Working as a Massage Therapist for 12 years, and seeing over 15 000 clients, has afforded me insights and wisdom into why our bodies hold tension, how this affects our posture, and what prevents us from having balanced, fluid, pain free movements.
There are many factors that lead to pain and discomfort. One obvious cause, and one that everyone attempts to manage, is stress. We all have it. We find ways to adapt, deal with or just plain avoid stress! Whether it is psychological or physical, stress finds its way into our lives from many sources. I mention stress because it affects everything else. Every contributor to postural imbalance is only made worse by stress.
Our predominate postures greatly affect how we feel, move, and cope with life. The greatest determinate of our posture, is our most habitual postures. This may sound vague, so let me zero in on the three habitual patterns which have the most impact on our postural reality.
There is nothing you do more each day than standing, sitting, and sleeping!
How you do all three of these things will have the greatest impact on what your postural reality is. Not even the bumps and bruises you receive along the way, the falls and accidents you might have, nor your genetic makeup has as great an impact as the three things you spend the most time doing. There's barely an hour of the day not spent doing one of those three things! How do you sit? How do you stand? What position do you tend to maintain most while trying to get those 6-8 hours of sleep every night?
Most Massage Therapists' clients have occupations that require them sit for many hours every day! This may not seem to be significant, but upon closer examination, we can see how this can add up. Even 4 hours a day, leads to 20 hours a week. That becomes close to 1000 hours a year seated...just at work! How many hours do you sit in the car, surfing the couch, at the kitchen table, or sitting in coffee shops, and restaurants? Obviously we could say another 1000 hours and still not be accounting for the countless hours spent in this postural altering position!
Two major muscle groups are held in a shortened position while you sit. The major hip flexors, the Psoas, and Rectus Femoris, are greatly shortened while seated. The former of the two attaches to the anterior (front) side of your lumbar vertebrae. After spending long periods of time in a shortened position, the Psoas becomes shorter and tighter. The problem with the hip flexors being tight is that they pull the lumbar vertebrae forward. This is a classic reason why many people experience low back pain.
Having your knees bent at 90 degrees, for countless yearly hours of sitting, also tends to lead to incredibly tight hamstrings! No wonder as we age it gets to harder to touch our toes! Sitting is also hardly kind to our neck and shoulders.
Massage Therapists' work on a host of issues their clients present with, which arise from spending hours on a mouse and keyboard. Hours spent with their heads drifting forward towards their monitors, shift the weight of the head to neck and shoulder muscles that are made to perform movements rather than support a near 10lbs bowling ball! Other habitual patterns such as leaning on one butt cheek more than the other, pinning a phone to the ear with the shoulder, and being far from ambidextrous with the mouse, highlight the many reasons why sitting contributes to many of the postural imbalances which massage therapy address nearly everyday.
The second habitual posture we all have our own variation of, is how we stand. It is something rarely given much attention, but all of us have a habitual standing posture. Simply bringing your awareness to your body while standing at any given moment can reveal interesting things about how your muscles have their way with your skeletal structure.
Simply glancing down at your feet periodically, without adjusting yourself to some ideal pose, reveals what is likely a reoccurring theme. Are your feet consistently in a similar position every time you look down? Is one always out in front? Is one always rotated in the same direction? These consistencies reveal muscular holding patterns that are having their way with your skeletal structure. You may notice the bodies desire to shift weight more to one side. This too relates to certain muscle being held in more contracted states, than their opposites. Massage therapy looks to reveal the imbalances within our muscle groups and restore it.
Our musculature is a perfect design. Every muscle works in concert with it's opposite, to grant us fluid, painless, dynamic movement and function. While one muscle is extending, its opposite is flexing. Our bodies are functioning optimally when our muscles are balanced in strength, length, and flexibility.
Massage therapy practitioners help reveal postural distortions and the habitual patterns contributing to these distortions and introduce opposition to the habitual posture. Once you discover the habitual postures and their opposites, it becomes easier to find the balance. It is here where freedom from postural strain can be discovered. Contrary to assumptions, sleep is not always an escape to postural strain.
Sleep is a very habitual act as well. Do you tend to sleep on the same side of the bed every night? Would you or your partner be keen to switch side of the bed? Likely not. Why? Because we are habitual beings. We do things quite habitually, and we move in habitual ways. Even our sleep is done in a very habitual way. Some people sleep on their tummy side every night. Their habit, has them rotating their neck to one side more than the other while being laterally bent to rest on a pillow, for many hours a night.
Side sleepers have their own unique way too. Most sleep predominately on one side. One shoulder gets compressed against the mattress. The legs are rarely held in the exact same position. One may be straight, while the other is flexed at both the hip and the knee. Again these are habitual postures that are held for many hours a night. How do you think your long held sleeping postures, are affecting you standing posture? Your standing posture has been greatly influenced by the sleeping posture you maintained for 6-8 hours last night! Our body want to move into positions that it spends the most amount of time in. Our own sense of what normal standing posture should be, fights against it. Our muscular systems are unconsciously trained to meet the demands of our most dominantly held postures. These are usually in conflict with our perception of what is considered "good posture".
Massage therapy focuses intently on those muscles holding you in out-of-balance postures. Once these muscles are released of tension, your body enjoys the experience of a more fluid and pain-free range of motion. If you can move daily into positions and ranges which oppose your habitual patterns, you are encouraging a state of balance. With a little help from your massage therapist, you will discover more about your body and how your habitual postures become your unconscious postures. Through the massage therapy process you will encounter new postures thereby helping to bring conscious awareness and balance to your body. - 14130
There are many factors that lead to pain and discomfort. One obvious cause, and one that everyone attempts to manage, is stress. We all have it. We find ways to adapt, deal with or just plain avoid stress! Whether it is psychological or physical, stress finds its way into our lives from many sources. I mention stress because it affects everything else. Every contributor to postural imbalance is only made worse by stress.
Our predominate postures greatly affect how we feel, move, and cope with life. The greatest determinate of our posture, is our most habitual postures. This may sound vague, so let me zero in on the three habitual patterns which have the most impact on our postural reality.
There is nothing you do more each day than standing, sitting, and sleeping!
How you do all three of these things will have the greatest impact on what your postural reality is. Not even the bumps and bruises you receive along the way, the falls and accidents you might have, nor your genetic makeup has as great an impact as the three things you spend the most time doing. There's barely an hour of the day not spent doing one of those three things! How do you sit? How do you stand? What position do you tend to maintain most while trying to get those 6-8 hours of sleep every night?
Most Massage Therapists' clients have occupations that require them sit for many hours every day! This may not seem to be significant, but upon closer examination, we can see how this can add up. Even 4 hours a day, leads to 20 hours a week. That becomes close to 1000 hours a year seated...just at work! How many hours do you sit in the car, surfing the couch, at the kitchen table, or sitting in coffee shops, and restaurants? Obviously we could say another 1000 hours and still not be accounting for the countless hours spent in this postural altering position!
Two major muscle groups are held in a shortened position while you sit. The major hip flexors, the Psoas, and Rectus Femoris, are greatly shortened while seated. The former of the two attaches to the anterior (front) side of your lumbar vertebrae. After spending long periods of time in a shortened position, the Psoas becomes shorter and tighter. The problem with the hip flexors being tight is that they pull the lumbar vertebrae forward. This is a classic reason why many people experience low back pain.
Having your knees bent at 90 degrees, for countless yearly hours of sitting, also tends to lead to incredibly tight hamstrings! No wonder as we age it gets to harder to touch our toes! Sitting is also hardly kind to our neck and shoulders.
Massage Therapists' work on a host of issues their clients present with, which arise from spending hours on a mouse and keyboard. Hours spent with their heads drifting forward towards their monitors, shift the weight of the head to neck and shoulder muscles that are made to perform movements rather than support a near 10lbs bowling ball! Other habitual patterns such as leaning on one butt cheek more than the other, pinning a phone to the ear with the shoulder, and being far from ambidextrous with the mouse, highlight the many reasons why sitting contributes to many of the postural imbalances which massage therapy address nearly everyday.
The second habitual posture we all have our own variation of, is how we stand. It is something rarely given much attention, but all of us have a habitual standing posture. Simply bringing your awareness to your body while standing at any given moment can reveal interesting things about how your muscles have their way with your skeletal structure.
Simply glancing down at your feet periodically, without adjusting yourself to some ideal pose, reveals what is likely a reoccurring theme. Are your feet consistently in a similar position every time you look down? Is one always out in front? Is one always rotated in the same direction? These consistencies reveal muscular holding patterns that are having their way with your skeletal structure. You may notice the bodies desire to shift weight more to one side. This too relates to certain muscle being held in more contracted states, than their opposites. Massage therapy looks to reveal the imbalances within our muscle groups and restore it.
Our musculature is a perfect design. Every muscle works in concert with it's opposite, to grant us fluid, painless, dynamic movement and function. While one muscle is extending, its opposite is flexing. Our bodies are functioning optimally when our muscles are balanced in strength, length, and flexibility.
Massage therapy practitioners help reveal postural distortions and the habitual patterns contributing to these distortions and introduce opposition to the habitual posture. Once you discover the habitual postures and their opposites, it becomes easier to find the balance. It is here where freedom from postural strain can be discovered. Contrary to assumptions, sleep is not always an escape to postural strain.
Sleep is a very habitual act as well. Do you tend to sleep on the same side of the bed every night? Would you or your partner be keen to switch side of the bed? Likely not. Why? Because we are habitual beings. We do things quite habitually, and we move in habitual ways. Even our sleep is done in a very habitual way. Some people sleep on their tummy side every night. Their habit, has them rotating their neck to one side more than the other while being laterally bent to rest on a pillow, for many hours a night.
Side sleepers have their own unique way too. Most sleep predominately on one side. One shoulder gets compressed against the mattress. The legs are rarely held in the exact same position. One may be straight, while the other is flexed at both the hip and the knee. Again these are habitual postures that are held for many hours a night. How do you think your long held sleeping postures, are affecting you standing posture? Your standing posture has been greatly influenced by the sleeping posture you maintained for 6-8 hours last night! Our body want to move into positions that it spends the most amount of time in. Our own sense of what normal standing posture should be, fights against it. Our muscular systems are unconsciously trained to meet the demands of our most dominantly held postures. These are usually in conflict with our perception of what is considered "good posture".
Massage therapy focuses intently on those muscles holding you in out-of-balance postures. Once these muscles are released of tension, your body enjoys the experience of a more fluid and pain-free range of motion. If you can move daily into positions and ranges which oppose your habitual patterns, you are encouraging a state of balance. With a little help from your massage therapist, you will discover more about your body and how your habitual postures become your unconscious postures. Through the massage therapy process you will encounter new postures thereby helping to bring conscious awareness and balance to your body. - 14130
About the Author:
For over a decade, John Reed has been utilizing Massage Therapy in Calgary, Alberta, to support balance and peak health to thousands of clients. His clinic Fruition Therapeutics provides services in Reflexology, Tui Na Massage, Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine, Reiki therapy, Thai Massage, Pregnancy Massage, and full body massage.
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