The posture talk
“Work on your posture” “Sit up straight” “Pull your shoulders back”.
You’ve heard them all from someone in your life. Lately its been a hot button topic in the physio world. Some people are still preaching it as gospel and others are saying throw “good posture” out the window.
Here’s where I stand:
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION
Why many of us PT types are saying stop worrying about it: we used to preach posture to combat neck pain, cervical spine issues, headaches, etc. What research and imaging are showing is that there is less of a link between neck pain and posture (and in some cases it’s showing that trying to hold “good” posture all day actually increases tension and headaches). If you’ve ever spent a day working on your posture or worn one of those posture correctors, you’ve probably felt this: aching in the neck/traps/head, stingers in your upper back, fatigue and increased muscle tightness - the “correction” ends up making the problem worse. In my experience as a PT, doing things like weighted shoulder shrugs, cervical strengthening, scapular work, and active mobility improves neck/shoulder/upper back/headache issues much more effectively than someone trying to sit with good posture all day.
BUT. That’s not to say paying attention to posture and neck position is a bad thing. We’ve all seen the person with a forward head and rounded shoulders who grit their teeth just to be able to roll their shoulder back to put on a jacket or reach behind them to the back seat. If we completely throw posture work out the window, that is where we are headed. Our body, bones, muscles, and tissues adapt to the positions we put them in. Prolonged time in one position leads to increased difficulty getting out of that position. If you’re a CrossFit athlete trying to snatch 1-2x/week but you sit with your shoulders rounded all day every day, it will be much harder to get the thoracic extension needed for that movement than if you practice getting into and out of “good” posture throughout the day.
All this to say: there is no need to sit with a posture corrector on all day but it is important to work your body into and out of various positions so that you are continuously able to do this whenever you want.
