How’s Your Posture?

Well, you’re reading this, so I’m guessing it’s not too hot.

Actually, it probably sucks.

Flexion Much?

Just so we’re on the same page, this, while common, is shitty posture. Got it from pexels

Of course you do.

Almost all of us do..

It’s almost inevitable due to the way society is structured today.

• Sit to eat breakfast
• Sit in your car to drive to work
• Sit at work all day
• Sit in your car on the way home
• Sit to eat dinner
• Sit in front of the TV

*there’s a theme here….

I Pity Your Thoracic Spine

Wikimedia commons

Sitting, after only a few minutes tends to result in flexed forward posture.

Sitting tall with “good” posture takes muscle strength and endurance.

Those muscles get tired.

If you’re weak to begin with, you’re really screwed cause they get tired really fast.

Once enough fatigue enters the system you’re going to slouch, and bend and shift.

That’s NORMAL.

There is NO SUCH THING AS PERFECT POSTURE.

The problem isn’t occasionally slipping into poor posture.

It’s LIVING there.

Tissue Creep And Davis’s Law

Tissue Creep:

“a physical property of materials that results in progressive deformation when a constant load is applied over time; it allows soft tissues to tolerate applied loads by lengthening.” –thefreedictionary.com

Davis’s Law:

“used in anatomy and physiology to describe how soft tissue models along imposed demands. It is the corollary to Wolff’s law, which applies to osseous tissue. It is a physiological principle stating that soft tissue heal according to the manner in which they are mechanically stressed“- Wikipedia

Put those two concepts together and its pretty easy to understand that sitting, slouched over with a rounded thoracic spine all day everyday is probably not the best thing to do for your long-term posture.

Cause if you do that enough your literally signaling the tissues to remodel, to form themselves, in that (khyphosis) posture.

Now Your Back and Neck Hurts

The thoracic vertebrae have these things called ribs attached.

And the ribs are attached to a sternum.

These makes the ribcage a great thing to “hang off of”.

Why use the muscles of the trunk/ core to keep me upright, when I have this awesome ribcage that I can just stack up?

But this flexed forward posture WREAKS HAVOC on the joints above and below it.

The cervical and lumbar vertebrae.

Lets remember the joint by joint approach.

What a joint lacks in mobility or stability will go “up and/ or down stream”.

So a locked up thoracic spine will require more movement at the cervical and lumbar spine to compensate, making up for the lack of movement at the thoracic.

What’s a Thoracic Spine to Do?

The thoracic spine should be able to flex/ extend as in the Cat/ Camel stretch.

It should also be able to rotate adequately, in fact the thoracic spine should be THE site of rotation along the spine,

“The thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine should be the site of greatest amount of rotation of the trunk… when an individual practices rotational exercises, he or she should be instructed to “think about the motion occurring in the area of the chest.”- Shirley Sharmann via Mike Boyle via Bret Contreras

But due to excessive thoracic flexion, stiffness, or the relative ease that comes from rotation at the lumbar spine,  thoracic rotation is severely lacking in most people.

Take a Test:

You don’t need golf clubs, you can use a broomstick across the shoulders and eyeball it.  Just make sure you keep your feet and knees together.

Point is, you probably don’t rotate as much as you should through the thoracic spine.

And if you’re stuck in the Desk Jockey posture?

You probably don’t rotate through the thoracic spine very much, at least not as much as you should,

“A rounded T-spine tends to rotate less effectively than an extended spine,” – Dean Somerset

So you’re grinding away at your lumbar and cervical spine all day.

No wonder your neck and low back always hurts huh?

Quadruped Thoracic Rotation:

Checklist:

• Quadruped position
  • Hands under shoulders, elbows straight, shoulders in the joint
  • Knees under the hips, hip width apart
• CHEST UP, you MUST EXTEND THE THORACIC SPINE THE WHOLE TIME
• Rock back slightly into the hips, maintaining a neutral spine. <–this helps limit lumbar compensation
• Hand behind the head rotate “elbow to elbow”
• Open the chest rotating through the ribcage NOT the low back
• Press the opposite/ floor based hand into the ground some (never bend the elbow)
• DO NOT ALLOW THE RIBCAGE TO FLEX LATERALLY,  keep the spine neutral. If the angle between the bottom rib and the hips changes, you’ve bent. Stop, reset, start over, take your time and be precise.

Bro Tips:

• Look at the elbow of the hand that is behind the head the whole time.
• Take your time and be precise,
  • More isn’t better, better is better.
• Slowing the movement down usually results in a cleaner/ truer movement
• Don’t “chicken wing” the movement. Just swinging the humerus back and forth approximating the hell out of the humerus and cranking on the anterior shoulder.
  • MOVE THROUGH THE T-SHIRT LOGO <–looking at the elbow will help this. 

The most important thing  with Quadruped Thoracic Rotation is to move through the thoracic spine, the T-shirt logo, and not the lower back.