by Doug Gibson, physical therapist assistant and professional trainer
Question:
I see my mom’s horrific posture starting to rub off on me and I am only 40 something.
What can I do to improve my posture?
Answer:
This is an awesome question and along the lines of a question that I quizzed all of the
women of Sensible Fitness one day. The question I asked was: If there was a room full of
men all dressed alike, how would you know which one was the confident and successful
man? Every answer was the same! It would be the guy who stood tall and “carried
himself” well. Regardless of gender, your posture sends a strong unspoken message and
can have a tremendous impact on both your emotional and physical health.
Poor posture can be the result of many things including muscle weakness, muscle
tightness and/or laxity, and bad postural habits that I will call postural laziness. The most
common type of poor posture in women is a combination of a rounded upper back, forward
head, and slumped shoulders. This posture can start to develop early in life, but certainly
worsens with age as the undesirable changes in muscle mass and bone density progress.
When your back rounds and your shoulders slump, the muscles on the front of your body
are placed in a shortened position that can lead to tightness, while the muscles on the
back of your body are placed in a lengthened or stretched position. When you keep your
body in this position for long periods of time, adaptive lengthening and/or shortening of
these muscles occur, which means they permanently change their length. I should not
have used the word “permanently” because you can change it, but for sake of making a
point please cut me some slack.
If you wish to improve this type of postural deficit, the first line of attack is to stretch out the
chest and anterior shoulder muscles, while strengthening the muscles of the back. There
are many ways to stretch the chest muscles but the easiest way to explain in text is to put
your hands behind your head and pull your elbows back, squeezing your shoulder blades
together. To strengthen the back muscles, performing rowing-type exercises where you
squeeze your shoulder blades together are great. This can be done with rubber
bands/tubes, free weights, or weight machines. A link to a great exercise to improve
posture can be seen by clicking here.
I mentioned that a cause of poor posture is also postural laziness. This is basically having
the habit of letting your shoulders slump. To successfully change your posture you MUST
make a conscious effort to maintain good posture and this can be very difficult as bad
habits are very hard to break. My advice is to start a postural-improvement training
program while at the same time working on breaking the habit. You must have a
foundation of good muscle strength to maintain proper posture or your attempts will only
last a couple of minutes before your shoulder blades are burning from the weakness and
your shoulders slump from fatigue.
It is surprising what a hot issue this is for women as I have had many mothers bring their
daughters in strictly for postural improvement, as well as adult women that are concerned
about their future. Poor posture predisposes you to a number of orthopeadic conditions
including rotator cuff injuries, stress fractures, and numerous back issues. It is never too
early or too late to make an improvement.
If you choose to make a change to your posture I would suggest seeking someone with
formal education in postural analysis and body mechanics. While it is easy to see rounded
shoulders, only a professional can identify other subtle postural deficits that can make a
significant impact on the big picture. When you straighten up someone’s rounded
shoulders, unfamiliar stress is placed on other structures and you do not want to develop
problems elsewhere.
So your mother was right again…stand up straight and throw those shoulders back!