Posture - What is correct and what causes pain

Posture summary

  1. The complications of poor posture include back pain, spinal dysfunction, joint degeneration, rounded shoulders and a potbelly.
  2. Suggestions to improve your posture include regular exercise and stretching, ergonomic furniture and paying attention to the way your body feels.
  3. See your physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor or Alexander technique teacher for further information and advice.

Posture Help

Your posture says a lot about you. It also says a lot about how your joints and muscles are working. Here's everything you needto know about assessing your postural deviations and how to fix them!Imagine the person you respect or look up to, imagine how they stand. 
What kind of posture does that person have?
They probably stand tall with an open chest and a head held high. This is not a coincidence! 

How you look and feel is directly related to your posture. Despite the importance of having good posture, most of us don't do anything to improve it. We go about our lives with hunched backs and imbalanced hips, and deal with pain because we think it's normal.
Living with bad posture can be a dangerous thing. The muscle and ligament imbalances that result from poor alignment can lead to all sorts of problems:

Problems with poor Postural Control

  • Chronic back, neck, and shoulder pain
  • Foot, knee, hip, and back injuries
  • Headaches
  • Stiffness
  • Fatigue
  • Muscle atrophy and weakness
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Digestion issues
  • Impingement and nerve compression
  • Sciatica
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
But we're going to fix that right now! By understanding proper posture, you can learn about your own postural deviations and determine which corrective exercises will work best to improve your alignment. With correct alignment and good posture, your lifts will be stronger, your muscles will work more efficiently, you'll help prevent pain and injury, and you'll look and feel a heck of a lot better

Good Posture?

I would probably say 40-60% of a physio's typical day involves attending to postural spinal pain, usually from prolonged positions, mostly driving, sitting at a desk or utilising an iphone, ipad or similar.
Modern activities have a tendency to push our natural curves into flexed positions, which puts a lot of pressure on the joints in our bodies. There was a study done to measure intervertebral disk pressure in the neck: when people stood with correct posture, there were 12 pounds of pressure on a disk, but when the people moved their heads forward, the pressure tripled!
Putting excessive pressure on these disks potentially leads to accelerated disk degeneration, arthritis, disk bulging or herniation.
Reports state that 60 percent of people over 40 have some degree of cervical disk degeneration, and these effects are being found in younger people more frequently, likely due to their increased use of smartphones.
When you position your head forward, the muscles at the base of your skull are compressed, which can cause you to have a headache. This type of muscle compression often causes pain in the back of the head, which can then radiate into the forehead or behind the eyes. Another contribution to this problem is muscle spasms.
When you damage the structures in your neck, you can also experience pain that radiates into the top of your shoulder, between your shoulder blades and into your arm. You’ll usually only feel this on one side, and symptoms may include pain, numbness, tingling, burning, and aching. If you use a computer, drive, eat, or read while bending forward, you’re more likely to experience this.

Static and Dynamic Posture

​There are two types of posture: static and dynamic. Static posture refers to how you hold your body when you are not moving, such as when sitting or standing. Dynamic posture refers to how you hold your body when you are moving, such as when walking or running.

what can I do about poor posture?

​​What can I do?

I would probably say 40-60% of a physio's typical day involves attending to postural spinal pain, usually from prolonged positions, mostly driving, sitting at a desk or utilising an iphone, ipad or similar.

​Treatment of posture issues

Your physiotherapy treatment will address:
·       Massage
·       Dry needling / Acupuncture
·       Pilates (Reformer, Clinical)
·       Joint mobilization
·       Joint manipulation
·       Traction
·       Trigger point therapy
·       Strapping and taping
·       Electrotherapy (e.g. ultrasound, TENS)
·       Stretching
·       Bracing
·       Postural education & retraining for sitting, driving, standing
·       Soft tissue work.
·       Correct postural aids such as chair supports and pillows 
·       Taping and or braces 
·       Corrective exercises to fix the underlying issues.
·       Postural taping or bracing
·       Anti-inflammatory advice
·       Activity modification advice
·       Exercises to improve flexibility, strength and posture

What do I do next?

If you are suffering from neck pain, headaches, pins and needles or tingling, first read our tips for neck pain page if symptoms continue please call our practice for some direction.

  • Schedule a physiotherapy (physio) appointment here
  • Consider using acupuncture/dryneedling here 
  • Book in for a massage here
  • Find out more about pilates (rehabilitation exercise)  here​

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