Good Posture

Your Mother was right. “Hold your shoulders up.” Well, the language could have been a little more precise. The shoulders are only a piece of the equation, and up is not really the word to use. Technically, it should be hold the chest up and the shoulders back, shoulder blades down. In other words stabilize the shoulders.

But let’s start where posture begins, and that’s at the feet. Yes, the lowly feet—an anatomical marvel supporting the weight of the body. I’ve learned that if you peel back the skin and look at the superficial layer of muscles in the front of the leg, what you find is a sinuous, but strong structure encouraging the arch of the foot to lift. Tendons and muscles at the toes and through the arch from the bottom of the foot slightly sway toward the outer, lower leg up to the knee, giving an obvious view of how the arch is to be held. Looking at the foot from the rear view, and you see something totally different. The calf muscle structure with its two basically equal lobes stabilizes the heel from the back of the knee with no sway in any direction, giving the heel a solid strength.

(Picture is taken from the 4th edition of Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology)

Weight can shift from the heels or to the balls of the feet and toes for necessary motions such as kneeling, squatting, or reaching high on the toes. When the weight is distributed in standing or walking, a delicately balanced mechanism moves into play with the heel and the balls of the feet supporting the body while the arch of the foot is lifting, giving the body buoyancy. Just looking at the bottom of a foot reflects where the foot contacts the standing surface and where the foot does not. Interestingly, standing or walking with consciousness of the arch of the foot lifting protects the—what?—the knees.

Runners’ shoes are structured to keep the foot in balance to protect joints when running, starting with the knees. Torque the knee inward, and you’ll be fitted with shoes with good arch supports. Running on the outer edge of the foot will fit you in shoes with less arch support. Unfortunately, a shoe hasn’t been made to keep the toes pointing forward. If that were possible perhaps shoes with arch supports would be unnecessary. Perhaps not.

But turning the feet out can increase the chance of the torque of the knee inward. How is this possible? Well, that depends upon the tilt of the pelvis. Tilt the pelvis backward, knees will tend to torque outward, feet will supinate. Tilt the pelvis forward, knees will tend to lock and feet will pronate. Neither position of the pelvis makes the knees happy when standing or walking.

The neutral pelvis, right in the middle of forward and backward, lifts the spine, and incidentally, makes a bit more room for all that stuff inside the torso. When the spine is lifted, as opposed to straightened (a straightened spine is unnatural), then the chest lifts upward, and the shoulders can move back with the shoulder blades moving downward. Then the head can balance evenly on the top of the cervical spine. This good posture works in accord with the force of gravity. This evenly and appropriately distributed force gives the internal organs their proper position and keeps the joints in alignment with all those tendons, ligaments, and fluids that help keep them pain-free.

Good posture is about a lot more than just looking like Mom wants you to. We, moms, just like to give the shortened version to hold the rolling eyes at bay.