Posture

Exploring the posture

Posture can be defined as the position of your body in space, regardless of whether you are sitting, standing, walking or lying down. Your posture influences every aspect of your musculoskeletal system, and incorrect posture is directly or indirectly at the core of every painful joint or muscular problem. 

Body mechanics is a term used to refer to the way in which we use our body in space, during various activities. Good posture and body mechanics require you to hold your body in a way that your spine is well aligned, your  muscles are not tense or overstretched and your joints work within their normal range of motion. Poor posture is potentially damaging to the back and related structures. 

Let’s look at what we mean by “poor”. To do this, we must first explore the “ideal” posture. 

With ideal posture, the forces of gravity are evenly distributed throughout the body. In this way there will be minimum wear and tear on the body’s structures and the natural balance and correct length of the muscles is maintained. The movement patterns are normal and effortless. The vital internal organs are properly positioned and not constricted. If you stand upright next to a wall, the imaginary ‘Plumb’ line should pass through:

• The ear lobe
• The neck 
• The tip of the shoulder
• Divide the rib cage in half
• Through the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae 
• Slightly behind the hip joint

• Slightly in front of the knee 
• Slightly in front of the ankle

We all have our unique body shape, size and dimension, which is determined by our genetics. So, what goes wrong? Let’s try to summarise the factors which may influence your posture:

• Heredity factors (if your mother has a certain posture, there is a good chance that you’ll have it too) 
• Injuries 
• Illness (mental and physical) 
• The type of job you do
• Hobby /sport related influences can create muscular imbalances. 
• Emotional issues like being embarrassed of certain body parts (like development of the breasts during puberty) 
• Repetitive movements
• Bad habits and sustained positions 
• Fashion and culture 
• Right or left handed dexterity may result in altered patterns of movement and skeletal alignment 

All these factors may have an effect on our bodies and may determine one of the three major posture types. We will give you an insight into the postural types in one of our next articles. 

Simply speaking, our muscles have two roles:

• stabilising role, that is holding bones in place
• mobilising role, that is creating large movements.

In an ideal posture, the muscles designed to stabilise will stabilise, and those designed to mobile will mobilise. Some muscles need to work as stabilizers in some movements and mobilizers in others. If a deep stabilizing muscle is not functioning properly due to weakness, a mobilizer may take on a stabilizing role. In this way these two group of muscles switch roles and the body adapts quickly in order to maintain homeostasis (the most stable state).

As an example your hamstring muscles at the back of your leg serve as mobilizers in most movements. When making large movement, they are often adjusted to stabilise the pelvis, because the deep gluteus maximus (buttocks) muscles are too weak. 

As a consequence the hamstring becomes tight and short and no amount of stretching will lengthen it while it has to work as a stabilizer. The solution to this problem is to strengthen the deep buttocks muscles so they enable the hamstring to do this prime work. Examples of these incorrect muscular uses are many, as the human body is amazingly adaptive and tries to compensate in response to such imbalances. The problem is that this compensation is often detrimental to our overall posture.  Just think what is happening if you constantly slouch your shoulders and never exercise your back muscles. The chest muscles become short and tight and the upper back ones, long and weak. This is certainly a one way ticket for bad posture and eventually, back problems. The good news is that by re-patterning the correct muscle use and changing the input, we can improve our posture and eliminate back pain. 

There is no short cut for restoring normal muscle use and balance. The first thing is to develop body awareness. That means building proprioception and sensitivity of how you hold your body in rest or during movement. Pay attention to your shoulders and make sure to relax them and to keep the shoulder blades down, into a gentle soft V shape. Your pelvis should be levelled so the hip bones are in one horizontal plane with the pubic bone. Your spine should be long and the natural curves maintained without force. Your knees soft and your weight evenly distributed to the soles of the feet. The ribcage relaxed and not compressed. 

Once you become aware of your posture at rest, you will automatically know what to do in a state of movement. Hence, you will adopt an instinctive engagement of the right muscles. Stay tuned as we will continue next week with teaching you about upper and lower body stabilisation, neutral spine and core activation.

We have already spoken about how our everyday posture influences not only the way we look, but also correct muscle and body use. 

We also spoke about mobilising and stabilising muscles and their role in human movement. The importance of conditioning our deep stabilizing muscles is becoming increasingly clear in exercise science. Let’s imagine that you want to reach up to get something from a high shelf. Which muscles do you think are the first to be engaged? The answer is not the shoulder muscles but the deep postural muscles, those which support the spine. If these muscles don’t work you would fall over while you reaching up. 

These deep muscles – the transversus abdominus; the pelvic floor; and a deep back muscle called multifidus, are the ones most important in stabilising the lumbar spine and ensuring its most solid alignment. 

These muscles create a natural ‘corset’ or ‘belt’ around the waist, and are often called “girdle of strength”. You must have a stable base in a similar way to how a construction crane must be well grounded before moving its arm and carrying heavy loads. 

Pilates is the first exercise method to teach us how to engage our core and to maintain it throughout the movement. The latest medical research indicates that the best stability is achieved by slightly lifting the internal pelvic floor muscle up and then drawing the navel towards the spine. This simple action will ensure that you have created a strong base for your spine before you move. To practice this, stand tall in a good posture. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and as you breath out through your mouth, “zip up and hollow”. This basically means you should pull the muscles of the pelvic floor up and hollow the lower abdominals back to the spine. It’s very important that you don’t grip your abdominals too tightly as you are only going to create unnecessary tension and engage the wrong muscles. Remember that the stabilising muscles need to be worked at about 30 percent of their full capacity.

Keep practicing your zipping and hollowing not only while exercising, but also while driving, sitting, walking or lying down. In this simple way, you will eventually adopt a new awareness of your body and won’t need to consciously think before you contact your core muscles.

Another Pilates concept that tremendously impacts our posture is the present concept of the NEUTRAL SPINE. 

To find your neutral spine, lie on your back with your arms lifted above your head. Imagine that you have a compass on your lower abdomen. The navel is north, the public bone south, with West and East on either side. We are going to look at two in incorrect positions in order to find the correct one:

• Tilt your pelvis towards north, or “tuck your pelvis under”. The waist is flattered, you have pushed it to the floor, the curve of your lower back is lost. Your tail bone has lifted from the floor and you’ve tightened your ‘six pack’ muscle.
• Then do the opposite movement by tilting your pelvis forward towards south (your pubic bone). Your lower back is arched and feels vulnerable, your ribs are rounded and your stomach is protruding. 

Now, try to find the position in between these two extremes, neither full North nor full South, East or West. There remains the tiny little curve at your lower back. This is neutral. In Pilates almost all the exercises are performed in neutral spine. You should learn to recognise your natural NEUTRAL position when standing, lying down flat, sitting or lying on your side. You would not start your car if the gears are not in neutral, so please don’t start an exercise in this way! 

Bear in mind too, that your pelvis should also be levelled West to East. Many people suffer from a side-ways twisted pelvis. You need to be constantly aware that the pelvis (and the lumbar spine), stay neutral, level and stable while exercising in order to work the right muscles.

In conclusion, the good news is that wrong muscle use and incorrect posture is reversible! With an exercise programme which is correct, considers the body’s optimum anatomy, and is tailored to your specific needs, you can repair past damage and improve your posture. It’s never too late to begin with Pilates and your body will reward you with energy, mobility and beauty!