Are you always being told that you need to sit up straighter? That you have bad posture? Or that you’re lifting the wrong way and it’s compromising your back? There are a few different ways that posture can contribute to pain.
Many different types of therapeutic approaches,consider posture to be a syndrome or a pattern that leads to particular symptoms, such as aches and pains.
Posture is the way you position your body when you do anything. It could be a static posture,in which you are keeping still, or a dynamic posture, where the body is moving from one position to another or a way of holding the body.whilst the surrounding environment may be causing the body to move.
In the human body, the whole is greater than the individual parts. The combination of positions of joints relative to one another enables us to have graceful, coordinated and pain-free movement.
Think about an orchestra. Individual instruments might sound good on their own but a whole orchestra where every instrument is played well under the guidance of a talented conductor sounds amazing.
The brain is the conductor of the orchestra. ,Iit coordinates timing, rhythm, volume and tone each individual element to produce the ideal outcome. If one individual element of your body (or of the orchestra in the case of music) isn’t performing at its best, the whole body is affected.
Your body has different structures that help you adopt a good posture (or any posture). Your muscles have to be at the right length and strength of working. Bones have to be nice and strong. Your nerves have to tell your muscles when to move properly and tendons have to be at the right tension.
About posture problems
Like the orchestra where musicians can play louderto “cover” for other musicians, we can use other parts to subsidise the bits that aren’t working so well. For example, an alto might cross over with some of the notes of a bass if they know that the bass isn’t working too well. But they can only do that for so long before something’s going to give.And that’s what happens in our bodies.
If your gluteals aren’t working so well, you might end up using your hamstrings. That may work for a while – you can still play well and you can still run okay. But over time you’ll become reliant on using your hamstrings to help with generating the power for running. And the glutes will then back off and get even weaker. Over time your hamstrings will get overtired and can more easily be injured. Then you have a not-ideal pattern of moving that compromises your performance and can lead to injury and pain.
Exercises to improve posture
As physios, we help with the healing of your injured structures. provide tools, aids and exercises to add extra support whilst that structure is healing. If we know you’re not sitting well we might offer you something like a support – a brace, a roll, a cushion or sports tape – to help you adopt a better position. So they damaged structures are weak or still healing will have chance to rest and get better.
After sufficient healing has occurred, we can provide the appropriate treatment and the specific exercises and advice for enable the recently-healed delicate structures up and working at their optimum so that you no longer have pain.
We also have the skills and expertise to help your body improve its’ timing. This means that the different structures will work at the right time for the role they are designed to do. So you don’t end up with tightness in one muscle and over-activity in another. It will also avoid developing too much weakness in one place and excessive strength in another, which can lead to overuse and injury.
