Fixing postural deviations can be tricky and it is easy to jump to conclusions, especially because of the way many fitness professionals are educated.
It is considered normal practice for most fitness professionals to follow a cookie cutter protocol for assessing posture and using corrective exercises to create alignment. While this can be beneficial in some cases, it should be used only after other methods have been attempted.
For example, a standard “overhead squat assessment” (the most common postural analysis in gyms) could leave a trainer believing that someone has tightness in their calves due to the participants heels rising off the ground as they go through the assessment.
The problem with this conclusion, in my experience, is that most people have faulty motor patterns when squatting and are able to keep their heels on the ground no problem when properly coached.
Even if the trainer had instructed the person to keep their feet flat on the ground during the exercise, they also told them to keep their back straight, hold their hands over their head, sit down into their hips, etc. Rarely are people able to follow so many directions when performing a move for the first time.
You may be able to listen to a scratch golfer describe his flawless swing but does that mean you can repeat it? Does your inability to repeat the move mean that you are tight in your muscles? Of course not, the programming simply hasn’t been instilled.
Most tight muscles originate from poor motor patterns in the first place, so my question is, do you address the symptom or the cause?
Corrective exercises to balance tight muscles will do very little to help an individual that is constantly recreating the deviation in their daily life. My advice to anyone that has tight muscles isn’t to take up stretching, instead reprogram your movement with proper exercise and awareness throughout your day. Stretching can assist in symptom relief, but won’t do much to solve the root cause.
Why are your hamstrings tight? Because your forward head posture has shifted your pelvis under the weight of your upper body to prevent your postural muscles from fatiguing. Your forward head may be a result of too much screen time on your computer or television, some people have poor posture because of emotions. A person that is protective of his or herself will likely find that they have upper and lower crossed syndrome, a hunched and protective posture. Again, solve the root cause before addressing the symptoms.
In today’s video I will talk about scoliosis, the root cause (which may surprise you) that I have observed over many years and also how to fix the issue.
I hope to shed some light on why certain issues arise and what you can and what you should not do until you even out your posture. I will also talk about general awareness of posture and the importance of correcting various issues. As I progress through this series of videos I will provide you with more practical examples on exercises that will help you overcome these issues and the things that arise from them.
Thanks for reading and happy watching,
Peter Hirsh
