The way you hold or position your body at any point in time is what's called "posture". According to some, there's good posture and poor or bad posture. Can you tell me what makes one position good and one bad? Sitting in a slumped position (as in the photo) is often described as poor or bad posture. How slumped do I have to be to be bad? A little? A lot?
Posture carries with it risk and should not carry a value judgment of good or bad. Low risk positions are ones in which the joints of the body are aligned. This reduces the physical stress on the muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. High risk positions are misaligned which increases the stress on joints.
If your tissue strength is sufficient, you can sit in a high-risk position (slumped) for quite a while with few, if any, symptoms. Of course, this doesn't mean that this is good for you it just means that your body is able to withstand the stress. Most Americans live sedentary lifestyles (which is defined as taking fewer than 5000 steps per day) and as your fitness slips away from this relative inactivity, your tissue strength decreases. This usually takes several years by which time you have created a habit of sitting in a slumped position and because you haven't had symptoms before, when you do finally have neck pain or shoulder pain or some other ache or pain while sitting, you feel confused or search for some other cause. But, if you see someone for your pain, you're likely to hear you have poor posture. You think, "Well, I've been sitting like this for years and felt fine. So, why now, all of a sudden, do I hurt?"
Good question. And, the answer is that pain shows up when the physical demand exceeds the physical capacity. You can have significant levels of weakness or deconditioning and never hurt as long as the demand you place on your body is less than the physical capability. This is one reason why as people age, they often become less active. They restrict themselves to avoid pain and live a life of gradual reduction in activity.
Life carries with it a lot of risk management. Posture is just part of life's risk management. Thinking of it in terms of risk rather than whether it's good or bad will shift your decision making and help you do what's best for you.
I have some other thoughts for you on how to change posture but I'll hold those for another time. For now, just start thinking of posture as containing a certain degree of risk and see what happens to the way you hold or position your self.
Make today count.
Doug Kelsey
