Posture, Pain & Performance

 

Posture, Pain & Performance

It is the pain in many instances that brings people to my office. I ALWAYS find precise correlations between the posture issues presented and the pain or stiffness that the client is experiencing.

Where posture is degraded, whether it’s because the head or shoulders are too far forward or the pelvis is set at the wrong angle, all posture issues carry pain and stiffness as companions. Pain, stiffness, and soreness accompany posture issues because where posture is offset, muscles, tendons, ligaments and even bones must bear exaggerated physical loads, which causes irritation, accelerated aging, and degradation of the body parts involved. That means your body is breaking down.

My experiences have shown me that posture issues occur in the following four groups:

• Group One is the head, neck, shoulders, and upper back.
• Group Two is the relative angle of the pelvis that is either too far forward or backward. The posture of the low back or lumbar vertebrae is largely a result of the position of the pelvis.
• Group Three looks at the body in a head on manner and highlights how various parts can be rotated, lifted, or sideways displaced.
• Group Four is trauma and congenital distortions.

It is rare that just one of these posture problems occurs by itself; rather they occur in a kind of negative conspiracy. Eliminating posture issues requires four principal techniques:

1. Mannerism changes, which means to remember to consciously hold the head in an upright manner so that the head rests exactly atop the spine, not in front of it. You can’t turn your back to how your lifestyle or typical physical behavior such as the way you sit can impact your health… and don’t kid yourself – the way you sit and stand does affect your overall health and fitness.

2. Specific exercises to strengthen muscles – for example, if you have rounded shoulders then you must predominantly exercise the back muscles if you want to be successful at eliminating this posture issue.

3. Specific stretches to enhance flexibility – In the above example of rounded shoulders, the best stretches are those that loosen the front of the body specifically the chest muscles because these muscles get too tight and pull the shoulder forward causing all the problems we have discussed.

4. Proper rest and nutrition. Only REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep qualifies as quality rest. Only nutrient rich foods are capable of repairing and rebuilding the body’s tissues that are stimulated from exercise.

A key enabler to proper posture is the abdominal group. In fact, it is simply impossible to have erect posture in the absence of toned abdominal muscles. More specifically, the region from the base of the rib case to the base of the pelvis or groin including the deeper (intrinsic) muscles are the fundamental base upon which we build good posture. However, it is not correct to think that posture can be restored in the above four groups through training the abdominals.

The Principles

1. The Prime Directive – Positive benefits arise from actions consistent with nature’s design. Negative consequences follow when nature is tampered with. {Sorry, no exceptions}

2. Vigorous health and well-being are the natural state of the body.

3. All things in nature work from the center and move out.

4. Nature always seeks balance.

5. Weakness fails and strength succeeds.

6. Change is a universal constant.

7. All changes stimulate a response. Responses must either compensate (erosion management) or adapt (improvement} to each change.

8. Chain reactions are the way to nature: nothing is isolated – everything is connected.

9. All things in nature are CYCLIC.

10. Fundamentals in nature occur in fours.