The Importance of Posture
Several years ago, a co-worker of mine had bad neck pain. He tried to treat it with anti-inflammatories and even pain killers. When the effects of his drugs wore off his neck hurt worse than ever. He then tried "massaging" his neck with all sorts of tools he found at stores only to find that he was making his condition worse. Finally, he threw in the towel and decided to seek professional medical help. More than $3000 later, he was told that the MRI showed no evidence of any reason why his neck would be hurting him. The doctors had no diagnosis for him.
Unfortunately, stories like this happen far too often. People feel pain, they try drugs, heat, ice, and massage tools, only to find that if their problem hasn't gotten worse, it's still not any better. Then they finally seek medical attention, often paying for referrals to multiple different specialists before they have any hope of a diagnosis. By the end of it all, these patients are often told that the doctors can't find any reason for their pain. If all that isn't painful and frustrating, then the medical bills might be.
Luckily, there may be a solution, and it may be far more affordable and convenient than you think. That solution, in a nutshell, is posture.
Photo by svetjekolem on Unsplash
So, all I have to do is stand tall and my back pain will go away? Yep. The end.
Obviously, it's easier said than done. Many people don't realize that the aches and pains they're feeling are coming from muscles that are being overworked, muscles that can't seem to get rest ever. Even when people deliberately try to rest these achy muscles, they tend to find that the relief they get is temporary at best. People find that, even when they think they're spending their work day in the best posture, they still end up with back pains. Those who are aware of the role that posture plays in pain and pain relief tend to make their muscles sore by attempting to chronically force a "good posture."
Essentially, many in this world seem to be missing some very fundament concepts that could make their lives so much easier if only they just knew about these concepts. The rest of this blog post will explain the keys to getting pain relief and improving posture.
Length
What's holding back people from being able to effortlessly fall into a good posture, and therefore take the strain off their achy back muscles, is that often the anterior muscles are too short. A common muscle that tends to dominate the muscles of the upper back in a tug of war is the pectoral muscle. People work at computers, drive cars, and perform other tasks that hold the pecs in a shortened position for long periods of time. This causes these powerful chest muscles to become physically and physiologically short, resulting in back muscles that are forced to not only over-extend themselves to hold a person upright but also causing the muscles of the back to work against the leverage they would then have to deal with as a person's head hangs forward of the spine. In a good straight posture, the weight of a person's head would be balanced directly over the spine. Back muscles don't have to work very hard to support the head in a good posture.
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
When a person's shoulders come forward, this causes pressure on the low neck, which encourages the head to tilt forward of the spine. When the head is forward of the spine, your back muscles have to work very hard against leverage and gravity to support your posture. Ultimately, all this hidden overworking caused by forward head posture results in constant aches and pains in the muscles.
So, the first part of the solution to our constant muscle discomforts is to stretch the muscles that cause our bad postures. For the upper back and low neck, the pectoral muscles are usually what need lengthened to help our shoulders come back more easily. For our low back, our quads, glutes, calves, and some even say our hamstrings contribute to low back tensions. In any case, regarding leg muscles, if you adopt a good habit of regularly stretching your legs, you might find that your low back stops bothering you so much.
The following are some helpful YouTube videos that not only talk about the lengthening aspect of improving posture but also talk in detail about how to strengthen the correct muscles. In this case, these videos are talking about getting low back pain relief by correction a common problem: anterior pelvic tilt.
Video by Athlean-X
Video by AskDoctorJo
Strength
If you've watched either of the above videos on how to correct anterior pelvic tilt, then you've probably already guessed what the other part is when it comes to improving posture, and that factor is strength. As a massage therapist, I've learned that you can shorten muscles by strengthening them. Aside from how the strength is helpful in supporting our joints, the shortening also helps hold things in a more stable state, resulting in less pain and better body mechanics. When it comes to strength and posture, you need to know which muscles to strengthen to help with the posture. This may be much more difficult than it sounds. Therefore, it's good to see a physical therapist or personal trainer to be advised on which muscles to work on in order to support your posture.
A massage therapist is certified and trained in lengthening the correct muscles to help keep a good tension balance in the body and improve posture by lengthening the right muscles. As part of a massage therapist's training, he or she would also know which muscles would help support posture if they were strengthened. Generally, a good massage therapist would know that the muscles that are too long and overextended are the ones that need to be strengthened. For example, strengthening rhomboids and traps would probably help a person who has an excessive forward curvature of the upper back. So, if you're getting a massage to help lengthen the muscles that are too short, remember to see a trainer or PT about the muscles that are too long. Most importantly, do not take anything from any of my posts in my blog as medical advice. See a doctor to determine if any of these ideas seem safe or appropriate for your particular goals.
This post in summary:
People often suffer from chronic back and neck pains. They often find that pain relievers and at-home care does not seem to do much to help with these pains. In cases where even doctors cannot find any reason why a person would be in pain, improving the posture might help. To improve posture, regularly stretching the muscles that are too short and strengthing muscles that are too weak and/or long may help to achieve a better posture, and therefore, long-term pain relief.
To listen to a good podcast episode regarding this subject, listen to this episode of Benevolent Vibes:
-Donny Podcast
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