Posture assessment: kornelius_b

Assessment context and image originals from this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PostureAssesments/comments/152crax/hipshoulder_imbalance/

Posture assessment

Yes, what you have observed is pretty much correct. You have also experienced that attempt to correct your posture actually makes it worse. That's all according to the books. Let me explain:

First of all, to be able to judge anything, we need to establish some sort of a reference. In our work, we refer to it as a "nobel pose" or "position of mechanical advantage". That is such position of the parts of the body that will allow for expansion of the torso. I won't go into detail how we came to this reference, but when obtained, all of the parts of the mechanism including the major fascial systems (thoracolumbar fascia and ITB) work as designed.

Now, when I have a referential model, I can comment on how you differ from it:

  • Feet apart at the front. The blue lines that are currently converging at the back should be parallel.

  • Knees slightly released and therefore position too forward.

  • Pelvis: iliacs - blue spots at waist height (anterior superior iliac spine) are too forward and down. That goes together with your sacrum, being lifted up (green spot). Your pelvis is slightly rotated anteriorly as depicted by the blue square and the white arrows. We could say that on this image, your pelvis is rotated anticlockwise

  • Ribcage (yellow rectangle): Contrary to the pelvis, your ribcage is rotated in the opposite direction, that is clockwise as seen on the image and as the upper white arrows show. It can be seen by the slope of your sternum (yellow line), where the top is leaning back.

These two rotations of the major parts of your torso (pelvis + ribcage) in this particular way results in your spine bending (as shown by red curve). Imagine you would manage to flip the rotations of the pelvis and ribcage. The spine would straighten up.

  • You are severely retracting your entire upper arm assembly backwards. More so on your left side. Because you are pulling your left side backwards more, it also creeps the shoulder higher up.

  • That of course shortens your neck (pink curve)

  • The blue spots on the front of your body (ankles, knees, iliacs, bottom and top sternum) should all be on the green plumb line in order to get the referential shape.

  • Basically, we would want the blue and yellow rectangles stacked on top of each other straight, with no rotations.

  • Your right iliac is more forward than the left. So there are horizontal rotations in your pelvis as well as across your upper torso. It has to be like that, because the moment you start shifting mass around at the pelvis, you have to compensate above in order to sustain equilibrium.

Ok, so now you understand that you have a "mechanism" that is made up of "parts". These parts move TOGETHER in order to produce some function (standing / sitting / walking, etc)

You can move the parts around in a way that is incorrect (that is what's happening to you). or you can change the way you move the parts into a more appropriate way / model.

You are seen this way, because you have performed your habitual movements in order to obtain these poses. It's just the way you are, as long as you rely on your feelings to move around. That is also why your attempt to self correct only lead to worsening the situation. Basically, if you employ your habitual movements, you will aggravate the current condition as soon as you are exposed to more stimuli. It's impossible to correct own posture only by using feelings.

There is another way - you could make a DECISION to move your parts differently to your habits (for example, you could decide to experiment with moving into the "nobel pose"). You would then move the parts regardless of what your feelings / sensory appreciation is telling you. If you would be to obtain the referential position, it would undoubtedly feel extremely foreign and wrong.

More questions? Lemme know.