We are living the digital revolution which may go down in
history as the worst influence to date, on the posture and structural health of
the human body. In the past “normal posture” was a beneficial, positive
expression of the human bipedal upright physique but as technology dominates
our spare time, work and study environments, there is a rapid decline. Unless
we do something fast, to re-educate our minds, re-train our body and
re-integrate the correct neural pathways which influence our posture, the
number of people presenting with problems which can be related back to postural
issues, will grow exponentially. We have a major health issue on our hands. Do
we wait to see the long-term impact or do we act now?
Ideal posture is standing tall, upright, rib cage lifted
from the navel, pelvis half way i.e. not tucked under or sticking out and
standing evenly on both legs. If a plum line was hung from the ceiling as a
guideline, from a side view, it should run through our ear, the mid aspect of
our shoulder, the middle of our hip joint and to the outer ankle bone. Holding
our body in the ideal posture should require the least amount of muscle effort
to maintain and minimises stress placed on our joints and supportive soft
tissue structures such as ligaments and tendons.
Abnormal and potentially damaging stresses and strains are
put through our body when we adopt poor posture, the effect of which becomes
more significant the longer we stay in these poses or the more repetitively we
adopt them. Long-term damage can be done and we lose the ability to use and
move our body correctly, potentially leading to further problems or making us
prone to injury during sport or a simple daily movement. It makes sense that
the more our posture deviates from correct alignment, the greater the impact
and the harder our body must work to keep us in balance.
We all know what good posture looks like. Don’t we? Yet
TODAYS’s normal is far from the optimal, biomechanical design. A significant
percentage, perhaps even much of the population, display examples of postural
dysfunction. When normal no longer equals ideal, we have a problem; not just an
in the home problem, or an at school problem, no longer a within the confines
of an office space problem. We have an everywhere problem; driving in the car,
waiting in a queue, walking down the road, even sitting in the waiting rooms of
practitioners, like myself, who are dedicated to helping halt this metamorphic
postural catastrophe. It is happening everywhere and the impact is a concern.
In times gone by younger generations could look to their
elders for examples of good habits who had postural education taught through
schools or handed down through speech the “stand up properly”, “sit up
straight” delivered with varying tones of authority and degrees of nagging
frequency. Let’s look at the elder members of today’s society; a far high
occurrence of physical, dynamic body movements within their daily work and
lives and questionably greater respect and value placed on what may now be
considered old fashion values for “proper” body carriage. What example do we
set for our children now? I have seen adults with aches and pains from postural
issues for years in practise. Then it became teenagers which concerned me but
when it now regularly becomes little kids, I’ll be frank, I start to panic!
When I start needing to adapt spinal rehabilitation
techniques for kids so that they are a bit more fun to do and start going down
the “sticker reward chart” avenue to encourage my young patients to help me get
them out of pain by doing their home exercises, I say STOP. We have a major
issue here and it is our responsibility as adults to recognise and acknowledge
this NOW. Admit it, the problem of bad posture is not going away and there is
no indication of its dilution. The clear majority of adults with chronic issues
now did not have problems in their childhood. SO when the adult problems start
appearing in childhood, what are we to assume THEIR adulthood will look like?
We need to wake up and realise we as adults are helping create these postural
habits so let’s shape up, get determined, lead by example and help create new
habits.
It is the responsibility of practitioners with training in
this field and passion to create change, to get out there and share our
knowledge. Let’s open doors to create opportunity to educate, motivate and
inspire our young people. If you’re in, I’m in too. Let’s make a change. Let’s
change the postures of the future one family at a time. It is easy to do.
If you know a posture that needs our help call us at Little
Spines, Longhurst Chiropractic on
03 595 0050. Dr Maybelle Heng or myself, Dr Andrea Dawson
can help you make a change.
