The Struggle is Real
From the time we are young, we hear our parents nagging us to “sit up straight”, and “get your shoulders back”. They would often lament that poor posture looked sloppy, showed lack of self-control, and that somehow it was ambiguously unhealthy. Despite the nagging, gravity is persistent, and a life of sitting, carrying backpacks, looking down at books, computers and phones gave perpetual challenges to fight against in this worthy cause.
It isn’t easy to change posture, because it is both a learned behaviour and a compensation for some of the persistent stressors in our lives. Further, in order to fix it, it takes conscious control, consistent effort, and sometimes a bit of outside help to make change.
How Posture Got to This Point
Since the dawn of humanity, our survival and success in our community relied on our ability to be aware and active in our surroundings. We were built for an upright life, and our biomechanics (how our bodies are structurally built to work) was specifically geared for us to do well in an upright, active life.
In the last 25-100 years, much has changed with the way we live our lives. Industrialization and specialization of work has shifted most of us into cities and repetitive life. Many of us have been forced into desks and cars for the bulk of our days, and others to very repetitive work in suboptimal positions.
While the 100 years since most industrialization took place may sound like a long time, it is drastically short in the scope of how long it takes for our physiology and biomechanics to adapt to those changes. The 25 years since the increase in computer use and the dawn of smart phones has had an even more dramatic effect, at a much faster pace.
We went from life on the horizon, to the focus of life being primarily in the 18 inches in front of us. Many of us spend our days looking down and in front of us, at a small screen, for hours per day. It is estimated that Canadian adults spend 7.8 hours per day on their phones, screens or computers, and teens use phones and screens for 8-10 hours per day. The trend is continuing to increase in the wrong direction, and it is taking a toll on our health.
Can You Change Posture?
Posture can be changed, but we have to understand a few things.
How can we fight this? We need these computers, phones and stuff to do our work, to engage with friends and family, and to manage our ever-busier lives. While we can’t easily get away from some of our screen time, we can fight the good fight to save our posture, and improve our physical and mental health in the process.
There are a few challenges to overcome when it comes to changing your posture, because there are a few factors that feed into how and why your posture is how it is.
While postural patterns aren’t genetic, there is a “familial” correlation, because these patterns are significantly influenced and learned by our early exposure. At a young age, we will mimic the posture and gait mechanics of our parents, caregivers and siblings. Occasionally, there are congenital factors that play a role, but it is rare that we can’t make positive changes that will have a positive impact on our life and overall health. We have to learn to actively engage in a new way of carrying ourselves. Regardless of whatever treatment we receive or exercises we do, it is in our regular daily lives that we must also make a concerted effort to maintain a new pattern. This gets easier with time.
Posture and Emotional State
We may not readily realize it, but the way we carry ourselves is a physical outgrowth or manifestation of our psycho-emotional state. There is a reason that good posture makes a person look more confident and comfortable in their surroundings. Fear, anxiety and depression, even to a minimal degree, can affect how we carry ourselves and how we look to others. The good news is that when you change one (posture or emotional state), it influences the other.
Posture and the Gravity of Daily Life
As infants and small children, we have to learn how to hold our bodies up under gravity. Then once we can hold our bodies up against gravity, we learn to move them without falling over. Over time, we master more and more complex movements. Eventually, we can run, jump, ride bikes, play sports, balance on one foot, climb trees and stand on a commuter train while it is moving.
In order to live life under gravity, the design of our spine is specific to offset these stresses, allowing us to move, grow and thrive in this weight-bearing environment. The 206 bones of the skeleton are aligned and designed for efficiency of movement, durability, and to protect vital structures inside.
Effect of Posture on the Central Nervous System
The 33 bones of the spine, are exquisitely designed and oriented to protect the central nervous system (CNS), which controls and coordinates the functions of all of the rest of the body’s tissues, glands, organ and cells. When we lose the normal alignment of the spine, the nervous system is put under additional stress, interfering with the vital communication between the body and the brain. The nerve structures that make up the CNS and connect it to the rest of the body are very delicate. They can lose their function and be damaged when they are compressed or stretched. Poor posture can affect nerve function, and change how well the body and brain can communicate with one another.
Posture Can Cause Degeneration and Arthritis
When the soft tissues and bones of the body are put under abnormal loads, they can start to break down at a rate far faster than “normal aging”. As an example, the discs between the vertebrae will degenerate faster in areas of higher postural forces (lower neck, bottom of the rib cage, and lower back). The outer rings of the discs begin to degrade under abnormal or increased loads, allowing the gel-like center to protrude outward (disc bulge). If this continues or increases, the disc can herniate, or even have a small piece break off. These issues can cause significant pain, dysfunction and impairment to nerve function. Even at advanced stages, there is still hope for help, relief and improved function, most often without surgery.
Does Posture Affect Overall Health and Quality of Life?
Now we know that the vertebrae of the spine, the discs in between, and the joints that connect the bones can break down faster due to abnormal posture. We also know that the CNS and the nerves that connect it to the rest of the body can be affected, which can impact overall health and well-being. Poor posture can also reduce lung capacity and cause breathing issues, by compressing the abdominal contents up into the rib cage, limiting the space that the lungs have to inflate. Further, poor posture can affect balance and coordination. All of these combine to reduce the quality of life for people as the years go by. It has been shown that increasing abnormal postural loads (measured by the angle of inclination) is correlated with needing more assistance with simple activities of daily living as we grow older.
How Phones and Screen Time Affect Posture
Over the last twenty years in our chiropractic practice, we have seen degeneration occurring earlier and earlier, as more kids are spending larger amounts of time with “tech neck” (looking down at phones, laptops and tablets). We have seen degeneration starting in the discs of the lower neck in children under ten years old. This is an alarming start to a life that will likely last 80-90 years, and it will significantly impact their enjoyment of life in later years.
For every inch that a person’s head is shifted forward from their shoulders, the effective-weight of the head (the load that holding the head up has on the neck) increases by ten pounds. That increased load is most often transmitted to the lower part of the neck, in the discs vertebrae and joints, as well as the spinal cord and the nerve roots that come off of it.
The more time we spend looking down at phones, laptops, tablets, or even the kitchen counter or books, that time is compounded and the loads on the spine and CNS persist, fostering further degeneration.
Some Life Stages Have Higher Postural Stresses
In everyday life, it can be challenging to fight against the persistent load of gravity while we do the things we have to do. There are specific times where that fight is harder than normal.
Increasingly we are seeing the alarming trend of infants, babies and toddlers being appeased with phones and tablets to keep them entertained at the grocery store, during a doctor’s appointment, riding in a car, during dinner at a restaurant, or even outside on a walk in their strollers. These practices foster a destructive pattern that has very real physiological health concerns associated. Lengthy time in car seats, or simply without adequate time to play and learn to move their bodies, the normal postural patterns are more slow to develop.
During school age, kids are stuck carrying backpacks jammed with books, computers, water bottles, lunches, and other things that weigh them down. While carrying backpacks, they have an altered centre of mass, which causes their shoulders to round forward and their heads to thrust forward. Sitting all day in school desks that are a far cry from ergonomically appropriate, kids round their ribcages forward, and don’t engage the muscles of the back that support them in a upright position. They simply become deconditioned to good posture. Add in a couple of hours of TV or phone time slouched in the couch or in their bed after school, and the problematic contributors add up quickly.
Posture Can Change During Puberty The rapid growth of the bones during puberty often outpaces the ability for the postural muscles to keep everything aligned and functional. There can be a time lag in this matchup that is exacerbated by, or even outpaced by, the notorious emotional loads of this stage of life, as well as the magnitude of screen time, backpacks and deskbound school activities. Puberty is likely the onset of most aberrant postural patterns still seen in adults who’ve never caught up from this imbalance.
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding create their own challenges with posture. As an expecting mom’s baby bump grows into a full-fledged belly, her centre of mass changes significantly. This affects how she walks, sits, stands and even sleeps. Additionally, her breasts grow to prepare to feed a baby, often increasing by two or three cup sizes. This pulls her shoulders forward and makes proper posture exceedingly difficult. After baby is born, breastfeeding and bottle feeding both require frequent long periods of sitting, flexed forward, bonding and connecting with that precious little bundle of joy, with mom looking straight down in front of her, putting tremendous postural loads on her lower neck and shoulders.
Repetitive Actions Create Postural Patterns for most people in their daily lives and work activities. Whether we are talking about administrative professionals stuck at a desk, nurses constantly charting, auto mechanics hunched under the hood of a car or under a hoist, dental hygienists twisted and bent working in mouths, weightlifters’ exercise routines fostering imbalanced muscle development, commuters folded up in a car for 10-20 hours per week, or simply those doing domestic chores around the house, any activity that puts a body under abnormal loads done in repetition can create significant imbalances that have an impact on health.
What is Normal?
Much research has gone into discovering the “normal” ideal position of the spine, in order to get the greatest function and longevity from all of the pieces that make it up. (It is very important to note that “normal” and “common” are not the same thing.)
The ideal model of the spine has a circular-shaped curve to the front in the neck, putting the ear directly over the shoulders. The shoulders are carried directly over the hips through the combined normal curves of the thoracic spine (mid back) and lumbar spine (lower back), which are both represented by portions of an ellipse.
These curves combine to form a structure that is built to last. Anatomists say that if the loads are appropriately balanced, the structures of the spine should last a lifetime without significant degeneration.
In the neutral alignment of the normal spine, the nervous system lays gently inside and is protected from compression and excess tension, and effectively transmits communication between the body and the brain, allowing the body to maintain its health and vitality naturally.
Can Bad Posture Be Corrected?
Despite all of the challenges we’ve discussed that contribute to poor posture, there is straightforward hope to make change with specific approaches that have been well researched. We can re-establish more normal spinal curves, and reduce the mechanical load on the bones, joints, discs and delicate nerves of the Central Nervous System. In order to make lasting change, we have to address a few different things.
Restore normal motion to the spine. There are 33 bones of the spine for a reason. They are all supposed to move. Accumulated stresses of life of all three forms: physical, chemical and emotional, can cause some of those vertebrae to lose their proper motion, position and tone of supporting muscles. When this happens, it can stress the nervous system underneath and change how the body and brain communicate with each other. When the vertebrae get stuck (“vertebral subluxation”), it changes proprioception (the information the brain gets from the body about how it is moving and interacting with it’s environment). Re-establishing proper motion in all areas of the spine is imperative to postural correction and spinal health. Specific chiropractic adjustments are essential in this process.
Correct Muscle Balance and Control. Exercises to correct imbalanced regional function that support the spine are very important to overcome what is usually a longstanding issue, dating back years or decades. We have to strengthen what is weak and stretch what is tight. Different postural patterns need specific approaches, but there are general postural exercises that are a good start for nearly everyone. Check out this video for some basic postural exercises that are a good start for most people.
Correct the Abnormal Shape. While chiropractic adjustments get the bones moving like they are supposed to, and exercises can bring the muscles on line to support the bones, we have to deal with the ligaments and connective tissues that connect the bones together. This is done through specifically placed loads under traction. This aspect of spine curve correction may be able to be done at home, once a person is trained in the proper techniques with which to apply traction forces and equipment. While a muscle can gain mobility with repetitive shorter stretches, ligaments require consistent tension for longer periods to make lasting change. Traction time can vary between 12 and 20 minutes, and is applied several days per week.
With the multifaceted approach or chiropractic adjustments, exercise and traction, we can achieve good changes in resting posture over the course of a few months.
Does Degeneration Go Away?
Correcting abnormal postural loads and spine curves can significantly slow or stop the progression of degenerative change and osteoarthritis development. The bone spurs that have already accumulated won’t disappear, but a significant degree of functional improvement and pain relief can be achieved. This lengthens the amount of time that those bones, joints and discs will last, and significantly adds to the enjoyment of life during those years! Arthritis and degeneration does NOT mean that you are stuck with pain and dysfunction.
Everyone Faces These Challenges
We have adopted a modern lifestyle that has a lot of challenges to overcome in order to gain and maintain good posture. The benefits of making these changes far outweigh the work it takes to get there, though. By correcting your abnormal posture, you can enjoy life with less pain, greater mobility, improved overall health and function, and look healthier and more vibrant along the way.
For further information or inquiries into how we may be able to help you or someone you love, reach out to us, and we’ll be happy to help.
