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certain postural habits. A lot can be down to the type of chairs and
seats you have at home and at work, or the position you drive in. It
can relate to your feet, how you stand, what sort of shoes you wear
and how good your balance is.
The point is that if you end up with a poor posture you are liable
to su er as a result. Poor posture is one of the most common reasons
for having back pain.
As I have indicated above, there are lots of factors that can result
in a postural problem and we shall consider some of them in this
chapter. First, I would like you to check your posture.
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17. Look in the mirror
Do you use a mirror a lot? Most people use them to wash, do their
hair, or check how their clothes look. But do you ever look at your
posture? Possibly not. At any rate, you probably don t really scrutinise
how you hold yourself. Let us change that. You need a good full-
length mirror.
To get the most out of this it is an idea to strip down to your
underwear, so close the door rst and feel comfortable.
Stand in front of the mirror and without trying to alter your
posture, just adopt your usual pose. It is the position that your body
naturally falls into that you need to observe, not how you think you
should try to look.
Here is what to check:
Front view (you can do this easily yourself)
" Compare both sides for symmetry.
" Are your ears at the same level?
" Is your head on one side? Your nose should be in the same line
as your umbilicus (tummy button).
" Are your shoulders level? Are they the same shape or does one
dip down?
" Is the gap between your arms and your torso the same? If not
is there a twist to the side in your torso? If you have a scoliosis,
58 50 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY...
a bend in the spine as you look straight ahead, then you will
curve in on one side and bulge out on the other.
" Are your nipples at the same level?
" Are your hips at the same level? If not you may nd that you
are twisted slightly so that one side is further forward that the
other. This would be re ected in your umbilicus pointing to
one side rather than straight ahead.
" Are your knees pointing directly straight ahead? Are your legs
straight or they bowed outward or inward?
" Are your feet in good shape? Look at the arches. Are they
good, high arches or are they tending to collapse? If they are
collapsing then the foot will tend to turn in on itself and this
throws the posture out. This turning in of the foot is a natural
process called pronation. I will return to it Action 21.
Side view
You may need to use a second mirror and angle it to see yourself in
the main mirror, or ask someone to help you. Perhaps even get them
to take a photograph of you in pro le.
" Is your head perpendicular, not pointing back or forward?
" Are your ears and shoulders in the same line?
" Is the bottom of your chin parallel with the oor? Ideally there
should not be an angle.
IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE 59
" Is the stomach at? It should be ideally, but if you are
overweight, then a belly may pull you forward, which is bad
for the posture and bad for the back.
" Can you see the three curves? A healthy back has three natural
curves: a slight forward curve in the neck (cervical curve), a
slight backward curve in the upper back (thoracic curve),
and a slight forward curve in the low back (lumbar curve). A
forward curve is called a lordosis and a backward curve is called
a kyphosis. Good posture actually means keeping these three
curves in balanced alignment.
18. Nurture your three curves
Apart from looking in the mirror you can check the three curves of
your spine quite easily. Stand with your back to a wall, heels about
three inches from the wall. Place one hand behind your neck, with
the back of the hand against the wall, and the other hand behind
your lower back with the palm against the wall. If there is excessive
space between your back and the wall, such that you can easily move
your hands forward and back more than one inch, some adjustment
in your posture may be necessary to restore the normal curves of your
spine.
Having awareness of your posture and in what way it seems
to be out of balance is important. It is your starting point. You
will not be able to correct it overnight, nor yet perhaps in days
or weeks, but if you work at it steadily then you will reap the
rewards, and that means that you will have a stronger back that
causes you fewer problems.
60 50 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY...
It is a good idea to check yourself in the mirror at the start of
the day and at the end of the day, looking at how your posture is
shaping up. And do the wall test and check on those precious three
curves. Get those right, keep as symmetrical as possible and your
posture will improve.
19. Stand correctly
You might sco at this and think that you know how to stand. A er
all, you do it naturally, don t you? But do you do it correctly? Could
that be part of the reason that you have back pain?
The fact is that standing is not good for the back. Unfortunately,
it is not something that you can easily avoid since you have to stand
when queuing, chatting to people in the street, using shops, banks,
and so on.
What happens when you stand for too long is that the back muscles
get tired and start to relax. This causes the lumbar lordosis, where the
forward curve becomes exaggerated. This is actually a reverse of the
problem that one gets from sitting too long (which I will come to in
the next section). To ease it you need to stand more e ciently. Good
standing posture lessens the risk of back pain.
You will have a good idea of how you should stand already, just
from reading about how your posture should be. To stand correctly
try to do the following:
1. Hold your head up straight. Do not tilt your head forward,
backward or sideways.
2. Try to keep your ears in line with the middle of your shoulders.
IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE 61
3. Keep your shoulder blades back.
4. Keep your chest forward.
5. Tuck your stomach in and tighten your buttocks slightly.
6. Keep your knees very slightly bent; don t lock them. Locking
your knees encourages the stomach to protrude.
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