Posture is Important!
Fit For Life Physical Therapy
How you carry yourself is just as important during a walk or run as it is during everyday life. We have all been there – you are on a long run or walk, and you start to get tired. The tendency is to let gravity win as you fatigue and allow your body to slump forward. When this happens, the shoulders round and your head falls forward, causing undue stress on your spine. Matters are made worse when you have assumed this posture, but want to see where you are going, so you lift your head upward to look ahead of you. This, in turn, will only increase the stress on the cervical spine and small neck muscles.
So, what should you do about it?
It is helpful during longer runs to take walk breaks once fatigue sets in. This will help you stop and “reset” your posture – it is also a good time to stretch a little by doing some neck side-bending and backward shoulder rolling.
As a preventative measure, strengthening can only help. There are some very basic exercises that can help you strengthen your postural muscles so that you can avoid injury or pain. The beauty of the exercises is that you do not need any special equipment, and they can be done just a couple of times each week and still make a huge difference.
The first series of exercises is done on your stomach. You can perform these one arm at a time, or with both arms simultaneously, depending on your preference. We refer to these exercises at Fit For Life Physical Therapy as Y, T, I, and W since you are making those letters when you do these with both arms. They are pictured below:
To perform, you lift your arm as high as you can comfortably against gravity and then return to the starting position. Aim for getting in 2 sets of 10 for all of these exercises at first. You will not need any weight when you first start out, since these muscles for the most part, are quite small. Just working against gravity will be enough for you to feel some fatigue. Since these are postural muscles that have to work all day for you, adding repetitions and/or sets is more important than adding weight; think endurance.
Chin tucks are another exercise that can be performed throughout the week. An easy way to remember how to do them correctly is to pretend that you are taking your chin off of a shelf. You use the muscles in the neck to pull backward, almost as if you are trying to create a “double chin.” Pull back as far as you can, keeping the head level and your eyes straight ahead (do not look upward nor downward). Return to start the position, which is neutral and not with your chin jutting forward.
Shoulder blade squeezes and backward shoulder rolls are also helpful to remind you to keep your shoulders back. Ideally, when you have correct posture, your ear will be in line with the shoulder and hip. When you perform shoulder blade squeezes, think of pinching your shoulder blades together as if you are trying to hold a pencil between them.
When you get better at chin tucks and shoulder blade squeezes, add them together and hold the combined exercises while seated in a chair.
Another way to improve your posture is to stretch your chest muscles. The corner stretch is a great way to do this after a long run, or a long day at the computer. Stay in a comfortable range, lean into the corner, breathe deeply, and hold for 15 seconds. Repeat 3-5 times.
During everyday activities, keep your awareness tuned in to your posture. How are you sitting when you drive? What is your posture like when you are working on the computer? And, not to be overlooked, think about your posture when you are exercising and lifting weights. Often, just making sure your posture is correct can help with uncomfortable symptoms in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand.
During weight training sessions, it is helpful to know how to “set your shoulder blades.” A good way to think about the proper position of your shoulder blades is to pretend you tuck them into your back pockets. This is accomplished by sitting or standing up straight, performing a slight pinch between your shoulder blades (as if you are trying to squeeze a pencil between them), and then using your muscles to pull your shoulder blades down. This will ensure that you are properly aligned during your activity.
The best part about all of these exercises is that they are good for everyone! And, when your posture improves, you appear younger AND more fit. How could you say no to that?
Fit For Life Physical Therapy helps people of all activity levels prevent, recover from, or rehabilitate sports and orthopedic injuries. Help for active people - from OTHER active people.
Reach us by email at info@fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com, or call or text us at any of the phone numbers for our three convenient locations inside Fleet Feet/FrontRunner stores:
Polaris Location: 1270 East Powell Road Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 - 614-981-2065
Upper Arlington Location: 1344 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43221 - 614-981-1979
New Albany Location: 5792 North Hamilton Road, Columbus, Ohio 43230 - 614-581-7441