Correct Yo-Self! The Importance of Posture and Corrective Stretching

I’m sure many of you have looked up a stretching routine for “tight shoulders” or “low back pain” and maybe it worked in the short-term but most likely did not become a daily routine unless you were in pain - which usually will force you to develop a stretching program otherwise you can't move and interact in the world.

The truth is, not everyone needs to stretch, and for some people.. that’s the majority of what they need. This has to do with our genes and environment around how active we were, the pliability of our connective tissues, frequency of injury, and many other things. No worries though, there’s no better time than today to start!

How Much Flexibility Do You Need?

There is an optimal amount of flexibility for each individual and their specific goals and aspirations around the activities they participate in (sports, job, hobbies, etc.). Not everyone needs to be as flexible as a gymnast yogi instructor but the sad reality is that most of us spend too much time sitting, hunched over either driving, texting, or browsing. It’s just a fact. and  this causes certain muscles to become short and tight and others to become long and weak. 

The problem is that each of us has a different combination of frequent postures, injuries, activities that lead to specific imbalances that are unique to us - therefore - a generalized “low back pain” program - could be perfect for Sally down the street but is making your imbalances even worse! So let’s take a look at what these imbalances can cause - poor posture.

Understanding Poor Posture and Muscular Imbalances

So what does posture have to do with flexibility? Good, upright posture helps keep muscles in balance and the body well-aligned allowing your body systems to work and flow efficiently. When we start to develop short and tight muscles - we get pulled into bad posture - which places abnormal weight on joints, stressing muscles and tendons and hindering bodily systems.

If you have poor posture - forward head carriage, increased thoracic curvature of the spine, a distended belly - you are in need of a personalized stretching program to fix yo shit. 

I'll be posting a video soon about how to assess your own posture with a simple plum line here!

To understand posture a little more, let’s get into some anatomy and physiology behind muscles. GEEK TIME!!! Researchers have found that the response that there are certain “types” of muscles that respond differently to faulty loading patterns - which refers to any form of overuse, under-use, and trauma or injury. Simplifying it for ya - there are two types of muscles tonic which hold tone and respond to faulty loading by getting tight and shortening. Conversely, phasic muscles respond by becoming long and weak. And these muscle types usually go hand in hand with one another - opposing each others forces - working to balance a joint when working correctly.

The problem is, the nerves that feed the tonic (tone/tight) muscles have a lower threshold than phasic ones. This means once the tonic muscles get in the habit of doing the work for the phasic muscles - they will start robbing the nerve impulses from the brain effectively shutting off the phasic muscles. 

So just to reiterate - when faulty loading occurs - some muscles respond by becoming short, tight, and over-facilitated while the opposing muscle becomes long, weak, and shut off. This effectively causes an imbalance at a joint leading to decreases in range of motion and then compensation are necessary which can lead to injury. No bueno friends. 

Now back to posture - I’m going to steal an example Paul Chek uses to help get a point across. Think about a straight well-balanced bike wheel with spokes optimally tightened to maintain a perfect circle. Now image we tighten some, loosen others, and the wheel becomes bent. 

If we try to ride a bike with bent wheels, the wheels and bike will start to fall apart and you are likely to crash. You can liken this to doing intense workouts with poor posture and several muscular imbalances - which typically leads to long-term ailments and injury like low back pain, nagging shoulder injuries, and knee-pain.

How Do You Fix It?

So are we miserable and broken forever??? Hardly!! It just takes a little time and effort to find a professional ($$ but possibly higher accuracy) or do a self assessment to find the imbalances and develop a stretching and mobilization program to regain proper posture and alignment!

This typically looks like 5-10 stretches or mobilization depending on how imbalanced you are that you would preferably complete DAILY before exercise and before bed. Before exercise to get the body back to proper alignment so that you don’t hurt yourself training and before bed because that is when our body does the majority of rest and repair and it’s important for us to be in proper balance for it.

With my clients, I take them through a complete evaluation of their muscular imbalances and posture to create a comprehensive stretching and mobilization plan to specifically target the areas that are causing them the most discomfort and will get them to their goals efficiently.

If you are curious about what a Stretch/Mob and corrective exercise plan can do for you, click here to get in contact and chat. 

Until next time!