The Best Guide for the RG4 Area

Posture

Zoe Lofthouse regards understanding the significance of good posture as extremely important, especially in today's society. Many of us would have been told as children not to slouch and to sit up straight, the question is why this is so important? But firstly what even is posture!? The Oxford Dictionary (2011) states that posture is a ‘particular position of the body', however this doesn't really help us with a clinical definition. 

Marcus (2004) states that optimal posture is a balance formation of the body with respects to gravity and is dependent on positions of body parts to attain a preferable distribution of the body mass around the centre of gravity. Hruska (2011) goes further and states that ‘posture is a reflection of the "position" of many systems that are regulated, determined and created through limited functional patterns'. "Limited functional pattern" is a movement that is restricted in normal limits of functional range, as a consequence of improper joint, muscle, and rest positions. Hruska (2011) states that the functional patterns impact on the ability and inability to breathe, rotate, and rest, symmetrically over both sides of the body.

Zoe agrees with this and believes that posture is not a static stance however it involves dynamic movement and functional factors. She also believes that soft tissue and boney restrictions prevent muscles and joints acting in their normal range, leading to compensatory effects, causing hyperactivity of muscle leading to improper positions.
Zoe has seen many people with a postural compensation and proposes that structural and functional stressors on the body may prevent achievement of optimum posture. So next time your slouched over your desk, in your car, (or simply walking around!) spare a thought for your posture and straighten up a little!

Reference:

Hruska, R., 2011. What Is Posture. Available from: http://posturalrestoration.com/about/what-is-posture [Accessed 1 December 2011].

Marcus, A., 2004. Foundations for Intergrative Musculoskletal medicine - an east west approach. California: North Atlantic Books. 213.

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