Posture refers to how your body's joints are aligned with each other and move together. Although some exercises can affect your posture, your posture can also affect the quality of your exercise performance. Poor posture, for example, can cause your body to expend more energy to move, causing early fatigue and increasing your risk of injury, explains physical therapist Gray Cook, author of "Athletic Body in Balance."
Types of Posture
There are four common types of posture deviations that cause pain and movement dysfunction:
The posterior pelvic tilt is the excessive backward tilt of your pelvis that causes your lower spine to lose its natural curve. Your upper spine and shoulders round forward to maintain the center of gravity.
The anterior pelvic tilt is the excessive forward tilt of your pelvis, causing hyper-extension in your lower spine and your abdominals to protrude.
The elevation deviation is where one side of the pelvis is higher than the other. This causes the shoulder on the same or opposite side to hike up. It also puts more pressure on the knee on the same side as the lowered hip.
The rotation deviation is where the pelvis is rotated to your left or right. Your shoulder girdle and upper spine rotate the opposite direction to face forward. The latter two deviations cause the most amount of pain and dysfunction and should be addressed first, suggests fitness professional Anthony Carey, author of "Pain-Free Program."
Myofascial Chain
The myofascial chain refers to the huge network of fasciae, or connective tissues, that is spread throughout your body like a spider web. Fasciae connect muscles, bones, internal organs, nerves, blood vessels and skin together and provide some degree of elasticity. If one joint or muscle group is out of alignment due to poor posture, then the stiffness in the fasciae affects the quality of movement of nearby joints and muscles. For example, stiff ankles can cause a lack of mobility in the hip, which eventually causes knee pain because the knees have to compensate with rotational movements.
Corrective Exercise
Many physical therapists and fitness professionals use corrective exercise as one method to improve posture and movement. Corrective exercise training addresses the source of poor posture or faulty movement patterns rather than the symptoms, even if the source of pain is distant from the symptoms. This method combines techniques and philosophies from sports medicine, physical therapy, yoga, Eastern martial arts and massage therapy.
Warning
Some exercises can make your posture worse by causing certain muscle groups and fasciae to tighten and remain inflexible. For example, too much pushing exercises and spine flexion exercises, such as pushups and situps, cause your chest, shoulders and outer abdominal muscles to pull your spine forward. This causes your back and hip to weaken and your spine to resemble a C-shape rather than a natural S-shape.
References
- "Pain-Free Program"; Anthony Carey; 2005
- "Anatomy Trains"; Thomas Myers; 2008
- "Athletic Body in Balance"; Gray Cook; 2003
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