Do you have “good posture”? Does it matter?
How important is good posture to your body, really? Some people believe that if you don’t have great postural habits, then you’re always going to hurt. Yet there are some people who slouch through life with little to no pain.
What healthy or good posture does is help in our fight against gravity. Here’s how.
The head is heavy. If it’s lined up correctly, your neck and shoulder muscles can work as they should; if not, you get a tight neck, tight shoulders, and eventual pain.
What’s the proper position for healthy posture? Your ears should line up with your mid-shoulder, as viewed from the side. That places your head and torso in proper position to support your head’s weight. Then your neck muscles can perform as designed, stabilizing and mobilizing to let you easily turn your head, nod, etc. That’s “good posture.”
Posture vs Gravity
What happens when your head is out of position, or “turtled” forward? Tight neck and shoulders, leading to pain. Those back-of-neck and shoulder muscles weren’t designed for that kind of counterbalance. When your positioning is off kilter, the muscles are literally fighting gravity all day long. They over-contract, can’t work as designed, meaning you can’t rotate and extend your head without pain or limited range-of-motion like you should. That’s not “good posture.”
Your posture can tell me a lot about how your body is doing.
I look to see if your posture is “correct” and if not, why? Postural imbalance and resulting pain could come from a usage imbalance, genetics, a muscle misfire due to an entrapped nerve, or an irritated organ. From a Rolfing Structural Integration (Rolfing SI) standpoint, I know that the most common reason for your bearing to be off is that your body’s compensating for the pain or discomfort these can cause.
Correcting these internal misalignments are what Rolfing is all about. If postural imbalance is causing you discomfort or pain, my focus will be to restore your body’s balance. I’ll review your posture and take you through a diagnostic process to find the true source of the issue, and improve your posture, too!
Christopher Horan’s Rolfing therapies help to restore your body’s ease, balance and strength. You can schedule a Rolfing appointment with him in Horan Rolfing’s Tacoma or Bellevue office. Good posture is only a call away.