Posture is an Active Process

Written by: Kevan Creighton, ATC/LAT

Let’s talk about the most boring topic that may be the cause and possibly the solution to your chronic pain - Posture. That’s right, the thing that your grandmother, your second grade teacher and now your (se)® Therapist is telling you is so important. Take a second and read the title of this blog post. Posture is indeed an active process. Having poor posture is not the fault of your desk at work or your phone’s ability to keep sending you notifications that you swear you turned off. It is your “position” or “attitude” or “stance” we take on a subject. This is the definition of posture. It is curious that the physical presence we present ourselves with or our mental “attitude” we apply to a situation are defined by the same word. Posture is a choice, we need to learn how to organize our bodies in space. Let’s do it. 

→ Stand up. Yes, let’s get active with our posture. 

→ Take a quick assessment. What do you feel? Tightness? Soreness? “Something off”?

Start at the feet. Point your toes straight ahead. Press your toes to the floor, big toe first then the rest, DO NOT grip or “claw” at the ground. Feel your arch engage. Now try to spread the floor apart, push to the outside of your feet. Do you feel your hips engage? 

Now we are at the hips. Squeeze your glutes together, don’t try to crush a walnut, just squeeze. Did you feel your hips tuck under? 

Take a breath. Feel the breath expand your belly AND your rib cage. Let that breath out and draw that belly button towards your spine. Yes, that is your core! 

Think about your chin. Draw that chin back, NOT down, back. What happened to your shoulders? Did they go forward? Well pull them back too! Again, you are not trying to crush a walnut back there, just a light squeeze back. 

Take that breath again. IN through the nose, feel the belly and rib cage expand. OUT through the nose, draw that belly button to your spine. What do you feel now? Taller? More stable? Like you are a superhero? Posture. 

Posture is just one simple, boring and oh so important process that our (se)® Therapists talk with our patients about. Hopefully now, you are ready to leap a tall building!

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