Good Posture Can be Bad??
Good Posture
‘Good’ posture has been the ideal since what seems like the beginning of time. Parents, grandparents, and teachers have been at us since little kids to stand and sit up straight and avoid slouching. Some physiotherapists have made it their mission to teach and ingrain spinal neutral to their clients and make sure they stay there All. Day. Long. Plumb line anyone? And this is now all wrong??
The Grey…
First let me preface the rest of this rant with this: one: I was one of those “you must live in spinal neutral or else” physiotherapists; two: there are exceptions to every rule, and three: and maybe most importantly, our bodies need varied movement. So just bear with me a little as I try to explain.
Avoid Sustained Posturing
If we acknowledge that movement is essential to human health, and if we want to narrow our scope to the profession of physiotherapy, movement is essential to healthy, balanced muscles, joints, nerves, bones, and connective tissue. If we look at it this way, then if ‘good’ posture is sustained for a prolonged period and we never come out of ‘spinal neutral’, I think it is quite easy to understand the possibility how good posture can be bad. Too much of a good thing, is not a good thing! Sustaining good posture all the time only allows us to be strong in this position, and in the very likely chance that we move out of this ideal alignment, our chances of injury are increased because we didn’t strengthen or mobilize in our full available range of mobility.
Strengthen in varying ranges and postions
In my very first semester of physio school, I learnt that when you strengthen in a particular static position, the positive effects of that strength only radiates ten degrees from that position; just ten degrees. That means you literally have an inch or two of movement variance in which you are likely protected from injury when you live in good posture all the time.
Let’s look at it from a different way. Lots of people have “bad” posture and they don’t have any injuries (not all, but there’s more than enough for me to make this point!). And take it from me to know that LOTs of people have good posture and they do sustain injuries. If your workspace requires you to do some awkward positioning outside of spinal neutral, that does not directly correlate to you getting hurt. My husband is a blue collar worker and I have seen him in some pretty precarious positions and carrying some ridiculously heavy equipment that defy spinal neutral in ways that make my physio skin crawl…and he hasn’t got hurt. So, what’s the answer?
Defining Posture
Before I answer that, let’s look at the definition of posture. Simply, it is the position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting. It is attained as a result of coordinated action of various muscles working to maintain stability. Do you know that the body is capable of some pretty amazing things? We need to give our body enough credit to know that it can coordinate the action of various muscles working to maintain stability in numerous positions. If we want to define good posture we can describe it as a position where bodyweight is distributed in such a way that minimal muscle tone is necessary and minimal tension is exerted on ligaments and articular surfaces. HOLD ON! What?? This is a contradiction to what our body needs to thrive…our body NEEDS tension and stress…albeit only to a certain degree is healthy; but our body needs stress to build strength and muscles, our body needs stress to build denser bones, our body needs stress to be able to perform at a higher level. ‘Bad’ posture is okay, and sometimes, maybe even many times, it is actually necessary. Our body is designed to move. Injury occurs not because of bad posture but because of load that exceeds our body’s tolerance. Bad posture is not positioning outside of spinal neutral; bad posture is any sustained posture. Plain and simple.
It’s best to not be perfectly straight all the time
Let’s come full circle here. I am not saying that spinal neutral is bad. I am saying that living in spinal neutral is not necessarily very beneficial, nor is it realistic. I do not want to create fear around poor posturing, but on the same token, I don’t want to start the beginnings of a stigma around good posture either. I still believe that spinal neutral has a place in physiotherapy, but the context is so much different. I use it now as a starting point instead of the focal point. Spinal neutral is a great place to start building body awareness and creates a great foundation for progressive strengthening moving forward, but if as a physiotherapist, I don’t teach and train my clients to be strong and safe outside of spinal neutral I am doing them an incredible disservice and am actually setting them up for a potential injury. So on that note, I hope you can start reframing that sustained positioning is potentially more harmful than the position itself.
How are you moving your body today?
Corey Ireland, Registered Physiotherapist and Pelvic Health Therapist, CAMPT-Certified