Good posture and centre of gravity in every day life

How does gravity affect my posture?

We face gravity in everything we do all the time yet we do not really think about it. And we put a lot of unnecessary strain on our bodies by not thinking.  Pull yourself up on your feet and stand in a good posture for a while. Does this position come naturally to you? Unfortunately, for many of us, it does not. Now that you are standing in a good posture note the position of your head. It should be on top of your spine so that the centre of gravity affects you straight thru your core into the middle of your head. When we are centred our body structure supports us with the minimum amount of extra muscle work. 

Is your head tilted forwards?

Staring at the computer screen, smartphone or tv pulls your head forward tensing up the muscles in your neck and thorax to support the weight that is moved away from the optimal centre of gravity. Now the centre has shifted forward and your body tries to adapt by pushing your thorax back while your head tilts forward. This needs muscles along the way to support the changed structure. The position is hardly optimal and over time the adaptation process in the body will alter the structure causing pain. Just shifting the position of the head may cause a variety of symptoms from headaches and stiffness in the neck to shortness of breath and everything in between. All functions that are located in the thorax region have a less optimal working environment and the more your body adapts to the bad posture the more adaptation needs to happen internally as well. So keep your head up high to prevent all those unnecessary adaptations. 

What about shoulders?

If your posture is good, your shoulders should remain at their pits providing the largest range of relaxed and free movement that can be connected to the core. However, if your posture is compromised due to bad positioning of your head, it often leads to pulling your shoulders out of their natural zone as well. When shoulders are pulled forward the chest space will shrink and the scapulas will have to adapt by stretching. Hardly not the way to have a free and fast moment in your arms, right? Do not pull the shoulders back either. The optimum position is the most natural one when you have a good posture. Think of having wide shoulders and if you need to feel the width push out and sideways from your armpits letting the shoulders rest at their joints. This together with proper positioning of your head should open your chest region and free your thorax leaving the centre of gravity in the middle. 

What about arms? How to lift things?

Proper positioning of arms is another matter. If you stand as previously stated with the palms of your hands backwards the rotation in your arms opens the elbow out and leaves space between your inner arm and your thorax by lifting your resting shoulders a bit. This is enough to activate unnecessary muscle tension. Your arms should drop from your shoulders, elbows should be pointed approximately 45° out and back, and the palms of your hands should point loosely towards your thighs. Note that this all should happen naturally without any twisting and activation. Finding the proper resting place helps to relax the tension in the arms brought on by any work that is done by hands. Everyone should pay a lot of attention to the well-being of arms and hands. We work out the bigger muscle groups but often neglect the small ones. When was the last time you did work out with your thumbs? The keyboard is not an exercise that I had in mind. And while writing about arms and the centre of gravity I just can not leave out any lifting. Anything you lift with your hand big or small is affecting your centre of gravity. Smaller things that do not require a vast amount of power are sometimes the ones that cause the most damage - you reach the remote control and suddenly feel a sting in your back. Of course, heavy lifting may hurt you too. So every time you do lift something, think about your centre of gravity. You prefer that to be in the middle - in your centre. If it is not then you must count on how much support you can get from your muscles. When lifting something heavy keep it as close to your body as possible. A good rule of thumb is to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible with a maximum of 135° opening, you should be ok. If you have maintained a good spinal posture and you are getting support from your legs.

If I have low back pain

If you hold something in front of you, like a camera, your upper body weight is moved forward. And to compensate for the gravity pull, your back is pushed back from your lumbar and pelvis region. This leaves the additional weight of the camera going down from your lower thorax into your low back. If your weight distribution is not even on both of your legs, the tension causes SI joints to overstrain trying to balance that weight. That means the more you can balance the incoming weight and the better posture and footing you have the less your body has to put in additional support work. And it also means that if you repeatedly strain your lower back and do not pay attention to strengthening and opening exercises, you will end up in pain. Proper positioning of the pelvis and even weight distribution on both legs are two of the key factors of a healthy low back. Are you a custom to carry things on your hip by pushing your hip out and placing something on top of it? Most of us are. Yet by doing so repeatedly will alter our posture for we need to adjust to the gravity. There will be an additional twist in the spine and that too, if not compensated by proper exercise and maintenance, may cause pain in the long run. To prevent pain in the lower back region, sit your spine into your pelvis and maintain good core control. Keep a good posture and hold your head up high by elongating your neck. Keep upright position at your best ability and do not let your centre of gravity shift too far from your stance. Preferably keep it in the middle.

There is so much to write about posture and the centre of gravity. This was just the surface. I hope this gives ideas and maybe stops you from lifting that supposedly empty box from the top counter before checking its content and adjusting your strength and gravity to the workload.