Poor posture sucks. I see people on a daily bases who walk around with some of the poorest body positions I have ever seen. I am no one to really speak though, I am in a constant state of repair when it comes to fixing what I have messed up over the past 28 years. Poor posture is 100% your fault. Yes, our jobs play a huge role in the way our body position is BUT we have the choice to do the corrective exercises or live more intentionally rather then habitually. The goal of this article is to help shed some light on a very common posture position that I would say 75% or more of Americans suffer from on some level…including me. The $2 college phrase I’m going to use is Thoracic Kyphosis. This basically means your stuff is snapped up. Your posture is terrible. The good news is, it can always be fixed the bad news is, it takes a little dedication and consistency. It won’t change over night but thats is the thing I really want you to understand. Nothing about back pain or poor posture can simply be fixed over night. What I want to try to do is give you a handful of techniques to put into your daily routine. If you make these a habit just like brushing your teeth, taking or shower or drinking coffee you probably won’t even notice the day the pain stops. It will just stop. You will feel better and notice yourself walking taller with a bit more spring in your step. Thats what I want you to be able to experience for yourself. Alright enough rambling, lets get to the meat!
Thoracic Kyphosis is caused by a handful of different things. I am going to go into a few of these areas in a little detail below.
Musculoskelatal Imbalances: One of the most common causes is a forward bending of the head and neck. We do this a lot to look at our tablet, phone or even read books. This head and neck position starts a downward spiral for the rest of our upper. As the head drops further and further from the midline of our bodies the load on the upper back and neck increases. To compensate we tend to slouch forward and begin to round the shoulders in search of a supportive yet comfortable position. You have to look at it as a domino affect. Take the feet for example, a lot of people don’t consider their feet when it comes to back pain or poor posture but they actually play a huge role in keeping the body in line. Over pronating is a pretty common habit. When your feet pronate your ankles tend to calapse in which turns the legs inward (towards the midline of the body) which then causes our hip socket to shift back and our pelvis to rotate forward. This forward rotation of the pelvis cause what is known as lordosis which is basically what I call the “Duck Butt”. As our body tries to compensate we find our upper body in this forward slouched position to make up for this shift in our hips (Price 2010) I know that seems like a lot of things you can’t control but if you maintain good body positioning and are conscious about where your feet are and how your using them the rest of your body will be forced to come in line.
Lifestyle Design: Things like inactivity along with a desk job will reek havoc on your body. Think about it, you sit at your desk all day. You probably don’t really try to get up and do much moving around then you drive home and sit around the house and “relax” until it’s time for bed then you repeat this over and over for the rest of your life. Think about what that does to your body! You are literally deforming your body and you don’t even know it. It may take years but this lifestyle will have a noticeable affect on the rest of your life. Believe me, I deal with it myself! Then you have the other type of person. You sit at work, then you sit in your car, you actually hit the gym but spend an hour on the bike and maybe hit up the chest press and crank out a few push ups along with a burnout set of sit ups. You literally just spent the entire day with your body in a forward flexed position, then you went to the gym and worked those same muscles that cause you to pull forward in the first place. It’s a viscous cycle that needs to be broken! Take your work, lack of time or motivation to exercise and pour a big pile of stress on top. This is the American lifestyle. Even some of our hobbies such as martial arts or gardening can have a negative affect on our body position. It’s what we are doing day in and day out, that will make a difference in the long run.
Exercise choice is just as huge. We tend to forget about our posterior chain and other supporting muscles. We only see what is in front of the mirror so we naturally tend to put the back of the body to the way side. We may do a few of our favorite exercises from time to time but we need to make the back of our body just as important as the front. Us desk jockeys need to be intentional with our exercise. It’s as easy as adding in exercises like row variations, pull variations as well as exercises like the reverse fly. Thats hits a small musle called the rhomboids which help bring the shoulders back and together the way they are designed. A well rounded program can get you great results and take care of posture issues at the same time.
How we are going to fix it. The main goal here is to try and fix what has already been done. These are 2 small tips you can add into your daily routine 10-15 minutes max.
1) Trigger point release on the back: I have talked about trigger point release when dealing with your piriformis so when doing the trigger point work on your back you will treat the muscle the same. What your going to do is take two tennis balls and place them on your upper back between the shoulder blade and spine, right below your neck while laying on the floor. Be sure your knees are bent and you are in a comfortable position. There are two things your going to do while laying on your back. First your going to give yourself a big hug and slowly start to roll the balls down your spine until you hit a sore spot. When you find the tender area take a deep breath and exhale and allow your body to mold over those balls. Repeat this step as many times as needed until the tightness breaks up. Once you have cleared the bad area start back from the top with the balls. Your going to take each arm through its full range of motion (up and down) You will basically look like your raising your hand from your pant pocket to directly over your head. This is doing the same thing but now you are taking the muscle through its full range of use while applying the trigger point. Repeat this as many times as needed.
2) Thoracic Extension: Often times our rib cage gets glued down from being in this poor forward bent posture for so long. Working on Thoracic extension will not only improve your posture but will help teach you to breath deeper. After I go a few days at work in a compromising position I love getting on the floor and taking 10 minutes to reopen my rib cage and diaphragm. The key to this exercise is to start at your upper back and work your way to about your middle back. If at any point you feel bad or discomfort, stop. This is something that needs to be taken one step at a time and not over done! When your in the extended position be sure to take deep full breaths.
As a side note start with the trigger point work before the extension.
Part two of this post will cover the exercises needed to establish a straight posture. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
TTYS,
William
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