Posture Self-Check: Tips for Good Posture from a Physical Therapist
Good posture is more than just sitting up straight—it plays a crucial role in preventing pain and keeping your body balanced. Many of us spend long hours sitting, whether at a desk or on a couch, which can lead to posture-related issues over time. But if you know how to improve your posture, you can prevent these issues.
My name is Lauren Masi, I’m a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I’m also the owner and Clinical Services Director of Bay Area Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy. Today, we’re going to talk about a quick posture self-check that you can do at home, and tips for good posture from a physical therapist.
What Does “Sitting Up Straight” Really Mean?
We’ve all been told to “sit up straight” at some point or another. However, what I’ve noticed is that sitting up straight means a lot of different things to different people, and it’s not always good how people try to correct themselves.
In today’s society, we’re doing a lot more sitting and slouching on our couches and at our desks. Anytime you’re in one position for a long period of time, your body can experience adaptive changes that can lead to pain and problems in other areas. That’s why understanding how to have good posture is so important.
Understanding Your Spinal Curve
With posture, everybody’s spinal curves are different. It’s important to recognize that your neck does have a slight curve that matches the curve of your lower back, so that little bit of back arch can be normal. This can also vary based on your genetics. People have different ethnicities, some have straighter curves throughout their spine, and some have curvier curves.
One thing I like to see is that the curves from the cervical spine (neck) to the thoracic spine (upper back) and down to your lumbar spine (lower back) all balance each other. Meaning if you do have a genetically curvier spine, those three curves should all match. You shouldn’t have an excessive curve in one area and a flattened curve in another.
A Simple Test for Shoulder Position
Normally, we want your spine to be pretty erect, but we also want your shoulders open. One of the things that I will sometimes tell people as a little cheat is to look at the front of your shirt where your sleeve meets the shoulder/armpit area.
When you’re sitting up straight with your shoulders open, that part of the shirt looks nice and ironed and flat. But if you slouch, you get little wrinkles in that area of the shirt. That can be a sign that your shoulders are rounded forward.
Examples of Bad Posture
When we tell people, “pull your shoulders back,” there’s a couple ways you can do that. You can pull your shoulders too far backward, in which case your chest will be pushed forward in an exaggerated way. If you use the “wrinkles on the shirt” test, you’ll see that the wrinkles do go away with this posture.
However, arching your back to get to that position is incorrect posture. We have to have good dissociation throughout our body, which means that you can move one thing (like your shoulder blades) along your rib cage and spine without it affecting the rest of your spine and your good posture.
Another thing is that when we sit, a lot of people end up with their back curved forward like the letter C and their head jutting forward over their chest. This compresses and shortens the neck, and over time, your body will adaptively shorten those muscles along the back of the neck. That’s when you might start experiencing neck pain and headaches.
How You Should Think of Your Posture
In terms of general good posture, we want you to feel taller. Imagine if you had a string coming out of the back of the crown of your head, or if you had a ponytail and you’re getting lifted up from the back of your head. Usually, when you get taller that way, it neutralizes all your curves as much as possible. Then, once you feel taller, you want to have a nice open chest with your shoulders pulled gently back.
Here’s a quick little exercise you can do to see what I mean. If you’re sitting in your chair right now, you can place your hands on your thighs with your fingertips at your knees.
Now, if you squeeze your shoulder blades back together towards your spine and slightly down, that’s going to open up your chest. But your fingertips should not pull back along your thighs. If all of a sudden you go to squeeze your shoulder blades and your arms pull back, that’s an example of poor dissociation. You’re using your arms to try to fix your posture problem instead of your shoulder blades.
How Physical Therapy Can Help You Improve Your Posture
In physical therapy, we can certainly help with making sure that your joints are flexible enough to allow you to get into these correct positions. For example, if you’ve been rounded forward for a long time, the front of your chest and your pectoral muscles might have adaptively shortened and then want to hold you there.
When that happens, and then you try to correct your posture, you’re basically fighting yourself. So, we need to make sure the chest muscles are nice and loose, and then we can strengthen those scapular (shoulder blade) muscles so you can isolate and pull back those shoulders to keep you nice and tall.
Reach Out to Bay Area Physical Therapy
If we need further assistance with your posture, please reach out to Bay Area today for a complimentary consultation. And if you want more tips on posture, please visit some of our other vlogs on desk ergonomics and car seat positioning.