Chest out & Shoulder Back! Some of our clients tell us that this is what they were told as a strategy for good standing posture. The main problem is that they were told this 30-40 years ago. Yet I still have clients come in & stand exactly like that day in and day out🙄

Chances are there are better cues for good standing posture in 2019 – better than this guy! Note how most of his body is in front of the plum line. That means that he has a forward weight shift. That places excessive strain/load through the toes, meaning that his toe flexors, calves, quads and back muscles are going to have to work much harder to keep him upright.

This creates an excessive lumbar curve and that has many implications, the biggest of which is down-regulating abdominal tension, increased compression of the lumbar spine, increased tone of the back muscles & restricted ability to breathe (specifically exhalation!) That creates a necessity to flare the anterior rib-cage which leads to apical breathing patterns and excessive engagement of neck muscles – cue neck pain 😭!

Ideally the plum line should split this guy in 1/2 (front to back.) Then his center of mass is exactly that – centered. That means his abs and glutei are on & his calves/quads & back muscles are not overloaded when standing. Ribs are down allowing him to exhale better 💨 – which allow him to inhale better into the posterior thorax! 💥 Easier said than done.

But we do that here at Total-PT! Better yet, we find out the reasons for why people default to standing this way & give them really great software upgrades. So it’s very 2019! #movehealchange