Perfect Posture
When one thinks of good posture: “standing or sitting up straight, not slouching, pulling your shoulders back and stomach in” often comes to mind. This may be necessary and look impressive in a row of Guardsmen on parade outside Buckingham Palace, but in activities of daily life this exaggerated interpretation of good posture actually compounds overall muscle tension, locking the body into rigidity and potentially causing more problems than it solves.
There are only very few circumstances when this is required, at the point of impact in contact sports for example and only for very brief periods at a time, it is highly energy sapping and in this case the abdominal muscles are also often engaged at near full capacity. As mentioned it is counter-productive to use anywhere near this level of muscle activity in daily life to “prevent slouching”. When sitting at one’s desk at work for example it simply can’t be maintained for more than brief periods at a time as the muscles that “pull” us into shape shall themselves become overused and painful, and the restriction of natural movement is useless in real life e.g. what happens when one has to reach forward to answer the phone or pick up a pen? The stabilization system collapses.
It is infinitely more efficient to learn simple techniques to employ the correct muscles for the job, postural muscles that are designed to work at a constant but low energy level to stabilize the torso, neck and shoulders. This allows the muscles being used wrongly to effectively “switch off”, immediately reducing pain and fatigue and allowing them to be prepared and ready to perform the job they are designed for correctly i.e. moving the body as opposed to stabilizing it. The stabilizing muscles are also designed to operate while we move, so by using the correct muscles we are then able to answer the phone and pick up a pen without the system collapsing.
The “moving muscles” that are wrongly overused to stabilize will be familiar to many who suffer postural/occupational related aches and pains i.e. the muscles in the neck, upper/inner shoulder blade areas, and lower back. One of my favourite analogies is “victims” and “criminals” in musculoskeletal pain, the victims in cases of chronic desk work pain are indeed the muscles of the neck and shoulder blades, but the criminals are actually the stabilizing muscles not doing their job properly, forcing the victims to do work that they shouldn’t be doing at all.
I therefore take a 3 level approach to treating longstanding postural/occupational related pain:
I use manual therapy techniques to immediately reduce the tension in the overused muscles and mobilize the spine and joints to which these muscles attach. This often very quickly relieves the pain in the short term, although how many sessions are required vary according to how longstanding the problem is, so seek treatment at your earliest opportunity.
I provide you with a set of simple stretching exercises for the overused “victim” muscles so you can continue to manage and maintain the improvement in muscle tone and skeletal mobility in your own time.
I provide you with techniques to engage the correct muscles for stabilizing the body, obtaining optimum posture with the minimum possible effort – effectively switching off the high and unnecessary level of workload in the muscles that are causing the pain in the first place.
This multi-level approach is key to resolving occupation/posture related pain in the long term. It is great to get relief from the symptoms with manual therapy in the short term, but my aim is not only to resolve your pain – but keep it away!
If you would like more information about treatment for postural/occupational pain or about osteopathic treatment in general don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone, email or via the online form on the “Contact Us” page on this website to find out how I could help you.
Best Wishes,
Andy