We've been busy working on some poddyCs and some other cool stuff for you recently, but we're back with a Propane original. As always, if you want to see us cover a specific topic, give us a shout.

This week I'm covering the what, why and how of improving your posture.

I've come a long way in undoing the embarassing, grungey teenage habits. As a general rule there's more to be learned from people who previously struggled with the trait you're looking to develop, as opposed to those who naturally display the skill.

Improvement takes time, but identify your sticking points and you'll lubricate the process.
Posture: The 'What'
Posture is simply the position of your spine and limbs when standing or sitting. It is also aptly defined as 'approach or attitude', given the two-way influence of posture on our psychology.

 

From a side view, the spine follows an S curve. The 'S' comprises of the natural curvatures of the spine's subsections: cervical lordosis (extended/anteriorly convex shape), thoracic kyphosis (flexed/concave), lumbar lordosis and sacral kyphosis:

Abnormal length-tension relationships between antagonistic muscles in the body will affect the resting position of that joint, and ultimately your resting spinal position.

While they say curves are beautiful, there is no perfect posture. Improving yours isn't necessarily about straightening the spine: these curves are crucial to its stability and function.

Returning to 'neutral' for you could be about regaining some of of the natural curves, while in someone else it could be about reducing an excessive curve, like slouching or ape-bum.

The muscles that contribute to posture & stability:

These muscles are generally designed to provide stability rather than powerful contraction, but they are capable of generating stiffness when challenged. People with chronic back pain exhibit funny activation parterns: aberrant or delayed activation, or hypersensitisation to pain, where stimuli to spinal positional receptors are interpreted by the CNS as pain, even in the absence of tissue damage. This neuropathic element is partly what can make chronic back pain so chronic.

These are "guy wires":

They're designed to reinforce a pole or mast's stability. The spine is much the same. Antagonistic muscles pull on opposing sides of the spine to stabilise it - hence anything that loosens one guy wire and tightens the other, such as being asymmetrically weak, having big boobs, or walking around in anterior pelvic tilt will destabilise the spine, wasting precious degenerative capacity and predispose you to back pain.

The idea of the spine having a finite degenerative capacity comes from Dr Stu Mcgill, who claims that our spines have a fixed number of flexion cycles available in their lifetime before herniating, so we shouldn't be wasting capacity on poor movement choices. He also posits that when we lift weights, we can end up functionally repurposing some of the deep lumbar erectors, which are postural, oxidative and slow twitch fibres, into fast-twitch, power-generating fibres. As a result, the muscles lose their endurance and spine-stabilising role in favour of strength. They fatigue more easily during general activities, again wasting spinal capacity and predisposing us to injury. This is one reason why strength alone isn't actually protective against back pain.
Control of posture
Posture is subject to vestibular, emotional, visual, cortical/somatic, and mechanical control. Like breathing, its one of these funny body processes that can be either autonomic or voluntary; influenced by your balance, level of stress, mood, neurochemical state,