{"id":8,"date":"2017-10-26T19:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:00:47","slug":"whats-posture-got-to-do-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinetx.org\/blog\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"What’s posture got to do with it? Everything!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does our posture affect what happens when we exercise?<\/span>
\nThis is the first in a multi part series, today we will discuss the detrimental effects of postural faults in the upper body and next time we will address the lower body. In exercise as well as in normal day to day movement, there is a complex interaction between how we move and how much we move.\u00a0 Most commonly how well or poorly we move is reflected in our capacity to move.\u00a0 If we move well we can move a lot, and conversely if we move with altered movement patterns, it can be less efficient, detrimental and many times pathological.<\/p>\n

Postural faults are not your fault..well not entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of the most common thing we see in our office is poor posture, but why?\u00a0 Believe it or not, it’s the way we have evolved vs. our current environment.\u00a0 Over 30,000 years of recorded history, man has been active.\u00a0 Farming for vegetables, chasing or hunting for prey, it was not easy or sedentary type existence. Fast forward to the 21st century and we no longer need to hoe the field or track migratory prey over long distances. Our bodies were designed to move and perform tasks crucial to survival. Those tasks formed a balanced frame because the tasks were diverse.\u00a0 Not so much anymore.. For those who want to know more about primitive patterns, how we analyze it and how we get back to healthy movement click here for a power point presentation I created for fitness professionals.<\/p>\n

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\nWe live in a flexion based society and most of us contribute to it in almost every aspect.. even when we weight train.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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It’s no secret that we as a society have become not only complacent but we’re also stuck in the seated position for much too long. We spend more and more time at the work desk, and even more in the car and when all that is over we go to the gym and sit in all of these Precor and Hammer strength machines some more. All of this concentrates the work that we do in the front of our bodies; overdeveloping the front half, and making it dominant.\u00a0 The result is your posture collapsing forward.\u00a0 In essence we are feeding the poor posture<\/i><\/b> with something we are told is good for us.\u00a0 Exercise is good for us, but much more so when it’s done correctly and not reinforcing postural faults.<\/p>\n

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Don’t worry Doc, I train back day too..<\/span><\/p>\n

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I’m ashamed to say I fell victim to this one too way back when, most think that training your lats with pulling type exercise will balance your posture, but it does not. The Latissimus doesn’t balance out the chest\/pecs the middle and lower trapezius and rhomboids do. This thought process contributes to this\u00a0Upper Crossed Syndrome<\/a>\u00a0which is widespread and an underlying factor in so many musculo-skeletal issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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The chest has taken over and pulled the shoulders forward<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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A healthy balance or the muscles that move us forward and backwards in the upper body<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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The Lats(back) has taken over and rotated the shoulders in<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Take into account the previous discussed predisposition (the front of us taking over) and we quickly see that our workouts can be contributing to a myriad of pathological processes including but not limited to;<\/p>\n