Causes of poor posture and ways to correct it

[Legato]

Over the past two months or so, I've been researching causes of poor posture.  I'm not in love with my posture. Despite holding my shoulders back and pretending I have a string pulling my head up, my head still seems to sit to far forward on my shoulder.  There's also a rounding at the top of my shoulders/bottom of my neck that I don't like. These are some of my thoughts as far as causes and correction goes.  

 

A couple of disclaimers.  First off, you may see something like this called a Dowager's Hump or hyperkyphosis.  Both of those are medical issues that can be caused by loss of bone density or spinal fractures.  What I'm talking about is poor posture from a lifetime of playing videogames slumped over on the couch and logging way too much computer time. Secondly, Elliott Hulse has some amazing videos talking about posture, and I outright stole one of his exercises.  I'll note which one when I get to it.

 

Causes of poor posture:

While sitting, most people don't maintain correct posture. When the shoulders slump forward, so does the head. The muscles at the back of the neck, the ones responsible for making sure your head doesn't fall off, have significantly more strain on them than when the head is in correct anatomical position. Over time, the muscles hypertrophy in response. These muscles connect to a thin layer of tissue, known as a fascia, that starts in the back, moves over the head, and connects above the upper lip.  If a person sits for a few hours a day with their head forward, the back neck muscles hypertrophy and pull this fascia.  Meanwhile, the neck muscles in the front that would work against the back neck muscles haven't been built up at all.  The result is a head that is permanently forward in comparison to the body, along with a lower jaw that appears to sit farther back. 

 

Moving downwards, another huge cause of poor posture is lack of back and core muscle. If the muscles of the back responsible for pulling the shoulders back are weak, they can't hold the person as upright as they should be.  Same story for core musculature.

 

Poor flexibility is another culprit. A quick test for this is to see where your hands point when standing normally. If there was a pencil loosely clenched in your fist, would it be pointing forward, or at a 45ish degree angle inward?  If the pencils are point forward, your shoulders are in a good position for proper posture.  If the pencils are angled inwards, then your shoulders are rotated inwards.  This is due to tight pec major muscles as well as weak posterior deltoid muscles.

 

I know there's a component of poor pelvic alignment to my posture issue, but I haven't figured out exactly what to do about it yet.

 

Fixes

This is what I've been doing to fix it. 

 

First, work on flexibility. These stretches can be done every day, but aim for at least 3x a week.

 

1) The pec major connects to your humerus (the upper arm bone) in such a way that if it isn't stretch out, it can internally rotate the joint. This causes the pencil to point inward.  So put your hand on the wall and stretch that sucker out.  

 

2) Foam roll the back. I like to hold the foam at the areas below the waist, in the middle of the back, right around the shoulder blades, and at the top of the shoulder/bottom of the neck area.  Your problem spots might be different.  Also, I put my arms out to the side, and then over my head at each position to add to the stretch. The point of this is to start correcting some of the spine curvature, as well as increase range of motion throughout the abdominal and thorax area.

 

Exercises:

 

1) Deadlift.  You should be doing this for a billion other reasons, but here's a billion and one.  Remember how one of the causes of poor posture is weak back and core muscles?  Deadlifts fix that.  Search the site for proper form.

 

2) Face pulls:  This trains the upper trapezius and rear deltoids, which will help you hold yourself upright. I do these once a week.

 

3) This is the exercise I stole from Elliot Hulse, and it's designed to strengthen the neck muscles at the front and balance your neck strength.  Stand against a wall, heels, butt, and back to the wall.  Place your hands to your sides, palms forward. Push your tongue to the top of your mouth.  You should feel the neck muscles at the front of your neck tighten.  Now push the back of your neck to the wall, and hold.  This is an isometric exercise.  You should feel it in the muscles at the front of your neck. I hold til failure, and do 2 sets.  I do this exercise 3x a week. 

 

I think that's everything.  I don't have before and after pictures, but this has been working for me. My head still sits more forward than I would like, but my back is straighter and my shoulders sit correctly in their sockets now. I'm going to continue to do the program and see what happens.

 

Questions or suggestions are definitely welcome.

 

Sean

[El Exorcisto]

Don't forget rolling pecs, especially 4th intercostal at the sternal border. That point is responsible for mucho internal rotation of the shoulder. I also like rear laterals with an emphasis on scapular rectraction at the top to hit the rhomboids. Front squats are also the swiss army knife for addressing upper cross, since they force external rotation and thoracic extension simultaneously.

 

A lot of poor posture also starts at the hips. Anterior pelvic tilt tends to go hand in hand with kyphosis and internally rotated shoulders. Hip thrusts, squats, and deadlifts particularly sumo hit the glutes and hams, helping to drag to pelvis back into neutral and allowing posterior pelvic tilt when needed. Learning how to walk with your posterior chain is pretty strange when you have lived your life walking on just your quads.

[MalleusMaleficarum]

Most ideas of "good posture" are incompatible with science.

 

 

Everyone has this weird idea that good posture is only achieved by getting all Victorian and sitting at perfect right angles, but in reality slouching backwards is the best sitting posture possible as confirmed by a good handful of studies now.

 

However yeah, various deadlift, ab work, other quality exercises and stretching will sure get you there.

[Ãœberleben]

If core is a genuine problem, as in, you need to speak to a doctor because it's that bad, most physiotherapists will recommend pilates.  And it does the job excellently if you have the patience to do it.

[Legato]

@Uberleben, MalleusMalleficarum, ElExorcisto: Thank you for the replies and thoughts. 

 

@MalleusMalleficarum: That chart is fantastic. I love leaning back, and now science says it's good for me. Science!

 

@ElExorcisto:  Good call on foam rolling the sternal edge of the pec.  And I do front squats occasionally, but I'm going to work them in more consistently, so thanks for the suggestion.  Do you have any other thoughts on fixing the anterior pelvic tilt? I know there's a pelvic component to my posture.  My current program contains squats, deadlifts, power cleans, and romanian deadlifts, which I feel should be sufficient to correct the anterior tilt.  What do you think?

[El Exorcisto]

Malleus, I think of proper posture being more tied to walking than anything. Lordosis and subsequent hip flexor dominance coupled with kyphosis, head-forward position, and internally rotated shoulders makes for a shitty looking gait, and weakness that's begging for injury.

 

Add hip thrusts, and begin focussing on dragging yourself into posterior tilt as you walk. It'll feel weird at first but eventually it'll become automatic and you'll find neutral. When you do, your hams will start getting really tired from walking. I basically did the same thing for my head-forward position by always walking with a packed neck. Eventually it found neutral and stays there now.

[MadPict]

I have heard barbell rows as a 'fix' for the issues caused by poor posture. I am guessing that as they work the back (latissimus dorsi and rhomboids) pretty well, it could be worth working in.

[MalleusMaleficarum]

Malleus, I think of proper posture being more tied to walking than anything. Lordosis and subsequent hip flexor dominance coupled with kyphosis, head-forward position, and internally rotated shoulders makes for a shitty looking gait, and weakness that's begging for injury.

 

Add hip thrusts, and begin focussing on dragging yourself into posterior tilt as you walk. It'll feel weird at first but eventually it'll become automatic and you'll find neutral. When you do, your hams will start getting really tired from walking. I basically did the same thing for my head-forward position by always walking with a packed neck. Eventually it found neutral and stays there now.

 

I think walking posture is interesting, most people never pay attention to it in themselves or others. I agree with the muscle group balance, I also think flexibility is highly neglected in most people even those who exercise. Yoga and acrobatics aren't in mainstream vogue so nobody cares about anything but maybe getting a deep squat, then they wonder why they lurch around like zombies.

[Machete]

Dr. Cyclops talking about posture.