On Posture

Posture is one of those words that comes up often during conversations with clients. It is blamed for many ailments and often described as being “poor”. We all tend to seek a position that is least energy demanding. One thing that goes overlooked is that our posture is ever changing. The position we find ourselves in is not a static one, we are always adapting, always evolving. Posture describes a static position that may exist in one moment, but statics do not exist in life.

Posture has been equated to something that is steadfast and limited in its capacity for change. The truth of the matter is that posture changes within a person over time. Think about this for a minute, the posture we assume at ninety years of age is not the one we had when we were eighteen. It changes over time; we change over time. As tissues develop and evolve, our position, our shape does too. We have relegated ourselves to an unchanging posture, despite all of us knowing that we will not look the same in the decades to come. Some positions are less desirable as we seek out energy efficiency, these might look like a forward head, or extended knees, maybe rounded shoulders. If we have the capacity to alter those positions, movement often feels easier.

Clients arrive for treatment with a number of preconceived notions about their “poor posture” and are looking for a way to change it. I will typically provide some manual techniques that provide a sensation of a new position and then coach them through an exercise that can alter their position and create a new shape. The elastic nature of tissues is that they return to their default shape, but with enough practice that shape changes over time. This is the beauty of it all, it is changeable. The posture we blame for our condition is only an outcome of the environment we put ourselves in. It can, and does change whether intentional or not. At no point are we stagnant, at no point are we unchanging in our lifetime. The art in physical therapy comes down to finding the right input to alter our current shape and make the desired change.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist