Posture Shaming vs. Posture Joy

There is a nagging habit in the physical therapy world of posture shaming. The good news is, a lot of times posture isn’t as important as some people want you to think. Though it is easy to make a lot money off of someone who believes their posture is the sole cause of all their painful problems. Posture is only one small variable of many that can contribute to pain and it is very poorly associated with pain.

First off, posture is defined as any one position your body is in at one time. Over the course of the day we adopt many different postures to suit our needs. No single posture is bad, let’s just throw the complete demonizing of any one posture right out the window. So then, when does posture matter? Sustained postures seem to matter more. To clients I will often promote the idea of posture variability, meaning, break up any long sustained postures where possible.

In practice, the conversation around posture usually goes like this…

A client comes in and says, “Oh I know I have bad posture.”

And I like to stop them right there to think about that for a while. What does that mean? What postures do you use in a day? How long are you in those postures? Can you break them up with movement? It can be as simple as move when your body tells you or if that doesn’t work, set yourself a timer every hour. No one posture is superior to another. People who sit in a slump can have less pain than upright postures. Posture can be more related to mood, fitness or protection of a painful area.

In the world of pain, positional options are good. Movement and exercise help work on pain in many ways. Changing posture short term might help to desensitize a painful position. Loading into painful positions can do the same. And while massage can do that temporarily too, having the ability to do it yourself gives you more control.

I would love the opportunity to explore movement and postural options with you. Find out which positions are painful are which are pain free and build a personalized plan around your specific needs. Then top it off with massage techniques suited to you also.