I remember when I was younger, about 11/12 (I grew very fast and was usually the tallest in my class/sports team/jazz flute club), and my great Aunt told me that I should not slouch even if I was self conscious about being tall (I wasn’t self conscious over that abysmal 90’s ‘curtains’ haircut that did it).
Now I imagine that the majority of you reading this knows and understands the importance of good posture. Well we certainly know that ‘bad’ posture is not good so let us make sure we are all very aware of our posture, we just have to concentrate on sitting ‘better’ and/or standing straighter, right?
Posture is not important……unless you want to move effectively, look attractive to others, do activity, play with your kids, think clearly and live a healthy life (so pretty high on the list really). However there is no ‘bad’ posture, only the one you spend the most time in. Meaning that you could be an very proficient road cyclist and be very ‘fit’ but if you spend your weekends hunched over a bike in a very similar position to the one you are sat at a desk 7 hours a day that posture becomes problematic. Your postures (we all have many) are the window into your health and well-being.
Posture is run by our subconscious part of our nervous system (so Mum’s stop wasting your energy telling your children to stand up straight), sure we can consciously change it in the short term but it will not make lasting changes.
A healthy posture is one that allows the structure of the body to perform the functions needed to thrive, both when standing (or sitting) still and while moving (dynamic posture). One of my mentors used to say:
‘you cannot fire a cannon from a canoe’
when referring to the stability the body and brain need to perform at their best. Now we see somewhat of an devolution of human posture over the past 2 decades. It took us thousands of years to become upright bipeds and we have regressed to hunched, humpbacked and hassled holders of screens (now it’s unfair to just blame mobile phones but they play a pretty big part in all this). If you are in public or can see any number of people while you are reading this look at them and you will see a fair few with their head sticking far forward over their body, their shoulders rounded and a hump at the bottom of their neck.
As a Chiropractor when we observe this type of posture (and any person) I am thinking what is the body trying to protect? You see the brain is all about survival, it is one of our strongest instincts and reflexes, it is the number 1 goal over anything else. So if we get a brain and subject it to hours of sitting every day, a chemical bombardment of ‘food’ (with some booze and prescription medications thrown in) as well as the mental torture of watching everyone have much better lives than us on social media, the brain becomes somewhat stressed. This causes the increased activity of your fight/flight centres in your brain. Part of this system’s job is to ready you to do just that: have a punch up or make a break for it. What type of posture would you stand in to do those things? Not upright and relaxed that is for sure.
The forward head posture can be a sign of a dominant flight/flight response, research supports that forward head posture has direct effects on the circulatory system, breathing system, the use of our higher brain (the areas that make it different to other animals) and our immune system. Just try hunching over, stick your head forward and take a deep breathe in….it feels very restricted right? In the clinic we see severe reductions in Oxygen levels in people with poor posture. Last time I checked Oxygen is pretty important for our health.
Text neck (Forward head posture) doesn’t only look less desirable, it could be costing you your health. Call in to get booked in for an assessment with us to see how we analyse Posture in relation to your health.
