Posture…is mine ok?

“Sit up straight” “pull your shoulders back and down” “Don’t slouch” sound familiar? does this take you back to a gentler time? here are some of the variety of commands we have all heard sometime in our lives, and may now be saying to our own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Who is to say what is a perfect posture? Well there are plenty of professionals and non-professionals alike who like to think they have these answers “see me and I’ll improve your posture, guaranteed!” Ha!

The truth is, our bodies will stand and work in the most energy efficient way possible, and sometimes this means slouching. Our bodies are made up of all kinds of tissue including bone, ligaments, muscle, fascia, nerves, arteries, blood vessels, visceral organs etc etc. And its primary role is to maintain a state of homeostasis, or in other words, a state of balance. Which is lovely because this happens automatically, meaning, you have to do absolutely nothing. However, this doesn’t mean we are comfortable.

Right now, stop reading and look at how you are seated, chances are you are reading this on your mobile, which means a bad posture. Poked neck, rounded shoulders, eyes squinting trying to read the small print. Likely you’re in a slouched chair perhaps, if it’s a weekend and you're trying to zone out by looking at your phone. Is this a good posture? Generally not, more often we see people with chronic neck pain, body aches, headaches, arm and shoulder pain, and the horrible back pain from sustaining these postures. But, our body considers it as an it’s efficient for what we’re doing and what we have to work with, right?

We stand in the most comfortable positions to avoid or reduce pain, and sit in the positions we need to so we can read that small script on our laptop or our iPhone on the train, and rarely now, the book in our lap. Instead of trying to correct posture alone with these age-old commands of “stand up straight” perhaps we should consider the context in which they are created, eg. my shoulders are rounded because I’m anxious, or angry as I have alot going on today? Of course strengthening and stretching techniques, massage, needles to relieve pain, taping to correct rounded postures etc etc all have their place, but what a nice world it would be if we looked at the whole person and not just the posture alone?

See you in the clinic

Sam