Interestingly many of our clients are reporting positive changes in their bodies from the corrective posture advice they are receiving at their treatment sessions at CITY HAVEN MASSAGE THERAPY.
Poor posture puts a great deal of strain on our bodies. If we stack our joints efficiently in quiet standing, we put the least amount of strain on our bodies.
As soon as our shoulders and head fall forward or we put weight on one leg our body is more effected by gravitational force and this can put stress on our muscles.
We always have some tone in our muscles to help us stand up. Without a resting muscle tone (which is an amount of contraction in our muscles) we would fall to the fall unable to keep stable.
What we are talking about here, is about not adding additional force to our bodies by incorrect standing and poor postural habits leading to an imbalance of muscle involvement at all joints.
So what is quiet standing or an Optimal standing posture.
Simply, stand up. Consider where your weight is resting on your feet. Are you standing forward on your feet? Try to close your eyes and work out which part of your feet are taking the majority of your weight.
Now try to put 2/3rds of your weight into your heels. That doesn’t mean you should lift your toes up and topple backwards! You still have weight on your toes too but only a third of it.
Make sure you are evenly weight bearing on both feet.
Next think about your knees. Are they bent, locked? Ensure they are soft – don’t push them into a locked position and ensure they are not bent. Find that halfway neutral position.
So at this point you have 2/3rds of your weight on your heels (remembering to keep a third of your weight on your toes), soft knees and now what?
Queue yourself to ‘Grow Tall’. Think of a string coming up from the crown of your head and pulling you up in a gentle traction.
Welcome to ‘Quiet Standing’! In this position, you are putting the least amount of additional gravitational stress on your body. Your joints are stacked optimally on top of each other and your muscles do not need to work excessively to keep you in this position.
Practice this whenever you find you are standing for some time, for instance waiting for your turn at the ATM, queuing up at check-in next time you fly, or watching your kid’s sports game.
By adopting better postural positions in your day to day life, you will take a load off soft tissue structures working hard to keep you upright and could contribute to reduction of pain and an improvement in well-being.
Research on mood and posture found that adopting upright postures in the face of stress can maintain self-esteem, reduce negative mood and improve positive mood compared to slumped postures.[i]
Check in with yourself now. Do you have upper shoulder tension, neck pain, headaches, back pain? Are you finding your shoulders hurt at the gym when you are exercising your arms? It could be your posture is partly to blame. Want to learn more about improving posture and Myotherapy? Why not book in with us soon so we can work with you to improve your well-being and quality of life.
The cool thing is once that you learn these postural corrections, you’ll be able to manage improving your posture anytime anywhere and hopefully feel better.
Charlotte works alongside her therapist team at City Haven Massage Therapy in Mont Albert. The clinic is open 6 days for your convenience including evening and Saturday appointments.
City Haven Massage Therapy
at 'Kieser Training'
733 Whitehorse Road
Mont Albert VIC 3127
Booking available online - www.cityhavenmassage.com.au/bookings.html
We provide Myotherapy & Remedial Massage services at our Mont Albert clinic located close to Surrey Hills, Balwyn, Balwyn North, Box Hill, Doncaster, Camberwell, Blackburn and surrounding suburbs.
[i] Do slumped and upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25222091