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 a multitude of factors that lead to pain and discomfort. One of the biggest and most managed causes is stress. It affects all of us. We deal with it, adapt to it, and try to avoid it! Stress in all its forms finds its way into our lives from countless sources. I start with stress, because of its compounding affect on everything else. All things contributing to postural stain are only made worse by stress.
The greatest factor affecting peoples predominant posture, which impacts how we move, feel, and cope with everything, is completely tied to habitual postures. Sounds vague? Let me narrow it down to the three habitual patterns which affect your postural reality the most.
There is nothing you do more each day than standing, sitting, and sleeping!
Your unique way of doing each of these things, has the greatest impact on what your postural reality is. The accidents, sports injuries, broken limbs, nor your genetics are nearly as impactful as the three things you spend the most time doing. Is there an hour in the day that you are not doing one of those three things? How do you sit throughout the day? How do you stand? What body position is held most throughout the sleeping hours each 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.
As well, having your knees bent at a 90 angle for thousands of hours a year tends to lead to brutally tight hamstrings! These muscles attach not only to the knees, but also to your hips, on the bones you sit on. Finally, lets not forget the effect sitting has on your 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 most habitual posture we have and maintain is our standing posture. We don’t think too much of it but each of us, has a stance that is uniquely our own. When we bring conscious awareness to our body while standing, we can begin to see and feel how certain muscles are contributing to one our most dominantly held postures.
Bring your attention to your feet. How do the look? How are they pointing? Do they seem to be heading in the same direction? Don’t be surprised to find one heading north and the other east! Interestingly, you may notice this as a reoccurring theme every time you quickly glance down and check in with yourself. Often one foot will consistently be in front of the other. You may notice that you shift your weight consistently to one side. These little things reveal big things about your muscles, and how they are maintaining your limbs in consistent postures, or habitual patterns. Massage therapists’ help you to reveal these patterns and focus your treatment on restoring balance in you muscular system to reduce restrictions in your movements and strain to muscles and joints that are being held in weak and vulnerable positions.
Every muscle in the body has an exact opposite muscle which performs an opposite function. One may flex, while the other extends. Muscles balanced in length, strength, and flexibility with their opposites, work together to provide fluid, pain free, dynamic movement, and function.
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.
Ever try sleeping on your partners side of the bed? Oh, they wouldn’t let you? Hmm, isn’t that interesting? Likely though, you probably never thought to try and would likely have been non-receptive to the idea! Why? Because we are habitual creatures. We do habitual things and we move in habitual ways. We sleep in habitual patterns. Tummy sleepers have the unfortunate habit of rotating their cervical (neck) region to one side (usually one more than the other) and laterally (side) bending it to lie on the pillow.
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”.
Your Massage Therapist will focus intently on those muscles that are strongly pulling you out of balance. Once these muscle have tension released, your body will begin to experience the fluidity of your new range of motion. You will be taught to move daily into ranges and stretches which oppose your habitual patterns, and encourage an ongoing state of balance. With a little assistance form your Massage Therapist, you will begin to discover how your habitual postures affect all of your postures. Through massage therapy you will encounter new ways to help bring conscious awareness and balance to your body.
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