Posture and Biomechanics

Posture refers to the biomechanical structure of our bodies. Although technically our posture is just a snapshot of us whilst not moving, it can tell us a lot about how we can and do move, the health of our organs, our minds and our emotions.

When our bodies are in a sympathetic-dominant state, meaning that we are in a chronic stress response, they tend to begin moving towards the foetal position for protection. This looks like rounded shoulders, compressed hips, sway back and often a hyper extended neck as a result. 

Equally, when our bodies are not moving in the way that they were designed to, we can become posturally imbalanced. A common example of this is someone who sits for a lot of their day – they often develop short, tight hamstrings, weak, compressed hips, rounded shoulders and hyper extended necks. Often the same thing we see with sympathetic dominance.

Our organs have feedback systems – when they are inflamed, they can send some of this activity along the nerve to the spine, causing pain or discomfort in other areas of the body that share that same neural pathway. This can cause some musculature to become dominant and some to become inhibited, causing changes to our posture. 

A common example of this would be when our gastrointestinal tracts are inflamed. This can cause the abdominal wall to become weak as the body and brain try to avoid the neural pathways experiencing pain and can cause pain, tightness or feelings of restriction in the upper back and neck.

Finally our posture affects our breathing mechanics, which in turn affect the amount of energy available to each cell. Our breathing mechanics also affect our posture, making everything a little bit chicken and egg...

We can see that our posture is part of many feedback loops within the body and can give us indications as to what may be happening mentally, emotionally, physically and biochemically. The good news is that we have four times as many afferent nerves (going from the body to the brain) as we do efferent nerves (from the brain to the body), meaning that making changes to our posture can not only affect our strength, mobility and fitness but also our energy levels, emotions and thoughts.

Upper and Lower cross syndrome

Upper and Lower crossed syndrome are a collection of postural adaptations that human bodies often make. According to Paul Chek, these include “shortening of the lumbar erectors, iliopsoas, rectus fermoris and tensor fascia latae with lengthening of the abdominal musculature, hamstrings, thoracic extensors and superficial cervical flexors” In English this looks like a tight lower back and hips, front of the thighs and outer thighs alongside weaker abdominals and hamstrings and rounded shoulders. This often includes an anterior pelvic tilt or lordosis of the lumbar spine and a ‘turtle neck’ to compensate for those rounded shoulders. I almost always see these occur alongside weak feet, adductors (inner thighs) and pelvic floor too.

Many of us may not be aware that this is happening and may find that if our workout programs are not designed specifically for our body, we may actually be exacerbating these patterns. The good news is that there are lots of great stretches, activations and movements that can help us unwind some of these patterns and begin to strengthen our bodies, sending signals to the brain that we are safe, strong and resilient. 

At Rē Precision Health we teach tools to regulate the nervous system through education and immersive experiences online and in our bubbles of paradise in Mexico and Portugal. Our programs have positively impacted (and even saved) hundreds of lives. 

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All information provided in our resources in for informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace a medical/mental health professional.