Healthy Posture is Everything

It is truly a low back pain society. Many of my clients have a form of low back pain. Hell, I myself have had low back issues in the past. If you spoke to me ten years ago I might have told you, to do what you can and muscle through it. Sounds like the normal advice given (“no pain, no gain”). Surprisingly, it still plays somewhat of a role in fitness. You can’t just leave a part alone in your body and expect it to heal and function. You will need to impose the right amount of demand on the body part and put it through the proper movements to get optimal function out of it. Unfortunately, even folks who think themselves healthy and fit specimens sometimes lack in good posture, which will eventually affect their strength gains and mobility.

How many times have you seen a strong looking guy, sporting a protruding gut, or woman with healthy legs, possessing “hunchback” type posture, that makes you think her arms were made of lead?? I’m sure if you look you will see this frequently and perhaps you will also be a suspect.

In my opinion, the single most important group of bones in the body makes up the spine. It should be protected as much as possible, and kept functional all through your life. There are three sections of the spine. We have cervical spine (descends from base of your head to your upper back), thoracic spine (descends from upper back to end of rib cage) and the lumbar/sacrum spine (from end of ribcage to ending point of hips). The cervical spine moves in all directions and is a very mobile joint. The thoracic spine is the most mobile and also moves in many directions. The lumbar/sacrum is more stable and major functions are to be more of a foundation or solid base for the other two sections. For this reason, most rotational movement should be facilitated by the thoracic spine while the lumbar is held in the “neutral” or strong base position. In order to keep the lumbar stabilized, the hip will also become a very big mobilizer.

Try digesting that information a little. In order to have good strong posture you will need to keep the lower back from doing too much work will the upper back and hips handle most of the daily task. This will be easy to some, but very frustrating to others. It is however a very important aspect of fitness.

Enough base talk on the matter, I am going to outline a few steps to help you maintain healthy and strong posture while working out and just living life. Just like a child, you have to re-learn basic motor skills and enhance them.

Step1: Starting at the cervical spine. Keep your head in line with your shoulders and slightly tilted down. Two ways of checking this are by making sure you walk leading with your chest not your nose, and make sure your ears stay in line with your shoulders (slightly behind your collar bone).

Step2: Now for the thoracic spine. Retract (bring shoulder blades close together with chest out) and depress (bring shoulders downward) your shoulders. At this point you should feel your abs “tightening” as the core gets pulled into proper position. You want to feel this core tightening to be sure you are in the right position. You should also maintain the core tight position and breathe normally.

Step3: Finally the lumbar spine will be addressed. With your body being supported by the core muscles, you should be able to walk holding this position and be able to perform any task with this core braced position. The lower back should not flex when you need to bend over or squat down (think back rounding). Instead, you will mobilize your hips by pushing you gluteus out and keep the, lumbar spine in a strong neutral position.

There you have it. These are pretty easy steps to follow and should be adhered to when in the gym lifting weights, outside running, or just living your daily life.