Question about posture (kate?)

X

[xeno]Julios

New Member
I'm curious - good posture is touted as one that involves sitting with an arched back. I can do this and it looks aesthetically pleasing, however i don't find it comfortable to sustain for any period of time.

I gather the reason is that maintaining that posture requires the erector spinae to remain in a contracted position.

A friend of mine said that if you do it often enough, it won't feel uncomfortable anymore, since your form will adapt and the muscles will "line up" over time and your natural position will be with an arched back.

He said it's the same principle that causes your arms to protract slightly after a hard bicep workout, however as far as I understand, this is due to temporary pump due to increased interstitial fluid. It isn't a long term "form adaption".

Can anyone lend any insights into this issue?
 
I dont' have a whole lot to add other then the fact that I too am trying to improve posture. Also, I have found that practicing this for a longer period of time definitely makes it easier... Not only does good posture look better, but its better for you I believe... If you're trying to deal with comfort you might want to double check you aren't over-correcting your posture. Ya gotta relax a little too =)
 
Hi, guys! :D

First of all, I think "good" posture is extremely difficult while sitting... sitting really isn't "natural". It has very little to do with the primary function of the musculoskeletal system, which is motion.

I think your friend is correct in theory. A dedicated person could probably, with proper neuromusclular reeducation, proprioceptive training and core strengthening, learn to sit in a strong balanced position. In that position, only minor corrections would be required from the stabilizing muscles, and all the muscles that make up the core would be lightly firing. Then there would be no over emphasis (nor over fatigue) of the lumbar erectors.

In real life, even with "ergonomically correct" chairs and posture-consciousness, this is rarely what happens. We let the chair do the work of sitting. We become engrossed in our work and forget about posture (it is a fair amount of mental work to correct posture, right Techo? ;) ). We are tired at the end of a trying day and last thing we want to do is work at sitting, for heaven's sake!

Off the top of my head, I'd say 90% of the chronic injuries I deal with as a bodyworker are a direct result someone being paid to sit for a living. The patient may think the sudden back pain really did happen suddenly, as a result of picking something up wrong or sleeping funny. But I can tell from what is going on in the musculature that whatever they did was a trigger for something that has building up over time.

The way to sit properly is to sit actively.
laugh.gif
don't lean back into the chair and let it do the work. Take frequent breaks away from the seated position (increasing your water intake is an easy way to help with this
laugh.gif
) Using a Swiss ball as a chair is an easy way to make sitting an activity.

Actually the Swiss ball is great for developing core strength and flexibility as well. Even if you don't want to sit on the silly thing at the office, you might work with it a bit at the gym: try some prestretch crunches over the ball, some hyperextensions or (my favorite) reverse hypers over the ball. You can even do Russian twists on the ball if you are feeling adventurous. Make sure you control your momentum though...

What all those things can do for you is create strength and flexibilty in your core musculature and a nervous system that "knows" when your back is in its strongest position. What they cannot do for you is make sitting a natural thing. In my mind, no matter what, most of us are going to have have to fight for optimal sitting posture at best.

Oh how I love to ramble on.....
Kate
 
Stand up and then attempt to completely not use your stomach muscles while you are standing. That's the same thing that happens when you sit down. You relax your stomach muscles. When you stand up though, you're not exactly flexing your stomach muscles. It's more like a kind of intra abdominal pressure. When you stand, you need to balance yourself, not so with sitting.
Here's a cool chair that may help: www.zackback.com

One solution my friend was thinking of was to raise his computer desk so that he could stand.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ([xeno]Julios @ May 07 2004,4:29)]how can you relax when you have to contract the muscles to maintain posture?
Click to expand...
I was speaking in relative terms... Kate and Andy summed it up quite nicely I'd say =)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top