Good Posture and Strict Form

by admin on April 10, 2010 · 1 Comment
in Core Fitness, Fitness Injury & Prevention

Maintaining good posture moment to moment in daily living and retaining strict form throughout each and every movement while exercising is very import; not only from a performance perspective, but also from an injury prevention point of view.

Imagine for a moment if you had to hold a post upright for an entire day, but you held that post on a slight angle. It would require so much more effort than to hold the post in a completely vertical position. The greater the angle at which you would hold it, the more effort it would require. We can draw parallels between this exemplar, and what is happening from an energy perspective to people that don’t hold good posture throughout their day. Although they may feel it is less tiring to slouch initially (as the spine rather than the muscles holds much of the weight), the tilt of the spine causes muscles on one side of the spine to bear the full weight of the spine, shoulders and neck. Not only does their energy feel depleted, but their poor posture rapidly leads to asymmetrical muscle development and results in spine and joint deviation.

Holding good posture allows the spine to have minimal pressure placed upon it in daily activity; regardless of whether we are performing dynamic movement or sitting stationary all day.

Strict Form OHS

Good posture and strict form enable the muscles to develop symmetrically, which is key for getting the most out of our training and crucial in order for us to deliver our maximal athletic potential. To put it in basic terms, you’ll always only be able to perform any movement to the performance ability of your weakest muscles. So ensuring that we train all of the muscles in a balanced manner ensures that no one muscle group will fatigue more rapidly than another. Furthermore, asymmetrical muscle development can cause spinal and joint deviations due to uneven muscle ligament and tendon tensions pulling the bone structures out of their natural alignment. This over time leads to biomechanical restriction, injury and chronic pain.

See my posts on Symmetrical Muscle Development for more information on this.

The second import reason for maintaining strict form is in the prevention of exercise injury. When the core muscles are not engaged or only partially engaged during any form of exercise, lifting or dynamic movement, excess stress is placed upon the spine and joints causing either eventual injury through repeated micro injuries, or immediate acute injury. Maintaining good posture and performing strenuous movement with strict form ensures that the spine and joints are protected at all time. In actual fact, it is only when we are laying in prone position (on our backs) that we need not be mindful of maintaining good posture.

Shit Form Squat

The core muscles are responsible for maintaining good posture and strict from. They are also responsible for the ability to perform every single physical movement. The core muscles combined make up the largest amount of muscle mass in the body. So all people have core muscles and core strength; only that people differ is the degree of strength they hold in their core muscles. This difference affects the ability to which people can perform both complex and simple movements and tasks.

For more information see my post What is Core Strength and Why is it so Important?

Good posture is ensured by maintaining a slight engagement (contraction) through the core muscles. During strenuous movement or exercise, we accentuate that contraction to ensure maximum support is given to the spine and joints. This is called strict form, and is only different from good posture in its degree of contraction of the muscles.

In basic terms, the core muscles are the inner and outer (partial) muscles forming the trunk of the body including the abdominal, oblique (sides), mid and lower back, pelvis and shoulder stability muscles.

To achieve good activation of the core muscles, elongate yourself so that you are standing or lying as tall (stretched) as possible. Once in this posture, draw the pelvic floor muscles up and in; just like when needing to hold back from pissing your pants (squeezing your urinary tract) and at the same time preventing an accidental ass explosion (drawing in through your sphincter muscles).

Through elongating your spine, your naval should automatically become slightly drawn toward your spine. From here, contract slightly though midsection, which in this posture will importantly allow the transversus abdominis core muscle to engage. Finally, ensure the shoulders stay down in neutral position (not raised toward the ears), and pull the shoulders back slightly. Imagine that you have a playing card that you need to keep it in place between your shoulder blades.

This is good posture. Accentuate this contraction and you have strict form.

Practice standing and walking with good posture for a few minutes each day, gradually increasing the amount of time you keep your awareness on holding good posture while you walk, sit, stand and perform various daily movements. When exercising or performing strenuous activity, find this posture prior to performing the movement and contract tightly from beginning to end. Over time, holding good posture and strict form will become second nature. This will ensure that you develop muscle symmetry and that you minimize the risk of injuring yourself.

With love, gratitude, presence and certainty

Karl