Posture Correction: Top 5 Signs Your Posture Needs Help

Do you suspect that your posture needs work? Most people have an awareness that their posture might be a bit out of whack, but is this something that should concern you? Posture correction is a hotly debated topic in the health, fitness and rehab worlds. Some would say everyone has their own unique posture and that the body is very adaptable, adapting to positions it gets itself into good and bad.

But if this is true, is it also true that our body can maladapt? At Functional Patterns Dublin we are the posture, pain and movement specialists, and from our experience, posture is something that can and should be improved. There seems to be a high correlation between someone’s posture and their likelihood of experiencing pain and injury.

In this blog, we will give you the top 5 signs that you need help with your posture:

1. Feeling Pain

The first obvious sign that something may not be as it should with your body is feeling pain. Despite the expression “no pain, no gain”, pain in the body is not something we should accept as normal. It is an alarm bell telling us that their is mechanical stress on our bodies. The pain science gurus will say that it’s the nervous system that’s the issue, and in some very rare cases this may be true, but for the most part pain indicates stress.

That is not to say pain is not complex, but when we asses someone, 9 times out of 10 the structural imbalances and asymmetries we see correlate strongly with the issues that they will report. If someone feels pain in their right hip, there is high chance that they will have more instability while on that leg or a more extreme lateral hip shift to that side. This correlation is so high that we can almost predict the movement issue based on the symptoms someone has.

2. Noticing Imbalance

Have you ever caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror or a shop window and thought that something didn’t look right? Many people will report noticing things like one shoulder sitting higher that the other, or one foot being more turned out while walking. At first, they may not think much of it, but over time what first started as an observation visually can start to be felt more deeply when standing or moving.

While taking stock of where your body is in space is a great starting point for understanding your posture, it’s also important to make sure what you think you are observing is accurate. A great example of this is the idea of having rounded shoulders. Most people, especially desk workers will report having rounded shoulders and will have no doubt attempted to solve the issue by puling their shoulders back at some point.

Generally what they are observing is their ribcage having shifted backwards, giving the impression the the shoulders are rounded forward. Also, the idea that the shoulders are rounded is something people often hear can give people a preconceived notion without proper understanding. This can result in people spending time and energy on the wrong thing. For this reason, a professional assessment can be extremely useful.

3. Friends and Family

Other than ourselves noticing that our posture may be changing, friends and family can often be the ones to first draw attention to potential issues. Many couples go for a walk together, and something we have began to hear more and more is that someone’s partner noticed that they seemed to be limping during their walk. Another common one we hear is a spouse telling a client that they are bumping into them while walking. This is a sign of a biomechanical imbalance causing someone to move laterally to one side more than the other.

4. Physio Not Working

If you are dealing with pain and injury, but despite your best efforts and trips to the physio you can’t seem to get a solution, your posture may be the missing link. Often times people end up in pain because of their posture and they way they move. If you have been doing rehab, or even training in the gym but don’t know if your posture is getting better because you have not assessed for it, the chances are it is not.

Your posture doesn’t improve by accident. It improves through well executed and carefully planned training and is a crucial metric with which to measure the success of your exercise regime, If you are attending someone who does not account for it’s importance and you are still having problems, it might be time to get some help and seek out someone who has experience with it.

5. Self Confidence

Aside from all of the obvious reasons for improving your posture, one benefit that may be less obvious is becoming more  self confident. There is a strong link between someone’s posture and how they feel when they carry themselves, and experts have been linking the two for years. In a study done examining how criminals choose which victims to rob, they found that they selected their targets based solely on the persons body language. Confident and strong posture signals less vulnerability and a more difficult person to intimidate.

When we look at athletes we see good posture and it’s links to the elite mindset needed to win in competition. Our mind’s and bodies are so linked, and a strong body in terms of posture can help reinforce a strong mental fortitude. When we see people who are lacking in self confidence and ability, they also often have poor structural integrity. Many clients report feeling more confident as they begin to improve their posture and carry themselves better.

Take-home

There are many signs which point to posture as being problematic. Often, it can be difficult for people to make corrections alone. That’s why getting help from a professional can  greatly improve your chances of changing it for good, and getting the posture you know you have the potential to have. At Functional Patterns Dublin we are experts in posture and have helped hundreds of clients improve their posture, eliminate pain, and move with more confidence.