What's Posture Got To Do With It?

I’m a big WHY person. If you tell me to do something without giving me a reason, chances are… I’m not going to do it. If my brain can’t answer the question “why am I doing this?” with a satisfactory answer, or an answer that makes sense to me, it’s not gonna happen. 

And I find the same to be true with a lot of my physical therapy patients as well: when I take the time to break it down and explain exactly why the exercises or activities that we’re doing will make a difference in their lives and help them to meet their goals, they are much more likely to comply with their PT homework that I give them. That's why I'm sure to do this with each and every patient I work with!

Many PT patients will ask me “why are we doing this” or “what’s the point of this again?” especially when it comes to posture training and postural exercises. Posture actually directly impacts every and all types of aches and pains, so it is something I work on with every patient in physical therapy. When it comes to balance, it’s also a fundamental component that needs to be addressed. 

In this blog post, we will go through WHY posture is such a fundamental aspect of your balance.

Posture is the foundation of your body’s setup. When you are in a neutral and upright posture, it ensures that your center of gravity is in the right place, and it sets your joints and muscles up to function properly. It allows for normal walking mechanics. Not only that, but upright posture allows maximal space for your lungs to expand, so you can take in more air and breathe more easily. 

Simply put, when we are standing, optimal posture looks like this: our head is aligned so that our ears are right above our shoulders, our shoulders are stacked directly above our hips, and our knees are lined up under our hips - more or less like this:

On the contrary, when you consistently sit or stand with suboptimal posture, over time your center of gravity begins to shift, and it also places increased stress and strain on your joints and muscles. Your muscles cannot work as efficiently when they are constantly ill-positioned. This leads to weakness and tightness, and can both cause as well as aggravate aches and pains too. Muscles becoming tight and weak directly impacts your balance, because you aren’t as stable when your core and leg muscles are not strong. If you want to learn more about the relationship between strength and balance, you can click here to read that blog post. The shift of your center of gravity can be an even bigger issue when it comes to your balance. Most commonly, we tend to shift into a forward-type posture, something along the lines of this:

 Here you can see that the head is pitched forward so the ears are no longer directly above the shoulders. The shoulders and upper back are rounding forward, and the hips are no longer directly underneath the shoulders. The reason that this forward-type of posture is so common is because the majority of our day-to-day activities involve us leaning or reaching forward: for example, we reach in front of us to drive, type on our computers, write, pull open doors, and lift things. We also tend to crane our necks forward when we are working, reading, driving, or using our phones and computers.

With the majority of our daily tasks pulling us forward, over time our bodies can begin to get stiffer as we lose the mobility to even get back to neutral… That is, if we don’t incorporate any activities to counterbalance. “Move it or lose it” is real!

When your head and upper body are continually shifted forward like this, your body’s center of gravity begins to shift forward as well. Now, instead of feeling “centered” and “upright” when you are sitting and standing truly upright, your brain now feels as though it is centered when you are in this forward position instead. This really wreaks havoc on our balance because if you try to stand more upright, your brain feels as if it’s leaning backwards. And should you get bumped from behind or lose your balance, you will topple over a lot more easily because your weight is already further forward than it should be. 

So what can you do to combat and counterbalance all of the forward pulls throughout your day? I’m so glad you asked! There are three key ways we can work to keep our bodies from falling into- and getting stuck in- this forward position.

The first step is just simply being aware of your posture habits, and noticing when you fall into these forward or slumped-type of positions throughout the day. Now that you understand the importance of posture and how it can really impact your balance, you’re more likely to actually take notice and take care of your posture. Once you’re more cognizant and aware of your posture, then you can move to step number two. 

The second step is to make some adjustments to improve and correct your posture. These small yet mighty changes really go a long way. I go through a full day, morning-to-night, and show you where there are easy opportunities to start building better postural habits in this blog post- you can click here to read it. 

The third and final step to better posture is exercise! Exercise is a powerful tool because it helps to stretch the tissues that become tight with poor posture, and strengthen the muscles that become weak with poor posture. In general, exercises that are good for your posture are those that involve pulling TOWARDS your body (as opposed to pushing away from your body). If you’re in the gym, these would be your rows, your lat pull downs, and your reverse flys. At home you can squeeze your shoulder blades back towards your spine, like you’re trying to get them to touch. You can also try a chin tuck exercise: pulling your head back until your ears are directly above your shoulders.

It’s true that most people don’t automatically think of posture work when it comes to balance and fall prevention, but they should! Do you know someone who is always hunched forward or stooped over when they sit, stand, or walk? Send them this blog post so that they can learn why it’s important to work on, not only for their balance, but for their overall health and wellbeing. It just may be the first step they take in their journey towards better balance and a better life! 

Have you joined our Six Weeks to Steady Challenge yet? It’s not too late! You can get all the details about it by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the post, and when you’re ready to sign up, you can do so by clicking here!