Kenneth Gardner
AS MORE people increase their levels of physical exercise, the chances of injury increase. A bone, ligament or muscle can be injured. Injury can weaken the support and throw the body's framework out of balance, affecting perfect posture. Even after the injury has been repaired, a habit, set up during the period of the injury, may persist and the faulty posture continues for a long time. Diseases that weaken bones or muscles or cause joints to lose their strength or freedom of movement can upset the control of posture as badly as injuries.
WEAKENED BODY
Poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyle can cause weakened bones, similarly weak motor nerve cell in the spinal cord causes partial or complete loss of function in muscle groups. The loss of power in the muscles upset their control, and also cause defect in body functions. Muscles that work opposite to or are the antagonist of injured or weak muscles become shortened gradually and hold the joints out of their normal position over time.
Habits of posture, whether good or bad, are acquired in the same way as habits of speech or walking, that is by practising a certain coordination so many times that the act finally becomes habitual and unconscious.
In a very large percentage of cases of faulty posture, the bones, joints, ligaments and muscles are in normal condition and the fault is a wrong habit of coordination. Segments of the body have been held out of line so long with some parts bearing too much weight and others too little; some muscles are elongated and their antagonist shortened that the wrong posture feels natural and a correct position seems strange.
HABITS
Wrong habits of posture are caused by injury and disease and by occupation and our environment as well. A sprain in the left ankle may cause you to learn to stand on the right foot during the period of lameness. This may develop into a habit which remains long after the injury is healed if not corrected. Similar experiences are developed when we exercise, thus the need for a correct exercise prescription as well as the need to use the correct technique. Seats, shoes and clothing produce similar effects when they are the wrong size or shape so that they hold us in a faulty position.
Posture is a sensitive indicator of our habits. A slouched position is maintained at less metabolic energy cost than an erect, alert position. It is supported by the ligament of hyper-extended joints which provide the necessary support, rather than by the action of muscles. Muscular weakness and the lack of vitality predispose one to assume such a slouched posture as a matter of energy conservation.
POOR POSTURE
General muscular weakness is one of the common causes of poor posture. An active lifestyle involving physical exercise that you enjoy is the best preventative measure against poor posture. Activities should be sufficiently vigorous to provide for organic strength. Our posture frequently reflects mental attitude. Feelings of elation, confidence and satisfaction help in the maintenance of erect posture, lack of confidence and depression hinders it.
Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at the G. C. Foster College of Physical Education; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.:
