Posture, or how you hold your body, is influenced by many things. Your body is meant to move. Each joint has an optimal range of motion it can perform. And each bone is held in position by many muscles. To enjoy good posture, the muscles must be balanced in strength.

Visualize a muscular tug-of-war… if one muscle overpowers an opposing muscle, an imbalance is created which slowly and incrementally pulls the bones and joints out of “true.” Over time, the skeleton is forced into poor positions that lead to neck pain, shoulder pain, low back pain, etc. The vast majority of neck, shoulder and low back pain derives from muscle imbalances or poor posture.

For example, your spine has a natural curvature which is determined by the balanced strength of hundreds of muscles. A leading cause of low back pain is a very common dysfunction: exaggerated lordosis, aka “swayback” or “Forward Tipped Pelvis.” This may be caused by an imbalance between tight hip flexors and relatively weaker gluteal muscles and/or tight low back muscles and weaker lower abdominal muscles.

Sitting is the most major contributor to Forward Tipped Pelvis dysfunction. Most of us live a sedentary lifestyle. We sit in our cars to drive, we sit at computers, straining our necks to read, we sit to eat, watch TV… you know! The more you sit, the more likely you are to develop this dysfunction.

The good news is that you can reverse the effects of poor posture.

Some of the physiological problems linked to poor posture include: continue reading »