Postural Influences On Pain
By: Billy Jo Collette
Our bodies are in action every second of every day. Action could be described as the nerve impulses going on in our bodies, muscle fibers sliding, the heart beating, lungs expanding, and muscles contracting; all of which result in the larger habitual motions that we go through each day such as walking, lifting, carrying, sitting, etc.
Some of the most common pain issue areas are the neck and back, followed by the hips, knees, and overall joint pain.
The neck and back are unique because they make up the core posture of the body and are responsible for the stability of the trunk and head, twisting, bending, etc.
Vertebras have tons of ligaments, tendons, small joints and discs between them (an intervertebral disc is filled with a gel called nucleus pulposus for cushion between vertebrae). When thinking about the neck and back, the first two postural misalignments that come to mind are a low back arch (lordosis) and the shoulders being rounded forward (kyphosis).
As you can imagine, if someone were to go through their day of actions all while having their low back arched, this misalignment would cause pain in this area.
Standing with the low back or neck rounded means that the spine is not distributing its weight in the proper way.
For a bit of an activity and test on yourself, stand in front of a mirror the way you would normally do (relaxed stance). Take a peek at your low back, is it arched?
If it is, grab your hip bones to help identify the position of your pelvis, now engage your core and try to pull your hip bones up and forwards.
You will know you have completed this successfully if your shoulders and hips are stacked and your spine is straight.
Often, when the low back begins to arch, this is due to a lack of core strength. Throughout the day, it is a good idea to make sure that you are bracing the core (keeping the muscles engaged) especially the lowest abs to help pull the pelvis forward and avoid the low back arch in an effort to correct this posture.
If your shoulders and neck are rounded forward, this can also be challenging to correct including many muscular imbalances that need to be addressed.
One of the exercises to help improve this postural misalignment is to perform chin tucks.
You can view a video on how to successfully complete this exercise on our YouTube channel. For reference, the chin tuck exercise will help in stretching the back of the neck muscles that are usually tight in this position.
Oftentimes when your shoulders and neck are rounded forward the smaller upper back muscles are a bit weaker and lengthened (rhomboids, teres minor, infraspinatus, and the trapezius).
The shoulders being rounded forwards are often due to tight chest muscles (pectoralis muscles). If you think about the chest muscles being tighter, they are shorter, therefore pulling your shoulders forward due to the lack of length.
To correct this, you will want to stretch out the pectoralis muscles and strengthen the back muscles.
Lastly, when thinking about the kinetic chain reaction of injuries that occur from the foot up, the lower the injury, the more ailments that injury can cause above it.
For example, if the ankle is injured this would not only impact the distribution of weight that occurs on the foot but then over time go on to affect the alignment of the knee.
Once the knee alignment is incorrectly moving, the hip can become affected. If the hip is affected, it can cause the lower back to become misaligned, etc.
This simplified kinetic chain explanation offers an example of how all areas of the body need to work together to maintain health and avoid a spread of any pain.
If you don't have any pain currently but would like to know if you do have misalignments from past injuries or years of incorrect habitual stance an easy way to do this is by videotaping yourself and reviewing the video.
So what should you be looking for?
When it comes to the leg alignment, you should be watching to make sure that your toes are pointing straight forwards, the arch of your foot is balanced (not rolling in or out), your knees are going directly over your toes when bending, and your hips are square/ pointing in the exact direction of your toes.
If you have any misalignments, correcting them will take lots of work, body awareness, patience, and time.
At Function Thru Fitness, our Personal Trainers have an expert eye and the knowledge on how to address these issues.
We don't look at body issues as a problem but as a puzzle that we will work together with you to correct. With consistent work toward fixing the issue, you can improve and even correct these misalignments before they result in injury.
Muscles make up the whole body and making sure that they are working together and are staying balanced is important for living pain free.
Book your personalized assessment today.
Located in Green Bay, WI | By Appointment Only
π Visit our website
π Call us at (920) 610-0004
π§ Email: funcfitpt@me.com
π Find us on Google Maps
Know someone who needs expert guidance? Share this with them.
Weβre here when theyβre ready.
Follow us:
π Instagram β Instagram
π Facebook β Facebook
π LinkedIn β FUNCTION THRU FITNESS PERSONAL TRAINING, INC: Overview | LinkedIn