as much as you like.

Let’s finish with WHY

Ok, so you’ve grasped the 3 legged stool, and now you understand the 50/50 – let’s finish with why we operate the way we do at Chiropractic Life.

It has been shown that chiropractic adjustments positively impact the prefrontal cortex. Don’t worry; I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty science, but you should know that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for our behaviour, goal-directed tasks, decision-making, memory and attention, intelligence, processing of pain and emotional response to it, autonomic function, motor control, eye movements and spatial awareness [2].

Does some of that sound familiar? Like some aspects we want you to focus on in the 3-legged stool of corrective chiropractic?

The adjustments we provide in practice help to set you up for success by giving your brain and body the best chance to function optimally. We could provide the adjustment and let you continue as normal between visits, but that style of care does not sit within our philosophy. We WANT you to make lifestyle changes to achieve true health so that you aren’t coming back to us with the same issues you started with – like a yoyo on a string. We use the 3 legged stool analogy as a prompt for you to use all the tools we provide to succeed and thrive because, at the end of the day, the only person in complete control of your health is YOU.

So, if you are still reading this, you are likely looking for some balance in your health – to get on the 3-legged stool. We can help you with that! You can check out our nearest location via the ‘Locations’ tab at the top of this page – we would love to help you on your health journey. 

Chiropractic Life’s Commitment

At Chiropractic Life, we deliver neurostructural corrective chiropractic at our practices across Australia and New Zealand.  Our approach focuses on correcting and realigning the spine and posture.  This enables the nervous system to be free from interference and the brain to receive feedback from the spine and deliver the right information to the body through optimum brain-to-body communication. 

Explore www.chiropracticlife.com.au/locations to find a convenient location near you.

Optimise your brain-to-body connections today with Chiropractic Life.

References:

1. https://spinalresearch.com.au/research-project-h-reflex-and-v-waves-2/
2. https://spinalresearch.com.au/research-beyond-doubt-adjusting-subluxated-spine-changes-brain-function/