The secrets to impeccable posture

When it comes to posture, there’s a lot more to it than pulling your shoulders back. Below are a list of concepts which need to be considered when it comes to “good posture”.

ALIGNMENT

Think about your head, ribs and pelvis as balloons. If we were to take a side view of the body, we want to see these three balloons stacked on top of one another.

For example: At the end of a workday, you gradually become slouched at your desk. When sitting in this position, your rib cage will move backwards in relation to your pelvis & head, meaning your head and pelvis are stacked however your ribs are not.

To correct this: Think about elongating from the crown of the head in order to re-align these 3 balloons - imagine you have a hook on the crown of your head and you are suspended to the roof by an attached rope. That should give you the sensation of ‘spinal elongation’.

OR

Think of air bubbles in between each vertebra, creating a sense of ‘space’ in between the segments of the spine. Think of these air bubbles getting bigger and bigger in order to assist you in growing taller as your spine elongates.

HEAD, NECK & SHOULDER ORGANISATION

The position of the shoulders is very much dictated by what the shoulder blades are doing. By bringing the shoulder blades forward, you create ‘rounding’. By squeezing the shoulder blades back and together the chest sticks out. The ideal position is to have the shoulder blades resting in between these 2 ‘extreme’ points.

Consider the distance between the tips of your shoulders at the front and at the back. This distance in rounded shoulders for example, would be shorter at the front, and longer at the back. In an ideal posture, these 2 distances at the front and back would be as close to identical as possible.

PELVIS

The position of the pelvis will determine what position the rest of the spine assumes. You have two sit bones which are designed for exactly that - sitting!

When in sitting, ensure you are perched directly on your sit bones rather than rolling forwards or backwards off them. This will create a ‘neutral’ position in the lumbar spine (lower back), allowing for optimal positioning of the pelvis as it sits below the rib cage and head.

This is a very general approach to postural alignment. There are endless stretches and mobility exercises to strengthen and improve posture. Get in contact with us to find out how we Osteopathy can help!