The EASIEST Way to Improve Your Posture and Health (That You're Probably Not Doing)
Did you like that clickbait post title? To be honest, it makes me cringe, BUT it got you here. A necessary evil, right? Well, let’s just hope I don’t disappoint or waste your time.
Okay, let’s jump in. This post will cover movement and how it relates to improving posture and even pain. I’ll also tell you the ONE thing I have found to be EXTREMELY beneficial for improving my posture as well as my therapy patients & training clients postures.
Post overview:
What is posture
How movement relates to posture
Why being sedentary can potentially lead to bad posture or even pain
Why adding walking and movement goals can fix your posture
Where to start with adding more movement
Okay, want to know the secret?
The number one super cool thing I give folks that solves all there problems?
I won’t be the guy to make you scroll all the way to the bottom to find out. I’m already pushing it with that clickbait title.
Okay, here it is…
Don’t hate me.
Walking
Simple, right?
Okay, before you go after me and my firstborn son, just hear me out. I have a plan and you’ll be obsessed with walking after this post, or at least you’ll feel a little guilty the next time you only get 500 steps in a day.
Posture & Movement Relationship
Alright folks, let's do this. So movement and posture are deeply intertwined. We often consider our "good" neutral standing posture as a starting point for what will hopefully be "good" or stronger movement.
For example, I often hear statements like,
"If I improve my posture, my back won't hurt when I bend over."
"If I could sit upright, my core would be stronger and I could deadlift more."
"If I had good posture, I could run better and longer without knee pain."
As you can see in these statements, the "good" posture is really just a means to an end. It's both a starting point for movement as well as a transition zone.
Well, wtf is a transition zone? I'm glad you asked!
Let's refer to this photo below:
We have three spinal movements happening.
A) Spinal Flexion
B) "Neutral" Spine
C) Spinal Extension
These three movements are essentially a continuum of my movement capabilities at the spine (relatively). As I go from the endpoint “A” of flexing my spine, I come up to “B” neutral in order to get over to the other endpoint of “C” extending my spine. Not to mention all the other degrees of movement I have to move through on the continuum.
So the transition zone is essentially all the degrees of motion I need to go through in order to move toward the desired endpoint or task (in the example it was going from spinal flexion to extension).
So our "good" neutral standing posture gets high praise and all the attention because it's both an awesome transition zone and the starting point for a ton of our movement.
Cool, so hopefully we’ve connected the dots as to why posture relates directly to our movement. But what happens if we’re not moving? What happens if we sit on our butts of 5-12 hours per day?
Being Sedentary Jacks Up Our Neutral, Relaxed Posture
Well, this may be news to you but humans are meant to move. We're meant to do all kinds of wild crazy movements that allow us to manipulate our environment. It's one of the reasons why we're awesome #humansrule.
But, we both culturally... socially... I don't know why it is, but we as a species have decided 50-200 years ago that being sedentary is a good idea. Well, ladies and gentlemen, yes you can sit down and get a lot done on the computer (like I am right now trying to relay this amazing information to you) but it comes at a cost.
Let’s first define the word sedentary and then I’ll add my two cents to it as well.
Sedentary:
“Involving little exercise or physical activity”
“Used to refer to organisms that do not ever or often move from one position or place”
From this definition, we can see that the organism, in this case, you, the human, doesn’t move much. Sedentary is often associated with sitting, but in reality, it also means standing too. Sorry, your standing desk still technically makes you sedentary as you’re not moving about (okay, you may move more than sitting but it’s all relative).
Now, remember how I said that this sedentary lifestyle comes at a cost? Well, that’s due to our body adapting to this positioning. See, we have in the strength and conditioning world the S.A.I.D. principle.
This stands for:
Specific
Adaptation to
Imposed
Demands
"The SAID principle is a fundamental principle in the field of strength training and conditioning (7). The SAID principle states that an athlete’s body will adapt to exactly what is demanded of it—no more and no less. This principle says that you must give the athlete’s body an unambiguous message of what you want it to become by providing training stressors that mimic all, or parts, of the target physical capacities or skills. The SAID principle constrains strength training and conditioning coaches in their program designs to achieve specific adaptations based on the demands put on the system." - NSCA's Basics of Strength and Conditioning Principles
So the S.A.I.D. principle is similar to the saying "you are what you eat." Basically your body adapts to what stresses you place on it via intensity (amount of effort), volume (amount of work), or duration (amount of time).
Now, if we apply this principle to you sitting at your desk eight hours per day... well we can quickly see that the body is going to adapt to that position in order to be as successful as possible.
Now you may be thinking, well... I'm not "stressing" my body by being sedentary. There's no "intensity" like I'm weight training.
Well, yes and no. Intensity may not be the main driving force behind our bodies adapting to a sedentary lifestyle, but duration, my friend. Duration is the secret little devil that's haunting us.
Let’s think about going through all those years of school. From kindergarten, all the way through high school, add some undergrad and maybe even a masters/doctorate. That's like 13-21 years that you've been sedentary pumping knowledge into your brain. Oh, and then add your desk job after school and all the years you may spend sedentary.
Okay, you might be squirming around a bit or having a full-on existential crisis about why the hell we're always sitting and how it's jacking you up as we speak.
Chill.
Take a breath.
Exhale it all out.
Let's blame all this cultural/societal sedentary lifestyle on, Ted. Ted sucks.
Hey Ted, this lifestyle wasn't a good idea, bro. Screw you, man, now my posture is ___(insert your posture problem)____ and I can't ___(insert what you want to do)___ you jerk.
Cool, we really showed, Ted.
Alright back to it.
So what's one way we can really shove it in Ted's face AND improve our posture?
You guessed it :)
Move More
Let's just do the exact opposite of what Ted wants and move!
Wait, but how exactly does that help with my posture?
I'm glad you asked!
Though we may not be focusing on a specific posture deficit such as an anterior pelvic tilt or rounded shoulders. We are attempting to counteract the main driving force of these posture deficits which is the sedentary lifestyle and the time we spend there.
Walking specifically improves our body's ability to manage internal pressures such as lymph, blood flow, as well as organ function, respiratory cycle, and reducing muscular tone (depending on the movement activity), which in my experience, these factors have a direct positive effect on your posture.
Basically, our bodies have adapted to walking on two feet for the past 3-4 million years. Us being sedentary in the past 50-200 years is an environmental mismatch. When we have a mismatch, we get weird stuff happening like obesity, funky postures, pain, etc.
Well, I tried to start walking more, but my knee hurt or my back ached. Why is that?
Without diving too far down the rabbit hole of pain science, let's try to answer this. So let's look back to all the hours in your life that you've adapted to being sedentary. You may have some wonky postures going on and from a biomechanical perspective you maybe not moving as optimal as you could be. But really, I've found that to be only part of the problem.
Instead, if we look at pain from a neurological and more specifically brain stem perspective, moving could be considered threatening to you, thus causing pain.
Okay, let me back up. The brain and the brain stem decide when and where pain should or should not occur. It typically decides this whenever the body is under some sort of "threat." So really, the tissue or joint itself isn't causing the pain, but rather it's...
*dun* *dun* *dun*
All in your head
But that's okay. It's normal and just how our bodies work. Okay back to how moving could be considered threatening.
So, our bodies have adapted under some weird sedentary version of the S.A.I.D. principle. You're really good at staying in one place and getting stuff done because you've spent how many thousands of hours doing this. You then decide to go on your first ever 3.1 miles (5K) walk-jog. Besides almost passing out from exhaustion and all those crazy sensations, you're also feeling that your knee is killing you.
Biomechanically, yes that knee or your hips/ankles may not be moving well thus causing some weird stuff. This in conjunction with your body not being adapted to really... well... moving at all creates this lovely, scolding hot, threatening soup that your brain stem slurps and then spits all out AKA pain.
I don't know about you, but I feel really good about that analogy.
Okay, so enough about pain science and all that crap. How do I move more because I want my posture better, and I want it now!
Walking, The Easiest Posture Fix You’re Not Doing
We’ve come full circle.
I KNOW! You've heard this so much and it's so not original (god I hate myself so much right now).
Please just hear me out.
If you haven't already accepted that walking is good for your posture program as it directly counteracts a sedentary lifestyle, gets blood/lymph fluid moving, and reduces muscle tone. Well, here are two articles you should check out about how else it can help your general wellbeing:
Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults
Basically, if you get more steps, you live longer
The Role of Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis in Human Obesity
Move more, you burn more calories, you can lose weight or keep weight off WAY easier
Okay, so hopefully I've solidified that walking is like the easiest thing you can do, the lowest barrier of entry to improving your posture, lengthening lifespan, and losing/maintaining weight.
It's so stupid simple that I know you want to punch me right now (I want to punch myself).
Walking & Movement Goals
Alright, so what should you aim for in terms of walking?
Get at a MINIMUM (for posture/health improvements):
10,000 steps per day OR
Walk 2-3 miles per day
Seriously, this is homework I give every one of my posture clients. You have to move and counteract the #1 cause of your bad posture: a sedentary lifestyle.
Take your dog on a walk, put on a podcast, talk to a family member or friend on the phone, and just get out and get moving.
Really, it’s that simple.
Summary
In conclusion, walking is the easiest way to improve your posture as it directly counteracts the root cause of postural deficits, plus you get awesome health benefits as well. Walking also promotes proper organ, lymphatic, and circulatory function/mobility which also assists in better posture as the body as a whole is more “mobile.” Get 10K steps in a day can you can prevent wonky weird postures from setting in or getting worse.