Watch your back: poor posture can cause undue stress on back muscles

American Fitness, March-April, 2003 by Taum Sayers

The body performs many automatic tasks, including self-repair, maintenance and adaptation. We usually take the ability to recover for granted--until it falters. All too often we pay little attention to our injuries, adapt to our pain and move on with our busy lives. Yet, how many times can we adapt and still function without interfering with our self-repair and maintenance abilities?

Tension and pain in the mid-back region are indications of an excessive level of adaptation. An individual without some degree of mid-back tension or discomfort is rare and fortunate. In over 20 years of practice, I have probably come across no more than 10 clients without this common ailment. Mid-back muscle tension can result from numerous factors, one of which is an unbalanced posture. While corrective massage can offer temporary relief, if you return to unhealthy postural habits, the relief is often short lived.

Balanced Posture

If you have a balanced and stable posture your muscles and bones are "stacked and balanced," supporting most of your body's weight, thereby keeping you upright with ease. Since gravity is a constant force, our bodies relate to it by apparently programming the nervous system to constantly monitor and adapt to this relationship. Jacques Descotes, former president of the French Osteopathic Association, describes this neuromuscular function using the following analogy: "Imagine the body as a tightrope walker, with its many muscles making small adjustments--right and left, backwards and forwards--in order to maintain an upright balance. Any small deviation from this fragile equilibrium can accumulate and contribute to a functional difficulty over time."

When you are off-balance, your nervous system automatically responds by making your muscles adapt, requiring them to work overtime to keep you balanced and upright. As long as you are off-balance, this neuromuscular adaptive reaction creates constant stress, which can cause wear over time. This can manifest in various ways including foot, knee and hip problems. Eventually, muscular imbalances and adaptations can contribute to these and other chronic problems.

Finding Balance

By simply learning about your physical structure, respecting its basic principles and reducing obstacles that interfere with its natural abilities, you can help your body de-stress, repair and maintain itself rather easily. Quite often, simply balancing your sitting posture can reduce mid-back tension.

When you have a balanced posture, your muscles are more able to relax, refurbish and maintain themselves. When sitting, one of the easiest ways to monitor and maintain a balanced posture is to utilize the "sit bones" as a reference. Do you know what your "sit bones" are? If you lean too far forward while sitting, you might feel pressure in your hamstrings (A). If you slouch too far backward, you may feel pressure on your gluteal muscles (B). When you are balanced, you should feel pressure on your sit bones (C, the ischial tuberosities). In this position, your upper body weight will more likely balance on your skeletal structure, enabling the surrounding back muscles to relax. When your upper body weight rests on "A" or "B," the muscles in your upper back often respond by tensing. Consider mid-back tension a signal from your "internal monitoring system" informing you of your imbalanced posture.

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Balancing Standing Posture

Taking a pro-active position in maintaining a balanced posture is often a matter of developing new routines in everyday life. For instance, imagine standing at a sink or counter doing any number of activities (e.g., washing dishes, cooking, brushing your teeth, etc.). Pay attention to your body and respect your posture. Avoid leaning forward into the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" position. Instead, lower your torso by spreading your legs and feet. This enables you to accomplish your task more ergonomically.

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A "Therapeutic Shopping List" for Mid-Back Tension

The next time a therapist works on your mid-back, you may want to request specific work to address the possible adhesions and distortions within the illustrated muscles, in addition to the regular routine.

Chances are any or all of these muscles are in a state of distortion, tension and adaptive compensation (i.e., holding you upright when they have better things to do). By returning your body to a healthier state of balance, you stand a far better chance of relaxing and releasing back tension.

Clearly, good health is not a static state as much as it is an ongoing quest for equilibrium, balance and ease. Maybe our parents were on to something when they told us to "sit up straight."

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Taum Sayers is a certified Berry Method[R] practitioner, instructor, president of The Institute of Integral Health, Inc.[R] and author, who practices and presents workshops nationally and near his home in North Lake Tahoe, California. For more information, contact Sayers at www.musclemanagement.com.