The elusive good posture (1). All too often a person’s good posture is sitting up rigidly. For some this includes holding a ‘curve’ in their lumbar spine. Health authorities say sitting is the new smoking (2) even though sitting can be a popular meditation (healthy) position.

Sitting in a rounded posture places more effort onto your shoulders. In particular, the small rotator cuff muscles, especially the internal rotators (3). Sitting rounded can be associated with a stiff thoracic spine, increasing the strain to your shoulder muscles. Therefore, the duration of time you sit, and the balance of your body can lead to an insidious shoulder strain.

To fully exercise and stretch the shoulders a flexible thoracic spine is required (3a). This means without a flexible thoracic spine you could strain one or both shoulders. Part of Chiropractic Maintenance Care is to ensure your thorax stays balanced and flexible. Stability occurs when flexibility is balanced along your spine, in three dimensions.

Repeated sitting, can take one beyond good form, and in a viscoelastic body bad form may lead to postural subsidence.

Lifestyles that are sedentary, jobs that restrict movement, working from home, missing a commute can reduce physical activity and meaningful social interactions (4), adding to our sense of stress and stiff. A healthy spine is a neutral spine reducing lateral sway when we move (5). Maintenance Care for a healthy spine is worthwhile (6) in the long run, especially when it is chosen by you (7).

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References:

1. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDgVppzHsm7/
2. annualpublichealthreport2015-16.pdf (lbhf.gov.uk)
3. Kanlayana Photporn R et al (2014) Changes in Sitting Posture Affect Shoulder Range of Motion JBMT 18 239-43
   3a) – Strunce (2009) in Ref 3
4. Woods JA et al (2020) The COVID 19 Pandemic and Physical Activity Sports Medicine and Health Science 2 (2) 55
5. Panjabi M (2003) Clinical Spinal Instability and Low Back Pain. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 13: 377
6. Eklund A et al (2018) Effectiveness of Chiropractic Maintenance Care A Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial. PLOS One 13 (9) e0203029
7. Hjertstrand et al (2021) The Nordic Maintenance Care Programme: patient experience of maintenance care – A Qualitative Study. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies 29: 28