Chiropractic, Yoga Therapy & Posture Exercise

“We are providing a valuable service to people.”

Dr. Karen Zamzow, DC, CPEP, practices in Sitka, Alaska, a fishing community on Baranof Island in the Alaskan Panhandle. The California native had always been interested in natural healthcare, but when she was a 19 year-old student at University of California, she turned her attention to chiropractic after injuries sustained in a car accident.

“After the accident, I went to a chiropractor for first time. They discovered that in addition to my injury that I had scoliosis and had actually broken my back as a child. I had no idea! We worked out a treatment plan to resolve my issues. After treatment, I had an epiphany: When you need an adjustment, you need an adjustment; chemicals will not solve a mechanical problem. And that’s when I decided to make chiropractic my career.”

While practicing, Dr. Zamzow became interested in offering yoga therapy. She trained for several years to achieve a “Master’s equivalent” in Viniyoga therapy, a clinical, one-on-one form of yoga teaching that is tailored to help patients/clients relieve pain and restore movement.
“I wanted to work with a more therapeutic approach. People move in whole-body movements. Yoga therapy utilizes that philosophy to help you feel better, move better, and live better.”

Dr. Zamzow takes whole-body wellness to heart, treating not only the body, but also the mind and spirit. As such, she offers yoga retreats in Sitka, Alaska to fully encompass the benefits of yoga.

“Sitka is an incredible environment. You just don’t think that there’s something like this in modern
times. Yoga retreats are meant to open the entire body to the experience. Being somewhere so inspiring and beautiful is fundamentally intrinsic to the experience.”

While training for her Viniyoga certification, Dr. Zamzow attended a training seminar with Dr. Weiniger. She was surprised that, despite her extensive yoga conditioning, she found some of the StrongPosture^® exercises quite challenging. Because of the strong link between the posture rehab exercises and the breathing and asana postures in yoga, she felt that the CPEP posture certification program and becoming a posture specialist would be a perfect complement to her chiropractic and yoga therapy services.

“I think of yoga and posture exercise as the metaphor of teaching a man to fish. Yoga teaches a man to fish. Posture work helps maintain that ability to fish. Breathing, posing, and mindfulness are integral to yoga, as well as posture exercise. The value of the StrongPosture^® protocols is that each exercise builds on the one before, yielding an integrated, step-by-step approach. Additionally, there are progressions and peel backs to help fine-tune the exercises to the patient. While yoga therapy is time-intensive and requires a longer commitment, StrongPosture^® is more accessible, time-effective, and relevant for everyone.”

In incorporating CPEP into her chiropractic and yoga therapy practices, she plans to offer her patients and clients individual posture rehab, as well as to train staff to conduct community classes for postural awareness.

“Posture is such a huge issue, and nobody is going there. People don’t realize the fact that posture affects your breathing, digestion, mental capability, and, of course, longevity. I am preparing my staff to teach 7 week posture classes in the Sitka area, and then refer their students to me for more individualized work.”

Believing whole-heartedly in the benefit of StrongPosture^® exercise, Zamzow encourages more
wellness professionals to consider posture rehab as a tool to help people live healthier, longer lives.

“How can we help people move, feel, and be well? Posture exercise is such a useful tool that’s delivered in a well-researched, available way. Dr. Weiniger’s program is brilliant in its simplicity- he’s done all the work for you. It’s user-friendly for professionals and can be easily integrated into practice. We are really providing a valuable service to people.”

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