POSTURE SERIES - STANDING POSTURE

Do you get pain from poor posture?

Are you constantly on the outlook for the next best gimmick claiming to fix your posture and give you back pain relief?

Have you desperately bought a posture corrector device through Amazon Prime to be shipped to your door just so you can get through the next day at your desk working from home?

Posture is such an important topic we decided to create a series on it. For ten weeks, we’ll release a new blog on postural related topics each week. When efforts are taken to correct poor posture, astronomical results can be reaped.

Back pain is one of the most common chronic conditions in Canada. Four out of five adults will experience at least one episode of back pain at some time in their lives; occurrence is most often between the ages of 30 and 50; and back problems affect men and women equally.

Our bodies are the only place we have to live, so taking good care of the temple is vital for living a pain-free life.

When we’re pain-free, our mental and emotional well-being is also affected. Some people work heavily on their mental well-being, however, if they have bad posture, they may experience pain which will ultimately feed back into their mental health and have a negative effect on it. We must start looking at health in a holistic way. Our physical, mental, and emotional health are not mutually exclusive, they affect each other and are intimately tied to one another. Poor posture also plays a role in how you feel and definitely in how you look.

As we go through what “proper posture” looks like, it’s important to remember the body loves movement! It’s unrealistic to expect we hold this perfect form throughout the  day and neither do we want to. If we stayed in one position the whole day, our bodies would be screaming out at us in pain and discomfort. But keeping these points at the back of your mind throughout the day as a self check-in can make all the difference.

In this posture series, we will go through three different types of posture - sitting, standing, and sleeping. In this blog, we will focus on proper standing posture. Head over to our other blogs to learn more on proper sitting posture and proper sleeping posture.

Effects of Poor Posture

Having poor posture can cause poor circulation in your body. It can also cause chronic pain in your neck, back or shoulders. In more severe cases, one may experience numbness and tingling in their hands and/or legs.

Poor posture limits your range of motion and if left untreated, it may result in disc bulges/herniated discs and misalignment of the whole body. Unfortunately, many people who have poor posture don’t actually notice they do. The way they sit and stands feels normal to them.

Ideal Standing Posture

It’s important to remember proper posture doesn’t always feel correct, especially if you’ve been slouching for years because your body is used to resting in this position.

In standing, your head should rest in a neutral position stacked over your centre of gravity. It should not fall forward as shown in red in the photo above. Your ears should line up with the middle of your shoulders. Imagine if your head was a balloon floating in space. Lengthen your spine by pushing up through the crown of your head and tucking your chin in. Think of the cue, “grow taller.”

Though slight curves in your upper and lower back are normal, they should be fairly straight at rest. Your hips should be in good alignment with your shoulders and knees as well. Look down at your knees and see that they line up with the middle of your ankle. This allows your weight to be distributed evenly across both your feet.

Conditions Caused/Affected by Poor Posture

• Headaches
• Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS)
• Sciatica
• Piriformis syndrome
• Disc bulge/herniation
• Low back pain
• Upper back pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Tennis elbow (Lateral Epicondylosis)
• Decreased range of motion
• Increased tension
• Pain in between/under shoulder blades
• Limited range in shoulders

Ways to Improve Your Posture

You can re-train your body to have better posture.

Great news! You can re-train your body to have proper posture. Making certain lifestyle changes will naturally help improve how you sit, stand and feel.

1. Improve how you sleep with proper sleeping posture and getting into the habit of mobilizing and stretching before you go to sleep to ease any muscle tension.
2. Release extra pounds - carrying excess weight is not only hard on your joints, but it makes it more challenging to keep good posture. Make exercise a priority and work it into your lifestyle. When you strengthen your muscles, especially your core and upper back muscles, your body has the strength to fight gravity and keep you upright holding proper posture.
3. Practice good posture daily in whatever activity you find yourself doing. Being conscious of your posture and correcting alignment right away will retrain your body on what proper posture feels like internally. Though this initially will feel like a lot of work physically and mentally, over time with repetition and daily practice, proper posture will feel natural and over time, you’ll feel a huge shift in your body.
4. Seek the help of a healthcare professional! A physiotherapist can give you a proper assessment on your body at its current state - your baseline. From there, treatment and recommendations on realigning your body, exercises to strengthen postural muscles, and education on lifestyle changes will be greatly beneficial for improving your posture long term. Many times, it’s more than a simple, “pull your shoulders back,” and “sit up straighter!” When we’ve adopted poor posture for years, over time, certain muscles become shortened while others lengthen. A physiotherapist can treat these biomechanical issues so you’ll be able to get into the positions of proper posture easier.

Want to improve your posture and don’t know where to start? Come in for an assessment with one of our experienced physiotherapists at our Vancouver location. We look forward to meeting you!

With care,

Therapy X Collective

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