Instructor connects posture, health for HealthCircle lecture

Keeping adults from having a 45 pound head is the goal of a UCCS health sciences instructor and program coordinator for the Center for Active Living.

Michelle LeCompte will deliver “The Ankle Bone is Connected to the Shoulder Bone,” at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Lane Center for Academic Health Sciences, 4863 North Nevada. Her free presentation is part of a monthly series of community lectures sponsored by the UCCS HealthCircle.

LeCompte will discuss the cycle of muscle imbalance, impairments, disability and pain. For example, pronation – or turning your foot in – can affect the knees, hips, back and shoulders. Pronounced chin tilting increases the force on the cervical spine and can result in what she calls a “45 pound head” and a cycle of back and muscle pain.

“I will engage individuals to think about their posture and how repeated positioning can lead to altered movement patterns and initiate a dangerous cycle leading to disability and pain,” LeCompte said. “My goal is to observe and correct full-body impairments, thereby assessing a client’s whole body.”

LeCompte earned bachelor’s degrees in health science and psychology and a master’s degree in health promotion, all from UCCS. She has been an instructor at the UCCS Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences since July 2014 and a program coordinator for the Center for Active Living.

This is the sixth in an ongoing series of community health lectures provided by the UCCS HealthCircle to educate the greater Colorado Springs community on common health issues. Previous lectures dealt with improving nutrition, preventing falls, stress management, ultrasound testing and improving the quality of primary care visits.

In February 2014, five UCCS clinics joined to become the UCCS HealthCircle. Located in the Lane Center for Academic Health Sciences, the clinics are the UCCS Aging Center, the Peak Nutrition Clinic, the Center for Active Living, a nurse-managed Primary Care Clinic and the Veterans Health and Trauma Clinic. For more information, visit www.uccs.edu/healthcircle.