Brace Yourself: Focusing on Your Posture

Our posture is the foundation of every movement we make. Whether we're sitting, going for a jog, or doing a deadlift, proper spinal positioning is crucial to both preventing injury and the efficiency of your movement. The fact of the matter is that the movements you're resorting to at your computer desk are going to translate to your movements in the gym.

So what is considered "good posture?" Dr. Kelly Starrett, author of Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance breaks it down into three easy steps:

1. Squeeze your butt
2. Align your ribcage with your pelvis
3. Tighten your core (about 20% tension for low-impact activities like sitting, 100% for a max deadlift)
4. Neutralize your head position and roll your shoulders back into a good position

Ideally, these 4 cues will lead you to a safe position regardless of the task. As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my post about core strength, a nice, strong core is essential to proper posture. Our core prevents our lower backs from arching and stabilizes our hips and shoulders. In these images, Dr. Starrett illustrates these concepts. As a point of reference, he places one hand under his breastbone (sternum) and another hand on his pubic bone. If your posture is aligned properly, your hands will be parallel to one another.

Image A illustrates a properly braced spine. In Image B, Starrett rounds his shoulders, and in Image C, his lower back is excessively arched.

Here, Kelly demonstrates all of the positions you can sit in comfortably with a braced spine.

So next time you're sitting at your desk at work, take a moment to focus on your posture. Are your shoulders rounding forward? Are you arching your lower back too much? If you are, simply stand up, follow the bracing sequence, and sit back down.

Sources:

1. Starrett, Kelly, and Glen Cordoza. Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance. Las Vegas: Victory Belt Pub., 2013. Print.
2. Polyakov, Dimitry. "Home." Total Physical Therapy. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013