It is no secret that all the technology in our world has made poor posture even more prevalent than before. I always say the brain picks the path of least resistance for the body and that tendency combined with gravity leads to a natural forward head posture. Hours spent on the computer, texting and sitting often promote a picture like this:

poor-neck

This positioning leads to lower cervical flexion and upper cervical extension thereby creating muscle imbalances.  Keep in mind the rest of the spine takes its cues from the head and neck.  A forward head encourages thoracic kyphosis, shoulder internal rotation and lumbar flexion.  The back muscles give way to hanging on the static structures and the brain grows accustomed to this relaxed posture.  The result = increased strain, muscle tension and mechanical deformation.  In addition, neuromuscular activation of the proper postural muscles is compromised or shut down completely.

This sequence of events often gives way to postural pain, tightness, tension headaches and eventually even more intense pain and symptoms related to disc pathology.  Essentially, the wrong structures spend too much time under tension, while our muscles go on a prolonged siesta throughout the day.  Good posture takes hard work and looks like this:

normal-neck

So, some simple strategies to improve posture include an awareness of proper alignment (ears in line with the shoulders), a conscious effort to sit and stand with better posture and consistent postural strengthening.  One of my favorite exercises to do is a simple prone neck retraction (see video below)

For a complete description of the exercise, click here to read my full column in PFP Magazine.

Finally, I want to leave you with some information from another clinician, Joe Brence, DPT on pain classification. He addresses the biomedical versus biopsychosocial approach to treating pain on The Manual Therapist’s blog.  I tend to believe we must use components of both systems as well as our intuition and clinical experience, but it is an informative post.  Click here to read his guest blog post on this.