How to detect and then prevent postural problems.

The most important step of preventing postural problems is detection.  For some it is obvious that they have pronounced posture problems.  For others it is not as obvious.  An appropriate practitioner or specialist can help determine postural problems such as your Pilates instructor, personal trainer, chiropractor or physiotherapist.  It is not just static posture that is important, it is also your posture while you’re moving, your dynamic posture.  Through functional movements you or someone observing you, such as your Pilates instructor, can help you determine which muscles need to be strengthened or loosened up to help improve your posture.

The muscles closest to your body’s center of gravity and spine need to be in good condition, as a start, to maintain good posture.  In most cases this means strengthening the core muscles, abdominals, back muscles, muscles that run along the spine and muscles that maintain stability in the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex.   Performing core exercises properly will teach your body to maintain proper dynamic postural alignment throughout any exercise you do.  This will in turn improve your static posture.

The lumbo-pelvic hip complex is composed of the hip, lower back and the pelvis.  The hips and glutes are central to the lumbo-pelvic hip complex.  These muscles need to be in the proper length-tension relationship between one another. This refers to the relationship between the length of the muscle and the contractile tension that it can exert.  Usually hip flexors are tight and glutes are weak.  Strengthening the glutes and stretching out the hip flexors can help.  A good way of doing this is through multi-joint leg exercises.  For example, the Pilates mat exercise single leg stretch or the bend and stretch series of exercises on the reformer with feet in the loops are good exercises for both hips and glutes.  You just have to be mindful of which muscles are being contracted during which movement.

The most important step of prevention is detection.  It’s usually obvious to ourselves that we have a posture problem.  A specialist like a chiropractor, exercise physiologist, physiotherapist will also be able to tell you about your posture.   Most posture problems are due to muscle imbalances.  Once you know which muscles need to be strengthened or lengthened the you can most on to the next step and start working on improving your posture.  

Your “core” muscles, back and abdominals, help you maintain your posture.  Strengthening these muscles will help.  However, sitting at a desk all day won’t strengthen your ‘core’.  Performing core exercises that target not just the superficial muscles but also the deepest layer of your core muscles will help you maintain proper dynamic posture throughout your workouts but also help improve your static posture.  All Pilates exercises will help target deep core muscles.

The hip flexors and glutes are at the core of the lumbo-pelvic hip complex.  As a result, they should have a proper length-tension relationship between them.  That is no one of the hip flexors or glutes should be stronger or weaker than the other.  Usually hip flexors are tight and glutes weak, so focus on strengthening the glutes and lengthening the hip flexors usually helps.

Multi joint leg exercises, exercises that use more than one joint, e.g. knee and hip, are great ways to strengthen the glutes.  However, you have mindful of contracting the correct muscle.  There are many exercises in Pilates both on the mat and reformer than involve more than one joint and will help target the glutes.