How The Pulley Method Works

By Dr. Janine Pulley

How does the Pulley Method work?

So, how does the Pulley Method work? First, it’s important to understand posture.

The general idea behind posture correction and chiropractic care:

If you have ever worked out in a gym or played a sport, you know that posture (also known as “form”) is crucial for performance and to prevent injury. If you are wearing running shoes that are worn down and make your ankles tilt inward, you are looking at a foot, ankle, knee, and/or hip injury in your future. That is because your foot and ankle joints, knees, and hips are not properly aligned, so more wear and tear is being put on the joints than necessary. More wear and tear = faster degeneration of the joints, also known as arthritis.

So the focus for most chiropractors is posture correction. If we can get your body realigned back to normal posture, we can minimize the wear and tear (aka degeneration or arthritis) to your body to maximize your health and wellness. Bonus: it also helps prevent neuromusculoskeletal injuries!

The Pulley Method specifics:

Like I tell everyone at the office: the body is amazing. However, it is designed to survive, not thrive. What this means is that the body is capable of healing a lot of things, like a paper-cut. However, the body can’t heal everything or you’d live forever.

So our goal is to target specific misalignments that the body cannot naturally correct on its own just due to the angles involved. These misalignments occur when bones shift in a way that the body’s muscles cannot bring them back into their proper position due to a lack of muscle strength or coordination to counteract that shift. When bones misalign in a way that the body can’t correct, external intervention becomes necessary. It’s why Dr. Pulley cannot adjust herself!

Re-aligning those bones that have shifted out of place is exactly what is addressed during treatment sessions.

Now, how do bones end up in a position that the body cannot self-correct? There are many factors, and they don’t all have to be significant events like a car crash. Simple things like sitting with poor posture that pushes your head forward, sleeping on your stomach, or even activities like being slapped on the back after a sporting event can contribute to these shifts.

By understanding how The Pulley Method works, patients can make adjustments to their daily habits, helping prevent further misalignments and speeding up the healing process. Dr. Pulley has handouts on what you can do at home to maintain your improved posture and she will go over them in greater detail at the office.

The benefits of the Pulley Method:

The best part is that the method is gentle while being extremely effective. Dr. Pulley works frequently with people who suffer from connective tissue disorders like EDS as well as osteopenia and osteoporosis.

It is also a great method for anyone who is scared of trying chiropractic or has had a bad experience.

My theory is that for most people who has “gotten worse” after traditional chiropractic treatment, their misalignments were not properly addressed. For example, many chiropractors are taught “motion palpation,” which is feeling for areas of tightness or reduced range of motion. Then they adjust that area. In my experience, a “stuck” area does not necessarily need to be mobilized – it could be compensating for somewhere else. By only re-aligning the areas the body truly needs with the Pulley Method, we minimize the negative side effects. (Additionally: I never adjust trying to get a “pop” or “crack” – that is created by breaking up gas bubbles in the joints and they have no clinical relevance.)

Will you still be sore sometimes after treatment? You can be as some muscles that have not been working properly are “waking up” and are not thrilled about having to do their jobs again. But it should feel more like being sore after a workout rather than true pain or discomfort.

Bonus: we do not do the “neck crack” that most people do not like!