News - Posture - Article

By Jason Anderson

Posture is (a funny one and) a term that is often overused without being fully understood! Understanding and combating poor posture is unfortunately not just a matter of sticking your chest out and shoulders back.

I remember about two years ago, in a vain attempt to become a little more cultured and sophisticated, I borrowed a copy of ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. I don’t know if you’ve read this book, but in a nutshell it’s about a man who is pure and untouched by society. He befriends an artist who paints a portrait of him. This portrait, you could say, is the symbol of youth, of purity, of someone being untouched by his or her environment.

To cut a long story short he is corrupted by society, fortunately something Oscar knew quite a bit about, but he manages to keep his appearance, despite his behaviour, by making a pact with the devil.

So what I’m trying to get at is that our posture is more than just the way we stand…

It’s a reflection of our entire being. Every decision we have ever made, every piece of food we have ever eaten, every emotion we have ever felt and every movement we have ever performed is reflected in our posture. It’s the portrait of our very soul!

So let me get your attention…

A simple assessment of the pelvis can establish a restriction at either the ilio-femoral or ilio-sacral joint, which may be a result of trauma, impact, lifestyle, chemical or emotional influences. Whatever the reason behind the restriction, we can start to assume and predict the following:

A lengthening of the leg and subsequent weight shift creating tension from ankle to occiput

This tension locks the ankle resulting in reduced dorsi flexion and subsequent rotation during movement

A shortening of the hip flexors and tibialis anterior resulting in over pronation

A dragging down of the right shoulder and a fixing of the scapula that leads to impingement

Reciprocal rotation of the vertebrae that leads all the way to the cranium

Destabilisation of the shoulder as a result of neural inhibition to the rotator cuff

A tightening of the hamstrings as a result of diaphragmatic inhibition and subsequent poor inner unit function

A tightening of the pec minor as a result of altered breathing patterns and shoulder instability

Over-activity in the trapezius and SCM that leads to neck tension and headaches

Now tell me that as a tool for injury treatment and prevention this information is not powerful stuff!

All of these assumptions can be confirmed by a series supplementary movement assessments and the fact that the client is in difficulty and has just walked through your door for treatment.

The effective treatment of this situation would consist of returning the body to homeostasis in the static environment through the application of soft tissue release and muscle energy techniques. Once we have returned the client to a good position we will need to re-educate the nervous system to control the muscles which control the body’s segments by creating proprioceptive sensitivity and strength in these new positions. Only once this is achieved can we start to think about improving performance in the three dimensional environment at speed.

Jason Anderson has dedicated his life to exercise development, with over 20 years of gymnasium experience. Starting out as a competitive natural bodybuilder, Jason competed at national level, which fuelled his interest in exercise.

He has spent the last 5 years working for Premier Training international (the fitness education company) as Programme manager for the Fitness Trainer Award & Advanced Personal Training qualifications. He is the inspiration behind Premier’s Personal Training Solutions (PTS) department & their revolutionary WEB & Flexibility training systems.

Jason has presented his concepts at the top fitness conventions in the (Fitpro, Loughborough and Multitrax , Heathrow) & at numerous club chains around the world. He is also the exercise specialist, exercise model & regular contributor for Men’s fitness & other industry publications

He is currently based in Wiltshire, where he runs his Movement enhancement studio.