There is a lot of discussion about ‘good’ posture and ‘bad’ posture but what does this mean, and does it influence pain?
Did you know that what we often think of as poor posture does not actually cause back pain?
How we sit, stand and bend does not cause back pain even though these activities might be painful. I believe that it’s important to spend time in lots of different postures and positions during the day to keep our backs healthy so, it is safe to relax and even slump when we sit.
Just as it is ok to bend and lift things with a round back – in fact it is often a more efficient way of using the muscles.
I recently worked with someone that sat in a ‘good’ posture for most of the day – this meant his muscles were tense, fatigued, and stiff which inadvertently caused stress in the body. Stress releases chemicals that sensitise the nervous system and signals travel to the brain where this information gets processed. In this instance the information was interpreted as a threat and so an output from the brain of pain was experienced by this gentleman, in his lower back. This gentleman knows much more about low back pain now and doesn’t worry about what is good or bad posture because there isn’t really either!
