When you have poor posture during your workout, it can lead to neck, shoulder and back complaints. Watch Sarah explain the biomechanics of what might be happening during your workout.
Book an AppoinmentDo you have poor posture?
To assess if this is a problem you might need to address, get someone to take a photo of you from the side on profile, just as Sarah stands side on in the video. If you’re at the gym you can get a bit of an idea standing side on in a mirror but you won’t be able to see your neck posture properly and it’s not a good idea to be checking your posture throughout a movement such as a deadlift or squat so def set up a camera or get someone to film you for movement based posture self analysis.
Common posture seen during workout
- Ear is forward of your shoulder
- Shoulders and ears are forward of the centre of your hips
- Whole body is tilted forward
- Whole body is tilted back
- Sway back (bottom tucked with rounded shoulders)
- Kyphotic / Lordotic back (exaggerated curve both in the upper and lower backs with forward tilt of hips)
- Straight back (reduced curve in the upper and lower back)
Causes
It’s one thing to treat and manage poor posture but it’s good to know what things might be causing it so you can start to make some positive lifestyle changes too. The most common causes of poor posture we see in the clinic are:
- Sitting at a desk for work without regular breaks
- Studying at a desk without regular breaks
- Imbalanced upper body or core exercise programs
- Side sleeping without adequate support
- Couch potato syndrome
- Gaming without adequate support
- Overuse of iphone/ipad
- Lack of awareness of posture
- Poor biomechanics during sport such as tennis or golf
- Sustained hunched posture for work
Treatments
At Myothrive we like to address the underlying cause of your posture problem by doing a thorough assessment to see what’s strong, weak, long and short. From this we can help workout what pre workout routine will help you get in better alignment beforehand and watch stretches or release work might be helpful for after your workout.
If you think your posture could be improved, reach out and we can have chat, simply fill in the form below or ask our bot to contact us for you. We find the sooner you address postural concerns the less likely you are to end up with pain or injury. This goes for sport as well. Adding load by repetition in a game of soccer or netball can be just as bad as lifting a heavy weight when it comes to poor posture. If you know you need our help, you can click here to find a time that suits you best.
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