“The tires don’t lie!”

A few years back, I took my car to my mechanic for some routine maintenance. While waiting in the office, my mechanic came in and asked me if I had noticed if the car was shaking a lot when I was driving it.
“Oh yeah”, I replied. “It has been shaking a little bit.”
“A little?” he questioned.
“Quite a bit, I guess.”
“That’s what I’d guess too.”
“Why do you say that?” I inquired.
“Look at this,” he said while walking me over to my car. “Put your hand here and run it along the inside of the tire,” he demonstrated by petting my car’s tire like it was Labrador Retriever. “Do you feel how uneven that is?”
“Yeah”, was my reply, but it sounded more like “so what?”
“Well that unevenness in the tire is called scalloping. It is a sign of uneven wear. Your tires are so bad that it must be causing the car to handle poorly. Without driving the car, I can tell you that a high performance car like this must be shaking quite a bit if your tires are this bad! It looks like it is probably pulling to the right”
“You can tell all that by just feeling the tires?” I asked in amazement.
“The tires don’t lie!”
“Come to think about it,” I said, “it has been shaking for a while. I just got used to it I guess and tried to ignore it.”
“You can ignore it all you want, but the tires don’t lie.  There’s a problem with your alignment, your shocks, or your tires are not balanced correctly.   There’s a problem here.  Time for new tires and probably an alignment.”
He started walking back to the office muttering the whole way, “The tires don’t lie.”

This got me thinking… The human body is the same way.
Example #1: Forward head posture can put too much pressure on the muscles and vertebrae of the neck which can lead to headaches, tight traps, shoulder pain, arm and hand numbness, or decreased balance. So when I see severe forward head posture I always ask the person if they have headaches or neck pain.

Example #2 A person who stands with their knees locked or hyper extended puts their low back into hyperlordosis. This causes increased pressure on the joints in the low back, the hips, and the sacrum. It can also lead to stretched and weak abdominal muscles. This is a recipe for low back problems.

Lastly, shoe wear.  When the outside of the shoe is excessively worn, we know that the person has a tendency to supinate their foot. This puts greater strain on the knee, hip, and low back. Some muscles become strained while others become weak.  Another recipe for low back problems.

The Tires Don’t Lie!