Bad Posture, Back Pain Symptoms, hindered movement…it sounds familiar. Have you ever wondered if your back pain could be caused by your posture?
If so, would improving your posture lessen or eliminate your back pain?
This blog tackles one of my favourite topics, the relationship between posture and pain. Is there a relationship and if so how can we be sure? But before we go any further let’s be clear of one thing and that is …..what IS poor or bad posture?
Poor or ‘bad’ posture is the same as saying poor or bad skeletal alignment. As you go about your day e.g. standing, walking, sitting do you always have great skeletal alignment and therefore a beautifully stacked spine or do you not? In my experience it is rare to see great skeletal alignment and therefore healthy spines and good posture as our natural state.
There are two common postures I see. Firstly the held posture where there is a significant concerted effort being made to keep the chest open and the shoulder blades towards each other and down the back, sucking tummy muscles in.
This is not good posture!
The other type of posture I see is the folding posture where the spine is poorly aligned, nearly always folding forward and the head moving forward of where it is meant to be.
My program, The Invisible Exercise, realigns the body so your skeletal alignment is optimal. This means you have good posture and a beautifully stacked spine as your natural state of being i.e. no holding or folding. Click here to learn more about our online programs. They are fully supported.
Can bad posture cause severe back pain?
So let’s get back to the question at hand. Can bad posture cause severe back pain?
The most common situation is that we go from a state of no back pain to back pain, quickly or slowly, mild or severe. When bones that meet, for example at a joint are poorly aligned these joints can compress, slip forward, or back of where they should be so we lose joint integrity. Losing joint integrity can cause immediate or slow onset of pain.
Calling a spade a spade, a poorly aligned spine ie poor posture, is a spine losing joint integrity on a large scale. Therefore the distinct possibility of pain exists.
How do I know if my back pain is posture?
You may not know that you have 206 bones coming together at 360 joints. That is 360 possible places where the meeting of two bones may not be ideal. Further, within those 360 joints, there are what I call micro-joints.
For example, in Dr L.J Lee’s work on the thorax (2013), she explains that where your 12 ribs on either side of your body meet your 12 thoracic vertebrae, i.e. 24 joints, there are more than 100 ‘micro joints’. If even one of these micro joints is compressed or invisibly displaced there can be pain not just in your spine but travelling out to other areas of your body.
Are you confident you have 360 healthy joints and healthy micro joints? TIE can help you, click here to learn more about our programs.
Linda-Joy Lee, “The Thoracic Ring Approach – A New View of the Thorax,” In Touch Journal, an official publication of Physio First, The Journal for Physiotherapists in Private Practice, Winter, no. 145 (2013), 28-35.
How do you relieve back pain from bad posture?
The most common approach to relieving back pain from poor posture is to stretch but stretching does not and will not reinstate the correct firing of the layers of your spinal muscles whose job is to stack your spine correctly.
The other common approach is to perform what I have previously described as the holding posture. Consciously holding your chest open, shoulders down and head back before, during or after a squat, lifting weights or other exercise. Again this does not and will not reinstate the correct firing of the layers of your spinal muscles.
That is why I have developed TIE. My program directly realigns your body achieving a healthy spine and joints all day no matter what you are doing. TIE takes the stress and risk out of your spine and joints by achieving great posture and joint integrity. This is how to injury proof yourself. Want to know more? contact us here.
How do you know if back pain is muscular or spinal?
So what comes first? Do spinal muscles switch off allowing our spine to move away from the correct anatomical position causing loss of joint integrity and therefore the possibility of back pain?
Or does back pain appear from some other cause?
If your spine goes unsupported, over time more and more poorly aligned do YOU think pain is possible? If you imagine your spine beautifully stacked all day in the correct anatomical curves by the hundreds of muscles designed to do that, do YOU think or imagine you would experience severe back pain?
A healthy spine is the foundation of good posture and an amazing body. TIE achieves healthy spines that are not held or folded, compressed or misaligned . Join my program today to naturally and quickly achieve joint integrity, your best spine, posture, body and health.