Posture: A Culprit of Chronic Pain

Are you experiencing lower back pain, pain between the shoulder blades and spine, neck stiffness and upper shoulder pain? Such pain could be caused by your posture and the debilitating effects the following could have on your muscles, bones and nerves:

• Couch slouching
• Leaning forward, bending at the waist while in a chair at the desk/computer
• Forward neck protrusion while using the computer or cell phone or sitting for long periods of time
• Rounded shoulders, not standing or sitting erect
• Sleeping with arms over head or hugging a pillow.
• Looking down on your laptop or cell phone

Today we are considered a “flexion society”. As many of you have perused our hallway picture of a skeleton hunched over sitting at a computer desk, it represents what happens to the spine in an electronics-driven society. The spine takes its toll these days when poor posture is perpetrated by flexed necks and waists from such things as hovering over cell phones, tablets and computers. Such flexion can cause great stress to the spine and muscles. Today, we see more and more people having a forward neck (where the neck protrudes forward beyond the shoulder mid line), having rounded shoulders and slouched upper bodies.
 

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Here’s a good test. If your earlobe protrudes beyond the middle of your shoulder joint, then you could possibly have a “forward neck”. Correct head posture, would be where a line could be drawn from your earlobe straight down to the middle of your shoulder joint. So what if you do have a forward neck? The average head weighs a whopping 12 pounds. For every inch that the earlobe is beyond the middle of the shoulder joint, 10 pounds are added to the weight of your head for the spine to support. This protrusion adds additional stress to the cervical spine requiring it to support a heavier ball (our head) on an angle not intended. This may cause a curvature in the spine as well as impingement of the nerves (which has other side effects like tingling or numbness down the arm to the fingers). 
 
Forward neck can also be associated with rounded shoulders. For instance, when one sits at a desk and moves the head forward to more closely see the computer screen, it is usually accompanied by the waist bending and the upper back dropping forward.  With this posture, the lumbar back is not properly supported which could then be a cause for lower back problems as well as the uncomfortable pain in the shoulder blades (often referred to as that dagger in the upper back!).  And think about this, how long do you sit in that position, or watch TV in a slouched position or sleep at night with the arms in an elevated position? As our muscles are pulled and tugged in ways for which they were not intended for extended periods of time, they are also pulling on our bones and contorting our skeletal system. Hence, this provides a breeding ground for possible structural issues.
 
What can you do about postural issues?

• The first thing is to make yourself aware of your posture throughout the day.
• Put a posture reminder on your computer screen saver or post it on a cabinet or something that you look at frequently.
• Get a postural assessment (our massage therapists can provide this for you) and learn about what your current body posture looks like and what you could do about it.
• Stand and sit proudly as if a string was holding up your head, use your core (abs) to keep your chest up allowing your arms and shoulders to relax (being careful not to cause a curve in your lower back).
• Request an article on postural tips at your next Vive! Therapeutic Massage appointment.

Listen to your pain, it usually gives you a clue as to where your posture needs to be shored up!