Does Your Posture Really Need To Be Perfect?
Posture is one of the hottest subjects in the PT/rehab world, not in the least bit due to the ever growing demand to be able to work from home (thanks, COVID). With this comes ergonomic and posture gurus who claim your back pain is due to “bad posture”. Some “gurus” will even go as far as to diagnose you with the dreaded upper crossed syndrome *gasp*. As a patient, these words can sound a bit scary and affect our mental state, exacerbating current symptoms, or even causing us to experience new symptoms. When looking at what current research says about posture, these ideals are certainly antiquated. Furthermore, the negative effects of these narratives that are being pushed on patients can sometimes have consequences worse than what was originally being treated in the first place! So, what does the research say? According to Christensen et al, a systematic review conducted in 2008, found that there was no evidence strong enough to support any relationship between pain and posture.
So, what the heck do we do? Pain is extremely complex and multifactorial. We do not yet fully understand it, but what we do know is that life-style, sleep, and nutrition are all factors that can be related to pain. The important thing to know about posture is that our bodies are incredibly robust and adaptable, however they were made to move! Our joints do not like to be in static positions for prolonged periods of time. Sitting at a computer for 8 hours straight can definitely piss your body off. I tell my patients in the clinic, “Your best posture is your next posture!” (I didn’t make that up, but feel free to credit me). This catchy little phrase is simply saying that postural variation is what is important to focus on. Our joints nourish themselves with movement, and (trigger warning: another corny saying incoming) IF YOU DON’T USE IT, YOU LOSE IT! The next time you have to work from home, try setting a reminder on your phone for 30 minute increments to get up and move around. Use this time to grab some water, take a break from looking at the screen, and maybe throw that toy for your dog! If you want to go even one step further, you can perform some simple stretches/exercises to promote and increase circulation and perhaps activate some muscle groups that you haven’t been using as much. The video provided briefly touches on some of the points already made, but the exercises demonstrated are great, and can easily be done with little to no equipment. Their you tube channel is also an excellent resource for evidenced based exercises and information in regards to physical therapy.
In my experience, posture is one of the most over-demonized components of the rehab world. When considering what current research says, and the amount of power our (health care provider’s) words have on patients, it baffles me when someone blames all of a person’s pain on posture. If you only take one thing from this article, I hope that it’s no perfect posture exists.
So, the next time someone tries to put you in ‘posture prison’, drop some knowledge bombs on em’.
*this is not medical advice, if you are in pain seek out your local healthcare professional.
