Almost everything you know about posture is wrong. The minute people hear the word, they perk right up and stand at attention like a military man. Back straight, shoulders down. They assume that this is the posture they should be in all the time.
This is an extremely rigid view of “good” posture, and standing like that all the time can actually make your resting posture, recovery levels, oxygenation levels, and the state of your nervous system worse.
Videos on social media and companies are constantly trying to sell you quick fixes: chin tucks, posture correctors and back braces, and wrapping your body around a foam roller to reverse whatever hunched posture you have going on (Figure 1). None of these methods teaches you the real way to re-stack your posture: training your diaphragm. In fact, standing hunched over might just be part of the process.
(Figure 1)
Researchers have investigated the physiological effects of different postures on recovery from intense bouts of exercise. They tested two recovery postures: standing tall with hands on head (Figure 2), and bent over with the hands on the knees – basically hunching (Figure 3).
They found that the hands-on-knees (hunching) posture allows the diaphragm to operate with maximal efficiency, assists in the reactivation of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode of the brain), and improves heart rate recovery and blood pH balance after intense bouts of exercise.
This means that the body is better equipped to circulate oxygen and can shift more easily into rest and recovery mode. Maybe standing at attention (chest up, shoulders back) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
(Figure 2) (Figure 3)
The way your joints stack (or don’t) and the way you walk is a reflection of your center of mass, your airflow patterns, and your nervous system.
The pattern of airflow that your nervous system favours will affect the amount of upward, downward, and side-to-side rotation that your ribs have. This will affect your center of mass, and in turn, the way your foot hits the ground.
Stand up for a second and try it out. Put your hands on your ribcage and take a long, slow exhale, helping your ribs down until they’re as far down as they can go. Where do you feel your weight in your feet? How does it shift your center of mass? Now do the inverse. Take a big inhale, as big as your ribs will allow. Open up and expand. Same question: where do you feel your center of mass shift?
The answer is that a big exhale will shift your weight back onto your heels. The inverse will shift your weight onto your toes. If your diaphragm (and body) is stuck in an inhaled state (think chest up, shoulders back – a conscious attempt at ‘fixing’ posture), you will be spending a lot of time with your weight towards your toes. This might manifest as tight calves or limited ankle mobility (think poor squat depth – your forward center of mass has ‘stolen’ some of your available ankle mobility, leaving less for descending into the squat).
This is why you cannot necessarily (and fully) address gait mechanics (hi, runners!) and mobility (hi, ambitious squatters!) without addressing the position of the ribcage and the strength of the diaphragm. You want to be able to access that stacked posture at rest. ‘Good’ posture should be unconscious and effortless.
The human spine has a natural curve to it – it is not flat. (Figure 4) When the spine is neutral at rest, it is not something you should have to consciously fix. It is actually the result of a regulated nervous system and good breathing mechanics. Good breathing mechanics precede good core strength and proper pressure management.
In turn, this allows for “optimal” length and strength of muscles that work together on opposite sides of the body. (Figure 5)
(Figure 4) (Figure 5)
Weak abs and glutes are often so secondary to the position that they are stuck in. They become this way after a long time of being poorly positioned to do their best work due to the function (or lack thereof) of the diaphragm.
Posture refers to the way that you hold your body when standing, sitting or moving. Any one posture that a person assumes is a reflection of the movement options they have available to them via the strength and integrity (or lack thereof) of joints and muscles, and what their nervous system allows them to do. People with “good” posture are people with many movement and breathing options. People with “poor” posture are people with few movement and breathing options.
We breathe upwards of 20,000 times per day. The brain can suffer significant damage after only 4 or 5 minutes without oxygen. If breathing is vital for survival, and you feel like you can’t breathe (comfortably expand your ribcage) in a position, how long are you going to be able to stay in that position? Not very long.
If you can’t breathe in a position, you don’t own it. If you don’t own it, you can’t relax there. If you can’t relax there, you probably won’t go into it that often. If you are not intentionally practising it, you move into that position less, and over time, you lose that movement option altogether.
Someone with “bad posture” is actually someone who just cannot get out of a position. Their ribs are rigid and cannot expand, rotate, and move. Their nervous system – and muscles that haven’t moved into a different position in a long time – are holding them there.
Your respiratory rate will be influenced by how much your ribs actually move, thus allowing your lungs to actually expand. The depth of your inhale is regulated by the depth and length of your exhale. If you cannot fully exhale (compress) and inhale (expand) your ribcage, your breath cycle shortens.
Now let’s say your breathing strategy is shallow, meaning you can’t get a full exhale without feeling an intense air hunger. Your inhale-exhale-inhale cycle feels reflexive. You recoil out of the exhale because you need air again. You feel breathless all the time. Might that change the way you walk? The way you think even – your brain is constantly starving for air, in panic mode, trying to get you to breathe? Might you feel more agitated, less present in the world?
(Figure 6, Recognizing and Treating Breathing Disorders)
The way you breathe is not just the way you move and the way you walk. It’s the way you live. This is also why anxiety, musculoskeletal issues, and nutrient deficiencies may not just be so in a vacuum (Figure 6). They may be pointing to a larger issue – a breathing issue. This is not to say that you cannot accomplish amazing things with a suboptimal breathing or pressure management strategy.
The human body is insanely adaptable. But high performance will always come at a cost, and your nervous system, soft tissues, and joints can and will pay. Think of powerlifters who deal with urinary incontinence during heavy lifts – their muscles are getting stronger in those positions, but they are robbing Peter (pelvic floor, core, breathing mechanics) to pay Paul (muscles). Their pelvic floor and core are not integrated as a sound pressure chamber to support the function of their entire body.
Learning to breathe well is about restoring your body’s rhythm – a balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain that allows you to shift from parasympathetic mode to sympathetic mode and back again — a balance that allows you to shift from the right side of your body to your left, from fight or flight to rest and digest. If you have limited breathing options, your body is going to have a harder time bouncing back, and every system in your body – digestive, musculoskeletal, lymphatic, respiratory, cardiovascular, etc., will pay the price.
At Free Form Fitness, we care about your health. High performance is not just about going faster, harder, and stronger all the time. It’s about taking care of your nervous system. Train hard, recover harder.
What are you going to do to take care of your nervous system?
