Are You Ignoring the Warning Signs of Poor Posture? [Video]

Are You Ignoring the Warning Signs of Poor Posture? Video Summary:

This discussion focuses on the importance of recognizing early warning signs of poor posture and misalignment before they lead to chronic pain or serious conditions. Our Activ8 Posture therapists emphasized that many people don't initially experience pain, even when their posture is significantly misaligned, which can lead them to ignore these early indicators.

They highlighted some common signs of posture issues, such as uneven weight distribution, misaligned feet, and imbalances that might show up in everyday activities like a bra strap slipping or one foot turning out more than the other. They also mentioned that chronic conditions, such as headaches, TMJ, or even cold hands (like Raynaud's), can often be linked to poor posture.

The conversation also covered how habitual movements, like always pushing off with the same foot or favoring one arm, can indicate imbalances that could eventually lead to pain. The therapists stressed the importance of addressing these issues early to prevent them from developing into more severe problems. They also discussed how people often misattribute symptoms like stiffness or soreness to aging or specific activities, rather than recognizing them as signs of posture misalignment that can be corrected.

Finally, they shared examples of clients who had ignored these signs, leading to more significant issues, and encouraged viewers to pay attention to their body's signals to maintain good posture and overall health.

Are You Ignoring the Warning Signs of Poor Posture? Video Transcript:

Hey everybody, it's Activ8 Posture. And today we're addressing the question, are you ignoring the warning signs of serious posture problems?

Posture misalignment doesn't always cause pain right off the jump, right? When it gets too far deviated from the structure, that's where your brain starts to send you the signal saying, hey, something's up, going a little too far, and it's gotta be corrected. We've all seen, I'm sure, you know, you viewing this video, I've seen that there's been some pretty deviated postures and you ask the person there, are you feeling okay? And they're like, yeah, I feel fine.

You know, so like, what are the signs you know, of serious posture, deviations, serious posture problems? And really why we're addressing this is so people can be on the lookout for this and really prevent, you know, serious pains or serious conditions from happening. So you continue to feel well and, you know, live vibrantly and healthy.

Yeah, absolutely. And, I like the question and, and I would call them early warning signs. And most of the people that we see coming into the clinics, they are already in pain for the most part, they have, you know, some sort of symptoms going on. Maybe they've been dealing with it for a while. So it's usually a chronic you know, chronic type of pain or situation. 

And a lot of our clients also have sort of failed the common medical model in terms of, you know, symptomatic treatment that's protocol based. So I was in a conversation earlier today and we were talking about, like, we could literally have 10 people who come to us with back pain and all 10 of them have a different presentation of why they have back pain. So to say like, oh, you should all do McKenzie, you know, extension, or you should all do, you know, the same, you know, dead bug exercise, like it's just not going to work, you know.

Just like engage your core, right. People have even told me

Yeah, the standard answers. So, so I would say like, maybe a couple that are out there as far as early warning signs, one is simple weight distribution. So, you know, that tells us there's asymmetry in the body. So, if you're out there, you stand up, take your shoes off, close your eyes. How's your weight distribution between your right and left sides? Do you feel heavier on one side? Do you feel, you know, one side's more you're more forward on one foot versus the heel on the other? Are you rolled in or out on one side versus the other?

And then if you look down at your feet also, is one foot turning out more than the other, is one in front of the other, is one behind. Those, that's like a simple warning sign to say like, look, you're not standing on, if our legs were pillars and we put a platform on top of that and said, everything's supposed to stack, those two pillars are off. So, you have anomalies like the leaning tower of Pisa, but that's what we end up seeing in the clinics is a lot of leaning towers and.

It's usually, again, the after effect, like you said, Matt, when they've already had symptom versus trying to get them there. And just one last point is like, if we do our job right, people are getting out of pain fairly quickly with our approach. And then they are staying with it because they understand the reason why and they don't want it to either the same pain to come back or the two or three other symptoms that they have, they wanna prevent those as well. 

Right, we're helping them to be able to pick up on those early warning signs that they might have before. So then it's like, hey, you know, this causes your symptoms. So as you're feeling better and getting back to doing what you wanna do, you know, just be on the lookout for this. If this starts to deviate or if this starts to happen, you know, this is your sign from your body, your signal to say, hey, you gotta, you know, address this or else it's gonna lead to issues down the line, absolutely. 

Yeah, I think a really easy one to find is, well, for women, bra straps. So a lot of women will tell me like, yeah, my left bra strap that one always drops. So I always have to pick it up and put it on. And then when we assess their posture, we'll notice, okay, well, right shoulder elevated, left shoulder dropped or shoulder is pulled in front. And when we show them the photos, they go, oh, that's the side where the strap always falls off on my shirt and I always have to pull it back off. That's something you just throw out. You just think, oh, it always slips on my left side. I just need to tighten it more, but it could be a posture misalignment.

Yeah. You're getting like pants tailored or whatever shirts tailored to you. If it's different left to right, right. That's a sign that you're misaligned. I think, I think visually like that, that can be a good one. Like you're seeing it or you're feeling it too. Like visually, if a big predictor that we see of misalignment, you know, both in the area, but then up the chain, if you will. So outside of this area is your foot positioning. So if you just look down at your feet or you see people walk around in their feet, either one or both are splayed outward or turned inward, you know, the feet, we usually, you know, call them the window to the hip, right?

So it usually with the foot deviation like that, it's the ankles not positioned or moving properly. The muscles of the joint itself, you know, aren't keeping the foot straight. But then that's usually a compensation that will happen with tightness or restriction in the hips or a misalignment in the knee. If the knee's turned in, the foot will turn out to try to counterbalance that. So that can be, you know, a good predictor to say, oh, your feet aren't straight. So then it's an issue not only in the foot, but up the chain.

I think there are also some bigger problems that people have that they don't necessarily think has anything to do with posture. TMJ, stomach aches or issues going to the bathroom, chronic headaches. All of those things are related to your posture and how your body works and runs. But people don't necessarily associate that with having good or bad posture.

Yeah, it's true. Right. Even like in New England here in Boston, you know, hands getting cold, right? Like if you're getting cold, like Raynaud's, you know, commonly referred to, you know, that's postural deviation in the upper body, that rounded shoulder position, which then cuts off essentially the blood flow down into your hand. So it can't warm your hand or your fingers. So yeah, absolutely the systemic side of things. Test people can do to your point, Paul, like weight distribution, if you just stand up against a wall, you know, stand with your heels, your butt and your shoulders up against the wall.

Does your head go back along with the shoulder, butt and heel position against the wall? Most people know that tells you that your head is forward because your upper back is rounded and tight. That can cause brain fog. Big thing we see lead to headaches, TMJ to your point, Carrie Ann. So whether it's causing those symptoms or not, the deviation is the precursor to that.

There are also habitual things you can look out for. If you are a more active person, if you cycle, do you always push off with the same foot? If you do yoga, can you maybe touch your hands one way and not the other? Or if you're lifting, reaching, do you always use one arm in favor of the other? All of those are also signs of compensation, deviation. And just because you're not having pain yet doesn't mean it's... it's not coming and you can easily fix it by balancing out those things now.

Another piece too is like, you know, I think people have different definitions of pain, you know, for that matter. So let's say you just have general stiffness or you qualify as general stiffness. So my back's a little stiff or, you know, slept wrong in the morning on my neck, you know, stuff like that, you know, it's like, it's cause I'm old, you know, I'm getting older. So things are different, you know, things are a little more restricted, you know, not the case like that's usually a sign too that there's imbalance, you know, in the musculature, misalignment of the posture that's starting to put too much stress on that stiff area. And then that will perpetuate over time and eventually lead to pain.

Those little, we call them warning shots, you know, over here, right? It's your body sending you the signal that, hey, this is starting to not move right. And it's not because you're old, or it's not because of whatever, you know, it's because it's starting to take on too much tension, starting to compensate for something else.

I think another thing too. Like I'll have a lot of clients who, you know, like they're just taking pictures like with their family and stuff and they'll notice things like my head's always forward. I mean, I was just born like that. But again, that's pretty much like never the case, you know, it really is just kind of similar to the things we've already talked about, you know, tight shoulders, rounded back. So that's easily fixable with exercise as well. Or like looking in the mirror, like how come I have this one shoulder is higher than the other? Those are like just common ones. But all warning signs.

Yeah, that's a big one.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Like a hip hike is a good one too. If you put your hands on top of the, you know, tops of your hips and notice that one's higher than the other. And I always think of it as a like ticking time bomb also, like when, you know, we're all out, just people watching or seeing someone, you know, across the street or, or walk in the store, it's always hard to turn off, you know, the posture lens.

But you see that hip hike and it's just like, okay, what's that gonna show up as? Is that gonna be sciatica? Is that gonna be a knee issue? Is that gonna be a hip problem? Is that, you know, is that the low back? Is it, you know, coming somewhere completely different? Like, you know, going back to the, you know, headaches or neck pain or something else. It's just, you know, if something just really jumps out at us though, it's like, yeah, that's, that's something's gonna be happening and just hear the tick, tick, tick. 

I'm gonna say for certain people that are really active, they might not necessarily be in pain, but they might find that they get really sore or really tired after doing certain exercises. For example, I have one fellow and he's a surfer and for him paddling out to catch the waves, his upper back is so rounded and his head is forward and his shoulders are forward, he can't get his arms to fully come up back and around. So for him, he says that's the most difficult part. And whenever he's done surfing, he's like...

My shoulders are really tired. My back is really tired. I start getting back pain, but you know, besides that he's in great shape when he's surfing, but it's something he just ignores and goes, I'm gonna go home, I'm gonna put ice, I'm gonna take a painkiller, and then I'll go surfing tomorrow. Not really realizing that it's the curve of his upper back and the position of his shoulders that's causing him this difficulty to actually paddle out into the ocean. 

Just part of the sport, right? It's gonna happen. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just part of the sport. I just, I need to stretch more, that's it. And not really taking into account that, oh, it could be a postural issue.

Yeah, yeah, you showed me his pictures and it definitely is a postural issue. And it's not his shoulders alone, it's his whole spine. Right, so, and all the way down. So, you know, I'm picturing a, you know, a turtle on a surfboard, you know, trying to extend the arms beyond that, beyond that shell. It's just like that rounded thoracic back that we see so often, you know, that kyphosis. 

Yeah, so I know a lot of the more athletic clients that I've worked with, they just think, oh, okay, I need to work harder on this one aspect. And well, luckily, if they're seeing me, they are working on their posture, but you think about people that come for the first time and they just say, for example, when I'm running, like I get really tired, my right hamstring gets really tired after I'm done running. And then when you look and see how they walk or how they move, it's okay, well, your hip pelvis on that right side is kind of locked here. Then that's what's having that hamstring overwork and get tired.

So yeah, not necessarily in pain, maybe overwork, tired, because they're not moving as efficiently as they should. And that's something that's easily ignorable of I just need to work harder. I need to strengthen that part of my body.

Yeah, that's a good point. And I would say if you had a bad side or think you have a bad side, you shouldn't have a bad side.

Right.