Miles’ Magic Moves

We all have an idea of how a bad posture feels and a vague idea of how a good posture looks but very few of us know how to get to our optimum posture without either getting tied in knots or keeping a good efficient posture whilst being able to whistle and ride a bike at the same time.

A lot of us are concerned about being unbalanced from side to side with short legs and pelvic tilts of all kinds of unfathomable complexity. Trying to somehow straighten ourselves up from these kind of difficulties is not only more or less impossible it is also of doubtful value.
Although there many variations of postural problems that we have in our front to back balance the vast majority follow a similar pattern.

Just for now, never mind how we get there, but the hunched, swayed, slumped posture follows a logical but depressing pattern. We end up with our body weight concentrated above our toes rather than the mid foot. We brace our legs at the knee and hip joints thrust our hips forward so that even those lucky enough to be thin cannot see their toes. The low back is strained into more of a hollow than is good for it. The mid and upper back is excessively rounded allowing our shoulder blades into the “round shouldered” posture. Our neck pokes forward, like a tortoise and, so we can see where we are going, our head makes a last desperate effort to bend back.

The possibilities for where this sorry progression can cause pain are endless, but the most common ones are low back pain or girdle type rib pains on prolonged standing (so bus stops, bars and local footy games are a no no) and lower neck and upper back pain which can progress to headaches at the computer or behind the wheel.

So how do we get out of this sorry mess?

Some of this needs the osteopaths skilled help to un-jumble restricted joints and even out the muscle tensions which maintain them, but even with this and exercises the results don’t last unless the postural understanding and correction happens as well.

All the core stability exercises are of little value unless the muscles you are strengthening are in a position to work effectively. Its a bit like the bowstring being on the wrong side of the bow – now thats hard work!

Magic Move 1

Allow your hips to move backwards a little and when it feels a bit awkward let the front of your hips and back of you knees soften to a position of “off lock”.

This move cuts down the shearing strain on your lower back and makes your standing posture more adaptable. It allows the fixed hollow in your lower back to flatten a bit and put gravity in the right place for your back.

You now move to the other end of your body for…

Magic move 2

Let your head float up and above your neck and as it moves up, a little nod of the head helps you maintain balance.

Once your head is in the “right place” you can then allow the rest of your body to hang off (puppet like) this upper reference point. This is a very simplified version of the Alexander technique originally designed to help singers produce better voice projection.

Obviously there is more to it than just these magic moves but they really do work and once you grasp the idea it is amazing how you can take control of your posture and get out of the poor posture/back or neck ache/treatment/poor-posture cycle.

We can help you but the main satisfaction for us osteopaths is not a forever returning patient but a patient who forever sends us more new patients!

Miles James