3 Steps to Help Your Patients Achieve and Maintain Good Posture

Key Takeaways

• Desk jobs, lifting heavy objects, and smartphone usage can all lead to posture problems for your patients.
• Over half of people in the UK who have suffered from back or neck pain believe poor posture triggers it, according to research from the British Chiropractic Association.¹
• Help your patients correct their posture through coaching, elastic resistance exercises, and kinesiology tape or posture support braces.
• Watch 2 short videos to learn resistance band exercises and a kinesiology taping technique that you can use with your patients.

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Your patients are at a natural disadvantage when it comes to posture. Whether it’s working a desk job, consistently lifting heavy objects, or using their phones every day, posture problems run rampant throughout the country - and not without consequence.

According to a survey by the British Chiropractic Association²:

• 42% of people don’t take any steps to look after their back health
• 80% have experienced back or neck pain
• 11% of people wouldn’t seek help from a health professional for back pain and 31% would wait a month or longer
• Less than 60% have taken preventative steps to protect themselves from developing back or neck pain

Whether your patients come to you with a problem related to poor posture or not, it is your duty to advocate for your patient’s musculoskeletal health at all times! Recognising their postural habits during each visit will help you intervene with the right information at the right time.

Correct posture helps the muscles work more efficiently and reduces the risk of injury.³ To help your patients achieve better posture and optimised movement patterns, here are three easy steps you can follow daily.

3 Steps to Building Health Posture

1. Coach Correct Posture

While establishing good posture may sound easy, you’ll find that asking your patients to do so might cause them to overcorrect, resulting in other postural problems (ex. excessive curvature of the lumbar spine). It’s important to coach your patients through what proper posture feels like and what muscles to engage. Here are eight fundamentals to cue your patient’s standing posture³:

• Bear your weight primarily on the balls of your feet
• Keep your knees slightly bent
• Keep your feet shoulder-width apart
• Let your arms hang naturally down at your sides
• Stand straight and tall with your shoulders pulled backward
• Tuck your stomach in
• Keep your head level - your earlobes should be in line with your shoulders. Do not push your head forward, backward, or to the side
• Shift your weight from your toes to your heels, or one foot to the other, if you must stand for a long time

2. Prescribe Exercise with Elastic Resistance Bands

Poor posture is the result of weakened and shortened muscles. Take forward head posture, or upper-crossed syndrome, for example:

“In UCS, tightness of the upper trapezius and levator scapula on the dorsal side crosses with tightness of the pectoralis major and minor. Weakness of the deep cervical flexors, ventrally, crosses with weakness of the middle and lower trapezius. This pattern of imbalance creates joint dysfunction, particularly at the atlanto-occipital joint, C4-C5 segment, cervicothoracic joint, glenohumeral joint, and T4-T5 segment.”²

The best way to achieve the right posture is to strengthen these weakened muscles and lengthen the tight muscles - which is where elastic resistance comes in! Exercise with an elastic resistance band is not only a great method because of its proven results, but the practicality and portability of bands like the TheraBand CLX means your patients can take the gym with them wherever they go. Check out the video below where Sue Falsone PT, MS, SCS, ATC, CSCS, COMT shares some of her favorite posture correction exercises that can be done with a band at home or in the clinic.

3. Use Kinesiology Tape or Braces for Postural Correction

Forming good posture habits can take some time. For some patients, the cueing of kinesiology tape or a posture support brace on their back may help them remember to be mindful about their posture throughout the day. Here’s an easy technique that can be done with just two pieces of tape!

References

1. BCA. (2016). Straighten Up on World Spine Day. British Chiropractic Association. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3lqqgTJ
2. American Chiropractic Association. (n.d.). Maintaining Good Posture. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2P3so7q
3. Physiopedia. (2020). Upper Crossed Syndrome. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2Ow7Hl1
4. BCA. (2019). Chiropractic Awareness Week: Stay Active!. British Chiropractic Association. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3bSv8Ob

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