1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:03,560 Hey, I'm Hyper Mobile and if you're listening to this, I'm 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,760 guessing you might be too. Hi, my name is Alex and I'm your 3 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:10,520 Hyper Mobile host. And today we are talking all 4 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,080 about posture. Now, posture is a hot topic. 5 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:17,760 I cannot tell you how often I see social media content where 6 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:19,840 people are talking about posture, maybe some people who 7 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:21,480 shouldn't be talking about posture. 8 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:23,720 I cannot tell you how many times my patients ask me about 9 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,320 posture, and it's something which I used to be really 10 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,040 confused by because there's a lot of, quite frankly, very 11 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:31,560 conflicting and confusing information out there. 12 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,440 So in today's episode my aim is that you leave here more 13 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,480 informed and less confused about what you need to know about 14 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:41,880 posture than you did before you started listening to this 15 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:43,680 episode. Now before we go any further, 16 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,640 Please note that the information in this episode is in no way, 17 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:50,880 shape or form medical advice. You have a uniquely hyper mobile 18 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,000 body, a uniquely hyper mobile medical history and that is 19 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 something which you need to go speak to your medical doctor 20 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,160 for. But from an informational 21 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:00,040 perspective, I think the information here is really, 22 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,040 really going to help people understand things better. 23 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,120 Because at the end of the day, one of the hardest things about 24 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:06,960 being in a hyper mobile body is just quite frankly how confusing 25 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:11,160 it can all be As well. I do want to note that we have 26 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:12,760 some really cool things going on. 27 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,560 There's a workshop which is going to be happening in London 28 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,240 in late July, early August. We're still finalizing the dates 29 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:19,840 for that. There are a couple of things 30 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:21,880 that are always going on. We have the Discord Community 31 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,600 Hypermobile HQ with my HQ crew. It is a private membership 32 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,640 community for the scientifically minded hypermobile person to 33 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,000 share thoughts, feelings and ideas on what it's like to 34 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:32,960 really live in a hypermobile body. 35 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,800 And of course we have my newsletter. 36 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:37,800 It goes out monthly. We missed last month. 37 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,440 That's OK. We're getting back back in the 38 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,640 saddle or back on the wagon, back on track. 39 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,440 And be sure to sign up for that because I do put a lot of time 40 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:46,920 into it and there is some pretty useful information in there. 41 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,520 And I can promise you that you will not be spammed because I 42 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:51,960 could barely get these emails out given how busy my schedule 43 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:53,720 has been. So if you're not on my e-mail 44 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,520 list already, be sure to Scroll down and read through the show 45 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:57,800 notes. The link will be right at the 46 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:00,920 top of that because it might be really important with the way 47 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,360 that social media changes over time that we're able to stay 48 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:07,240 connected and it's a direct contact line from me to you. 49 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:09,880 Now let's get into today's episode. 50 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:13,960 Posture is one of those words that people say with without 51 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:16,400 even thinking about what it means without defining their 52 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:18,240 terms. For those of you who don't know 53 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:20,080 me, I'm auk registered osteopath, so I'm a 54 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,200 musculoskeletal specialist. I did a four year degree in 55 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,680 osteopathy in the UK, but prior to that I did a four year degree 56 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,880 in English literature in Canada at the University of Western 57 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:30,640 Ontario, now called Western University. 58 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:36,560 But posture and defining terms here is really, really important 59 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,160 because if we don't know what we're saying, how can we even 60 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:43,480 make any sense? So posture literally refers to 61 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:47,480 the position of a well, it can refer to a posture of anything. 62 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:48,760 You know, cats can of posture, right. 63 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:50,880 But in the context of today's episode, we're talking about 64 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,680 human posture. So it refers to the position of 65 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:56,200 the human body including the limbs and the the appendages. 66 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,200 OK, so we're looking at the position of of the physical you 67 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:03,800 and how that is oriented. Unfortunately, there's this idea 68 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,000 that posture simply refers to static posture. 69 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,280 So I'm sitting right now. That's a static posture. 70 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,720 If I was standing, that would also be a static posture. 71 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,440 But at any point in time, if if you're walking listening to this 72 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:18,200 episode, if we just freeze you, you know, we we capture you on 73 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:21,280 film, we freeze that frame. We're going to see you in a a 74 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:23,240 position and that's going to be a posture. 75 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,720 And there are are things that we can, you know, maybe pick up 76 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:27,320 from that posture information we can use. 77 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:29,440 You know that that's a a big part of gait analysis is 78 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:32,560 literally watching people walk or in my work that I used to do 79 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,240 more so with athletes, although I still do some of it, watching 80 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:38,400 people move. So posture is, as much as it can 81 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:40,520 be an isolated instance of someone's body position. 82 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,760 It can be I'm, I'm in every posture right now as I talk with 83 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:46,240 my hands because that's something I've always done 84 00:03:47,040 --> 00:03:49,320 anyways. It's a word though that we need 85 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,600 to think about in in the context of of history and culture as 86 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:53,800 well. So there's there's more to it 87 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,880 than just like, you know, this kind of very simplified and very 88 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,000 reductionist idea that we have of good posture, upright, bad 89 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,320 posture, slouching. So our idea of a posture has has 90 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,560 changed throughout time and I'm going to take you on a little 91 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,520 bit of a A Magical history tour briefly in a moment. 92 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:13,120 But as well, posture and the idea of what constitutes a good 93 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,640 or bad posture depends on on which culture you're in and 94 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:18,600 which, you know, group of people you're you're with. 95 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:22,720 The posture that someone has at a dining room table in North 96 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:24,600 America is probably going to be different than the posture that 97 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,480 someone has when they're eating a meal in Japan, right. 98 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,320 So there, there can be differences in how we approach 99 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:30,760 things. The posture, going back to that 100 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,600 analogy of someone using the toilet and you know a place 101 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,400 where they have, you know, a porcelain throne, shall we say 102 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,600 is going to differ greatly from me if I'm on a wilderness 103 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,040 survival course in the the wilderness, it's it's going to 104 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:46,960 be different in that context. So let's let's dive on in. 105 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:50,000 Let's let's get to it because the history here is fascinating. 106 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:55,080 So if we go all the way back to ancient Greece, so 2000 or so 107 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,160 years ago, we have these people. You might have heard of them, 108 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:02,280 Aristotle and Plato, and they like to look at the world around 109 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:04,800 them and write down a lot of thoughts about it in brief. 110 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,280 And one thing that they did write on was posture in people. 111 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:12,760 And they noticed that people were very upright. 112 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,160 We are a biped species, you know, we we walk on two legs and 113 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,760 there are a few animals that kind of do that, but we do it in 114 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:20,320 a very pronounced, a very obvious way. 115 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:24,440 And they looked at animals which tend to walk on all fours or 116 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,280 kind of like slither on the ground or or move, you know, in 117 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:29,120 different ways, or they're kind of more horizontal. 118 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:32,000 And so they looked at humans and they looked at the animals. 119 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,600 And I I suspect as well that they were probably thinking at 120 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,520 this time of the Greek pantheon of gods, which, you know, we 121 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:41,120 have represented as humans, Zeus and Hera and Aphrodite, they're 122 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:43,080 they're all people. You know, they were thought to 123 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:47,680 be imaginary people. But there's this idea that being 124 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,440 upright, because we are people and the gods are people, it 125 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,880 brings us closer to divinity. It's it's less animalistic. 126 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,760 It's reflective of intelligence and some sort of elevation. 127 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,000 So we have this inherent idea, which is really influenced by 128 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:05,360 the religion at the time that upright is good and to be 129 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:08,520 anything other than upright is inferior as well. 130 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:12,040 It's important to note that people at the time of course had 131 00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,120 illnesses like it's when you think about what it was like to 132 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:17,120 be unwell prior to now and even now. 133 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,360 It's not great for, you know, the vast majority of people 134 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:20,760 worldwide. And it, you know, it's not great 135 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:21,920 for a lot of people quite frankly. 136 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:25,320 But when you think of what it's like to have illness in age of 137 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:27,360 Greece, it was bad, bad times and there were a lot of 138 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:31,040 illnesses happening which would cause people to end up in a very 139 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:35,200 hunched over or slouched to that classically like bad posture 140 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,000 position. So people would look at like 141 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,560 their neighbour or whatever who was, you know, walking in a very 142 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:43,720 hunched over manner prob, you know, possibly because of their 143 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,080 untreated illness of some kind. And they would think 144 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,600 potentially, oh, that person is ill because they've done 145 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,720 something bad because we didn't understand viruses or bacteria 146 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:54,360 or other mechanisms of illness back then. 147 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:58,080 So they would say, oh, my, my neighbour, they are a bad person 148 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,400 and This is why they have bad posture and their bad posture is 149 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:03,320 reflective of them being bad. So anyone with bad posture is 150 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:05,800 bad and of course we can appreciate from our, you know, 151 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:07,560 current perspective that this doesn't make sense. 152 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,840 But back then, again, that way of thinking really reinforced 153 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:15,840 this idea that bad posture was bad from even just like a a 154 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:18,160 moral perspective. It was something which was very, 155 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,640 very negative. Now there are kind of, there are 156 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:22,960 different ways of looking at posture throughout history. 157 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:24,840 There's written text that you can look at. 158 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:26,640 There's how it's portrayed in art. 159 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,120 And if you're a posture expert listening to this episode and 160 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:32,640 you'd like to come on the show, I'd love to find a way for that 161 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:34,240 to happen. So please do reach out to me 162 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,560 'cause it'd be really cool to talk about posture throughout 163 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:40,360 history and how it's reflected when from the pictures, the 164 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,400 paintings of the Romans lounging, having someone drop 165 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,360 grapes into their mouths, to perhaps the Victorians with 166 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,520 their fainting couches or people in Indian art sitting cross 167 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:50,520 legged, right? Like there are all these 168 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,360 different portrayals of the human body in position and I 169 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,960 would love to talk about that. But anyways, when we get to the 170 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,840 1500s and 1600s, we have this idea of good posture and bad 171 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:03,560 posture continuing. And that's really reflected in a 172 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,440 word which crops up at the time, which is upstanding. 173 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:10,000 So if someone's an upstanding individual, like, we can pretend 174 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 I'm upstanding. They are someone who's like 175 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,320 honorable. They have very, very good 176 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:15,040 morals. They are. 177 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:17,240 It's something to aspire to. It's a positive thing. 178 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:20,520 If if you're an upstanding individual, you are an exemplary 179 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,600 human being. And for me, it was so 180 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,360 interesting to see this word crop up around the the 15 181 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,360 hundreds 1600s. And when you break it down, you 182 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:31,640 get up, up, right, right. And standing. 183 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,799 So there's this idea again that standing up is good as well. 184 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:37,880 We start to see posture talked about more. 185 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,799 We have the advent of the modern military and the development of 186 00:08:40,799 --> 00:08:43,240 military drill of formation and more of the the modern sense 187 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,200 that we have today. And again, I'm not an expert in 188 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:47,560 military stuff, so I I hope I'm getting this all right. 189 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:52,160 But we start to see the idea of a a standardized posture really 190 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:54,920 come into the public consciousness of, you know, what 191 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,520 is a good posture. And of course from that military 192 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,560 perspective, if we think of that upright standing good posture, 193 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,200 the military upright posture is almost that in a bit extra. 194 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:05,680 It's like that chest a little bit up. 195 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,080 It's everything in neutral. It's that replicable posture, 196 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:12,040 which really for me as as someone who's not in the 197 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:16,480 military, is symbolic of that idea of uniformity and moving as 198 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,080 a unit and erasure of the individual. 199 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,800 So it's interesting again to see the the language start to change 200 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,400 as we start to have certain aspects of society change and 201 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:28,200 evolve which reflect our understanding and how we view 202 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:32,960 posture at that time. In 1741, we have the publication 203 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:35,960 of Orthopedia by Nicholas Andre and Nicholas Andre. 204 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:40,120 He comes up with this idea of the Andre tree, which has to be 205 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:43,840 one of, like the cooler, I don't know, eponymous words you can 206 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,600 come up with from a healthcare perspective. 207 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,800 So I don't know if there's anyone listening to this who 208 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,360 also dreamed of having AI don't know, a body part or a cell or 209 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,280 something named after them. Orphanides, like, who wouldn't 210 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:56,160 want to to put that on something? 211 00:09:56,160 --> 00:10:01,080 But when it comes to the the Andrey tree, the idea that 212 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:05,600 Nicholas had was that, like trees, humans grow up first. 213 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,680 So we have the little baby, which is kind of like the seed 214 00:10:08,680 --> 00:10:11,120 that makes the tree. And then the baby starts to get 215 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,680 taller and grow up like literally as in vertical. 216 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:18,360 And then as that human that you know that that teenager and then 217 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,720 that adult as they start to age and their health declines and 218 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:25,520 they, you know, become less, Well, we see that that downward 219 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:29,040 slope, that that hunch, that roundedness, that bad posture. 220 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:34,080 So his idea really did start to even further cement the idea of 221 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:38,560 good posture and bad posture. So his text really started to 222 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:42,000 cement the idea of good posture and bad posture with that tree 223 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,320 analogy, which people seem to be big fans of. 224 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:47,200 As we get into the 1800s, we have the advent of what we 225 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:50,160 consider to be modern physiotherapy and it happens in 226 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:52,040 Sweden. And it's important to know that 227 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:55,960 the guy who founded that, he had a big appreciation for posture 228 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,440 and he in his how he conceptualized physiotherapy 229 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,640 kind of working, he was thinking of military contributions, that 230 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:04,880 idea of a military posture as well as gymnastics. 231 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:08,560 And this really feeds into what is present to this day, this 232 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:12,600 passion for posture, shall we say, amongst musculoskeletal 233 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:14,360 professionals. And this idea of good posture 234 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,200 and bad posture. It's important to note as well 235 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,040 that around this time we had ballet really taking off. 236 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:24,160 And when it comes to groups of people who have thoughts about 237 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,040 posture and whose whole craft is built around posture, 238 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:30,760 ballerinas, any type of ballet dancer like this is an 239 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:34,680 individual who's had to spend a lot of time dedicated to making 240 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:37,840 sure that they're able to present certain postures in a 241 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:42,520 way which is consistent with the demands of their their craft. 242 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:45,000 So with ballet, again, I'm not an expert in ballet. 243 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:48,040 They kicked me out for being too tall when I was 4, which is only 244 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:50,040 the type of thing that could happen back in the 90s. 245 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:54,200 But anyways, when it comes to posture with ballet, there are 246 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:56,040 different positions and different movements, and like 247 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:59,760 the military, you have a core and the ballet dancers who end 248 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,680 up being in the core in particular, they have to all be 249 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:05,800 moving as one, A beautiful core. I don't know if you've seen Swan 250 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:07,240 Lake. I've been lucky and gone to see 251 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,680 the ballet a few times, but it moves as a as a unit. 252 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,720 And again, it comes down to that, like the sum of the parts 253 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:17,560 is what is it? The sum of the parts is greater 254 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:20,400 than it. It adds up and makes more. 255 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,080 OK, we don't want these. Like we don't want people 256 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:25,560 sticking out in a ballet corps, just like we don't want people 257 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,920 sticking out in a military unit. We want everyone to be moving as 258 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,880 one. And that really starts to become 259 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:36,920 very prevalent with the just the explosion of ballet as an art 260 00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:41,720 form in Europe around this time. If we continue into the 20th 261 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:44,000 century, and I promise we're almost on this history tour, but 262 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,560 isn't it interesting how our ideas of things get shaped 263 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:52,880 through our existence over time? But in 1967, we have a professor 264 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:58,200 of public health, Professor John Keeve, and he talks about how 265 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:02,280 there's really no evidence for our fixation on good posture 266 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:04,800 because as you can see, it's it's been something we've been 267 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,480 thinking about for a long time and and people thought that 268 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,280 decide if we have a good posture, we have good health. 269 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,680 But he looks at the research that we really only start to get 270 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:15,520 in the 20th century. We really only started to get 271 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:18,400 this, the standardized studies that we're so used to today, the 272 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:22,640 randomized clinical trials, the systematic reviews, all all of 273 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,000 these studies that we're so used to, they don't exist prior to 274 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,400 the 20th century. So he starts to be able to look 275 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,640 at this research, and he says a quote which sums up my views on 276 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:34,320 posture, which we're going to get to in a second, as well as 277 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,320 some of my favorite tips. But he says, and I'm going to 278 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:39,400 have to read this quote because it's hard for me to memorize all 279 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:40,760 this stuff when talking to camera. 280 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,800 There are no scientific facts to substantiate the benefits of 281 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:49,760 this postural aesthetic ideal. Yet a great deal of attention is 282 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:52,240 devoted to correcting faulty posture. 283 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:57,440 And this is a quotation which really summarizes exactly how I 284 00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:58,920 feel when I look at the research. 285 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,880 It's strange how there's this whole fixation on posture and 286 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:06,760 and everyone has bad posture and everyone must feel bad about it 287 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:09,120 and everyone must try to have a good posture and spend money on 288 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,880 devices and money on treatment and whatever for their bad 289 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,800 posture so that they can perhaps be good if they work hard 290 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,920 enough. For me it's very strange that 291 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:21,720 there's this pressure and this fixation really by the public as 292 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:24,720 a whole, but especially also the the manual therapy industry, 293 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,840 osteopathy, chiropractic, physiotherapy, whatever, because 294 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,360 it doesn't really make sense when you look at the research. 295 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,160 We'll get to the research in a a minute, but in terms of 296 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:38,000 industries around posture, we of course have the, the modern 297 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,160 industry of which I'm a part of these musculoskeletal healthcare 298 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:43,200 professionals, manual therapists, whatever you want to 299 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:45,640 call them. But you also have a whole 300 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,360 product based industry. So in the Victorian era and even 301 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,840 a little bit before we start to see these corsets with steel 302 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,000 boning in them to really force people into a very upright 303 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,320 posture. And we also see metal placed 304 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,680 into collars of men's shirts, which is wild and it was there 305 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,240 so that heaven forbid their chin droops. 306 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:09,640 You want that metal there to like be keeping it up, right, 307 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:11,560 Because it's not going to be comfy if you let your chin drop 308 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:13,440 down and it's steel within that collar. 309 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,120 So we have these, these industries develop and the 310 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:19,320 gadgets that are out there. A few weeks ago I was on my 311 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,520 commute home from clinic and I was, I was listened. 312 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:24,560 I was listening to some posture podcast to get some, you know, 313 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:26,480 ideas for this episode and see what's been talked about and 314 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,000 what hasn't. And and I heard this person 315 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,440 talking about their perfect this magical device which is going to 316 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,240 cure everyone's bad posture and people have to get it because 317 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,480 everyone needs it. And I looked it up and it was 318 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:41,720 like 400 lbs for a pair of basic like orthotics, which quite 319 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,800 frankly aren't going to help many people, if anyone. 320 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,480 It's ridiculous, the predatory nature of the industry around 321 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,800 posture in particular. So when it comes to any aspect 322 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,840 of anything to do with posture, proceed with caution. 323 00:15:56,040 --> 00:16:00,400 Because the best way to make money in my opinion is to make 324 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,280 people feel really bad about themselves just and that look, 325 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:04,640 it's what the beauty industry does. 326 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:06,080 It's what a lot of the fitness industry does. 327 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,160 And again, I'm not saying every beauty company or every fitness 328 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,560 company is bad, that's objectively very not true. 329 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,080 But it's a very effective strategy to make people feel 330 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:16,800 really bad and insecure about something. 331 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:19,640 So you can then sell them a a solution and and we see that 332 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:22,240 play out with posture all the time. 333 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:26,000 Now when it comes to posture, it's such a complex and like 334 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:28,280 charged topic. I have to confess, this is my 335 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:30,600 third time filming this episode because I got really stressed 336 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,040 about it. So for the rest of this episode 337 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,520 or for quite frankly for any episode you listen to where I'm. 338 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,280 I'm here talking to you. I want you to pretend like we're 339 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,480 just like hanging out at, I don't know, a nice bar or a 340 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:48,880 coffee shop, just talking about real issues around posture and 341 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,760 my professional and and personal thoughts on them. 342 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,280 But this is as, as I said earlier, this is not medical 343 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,960 advice. These are my thoughts on posture 344 00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,800 in general. But they are as direct and as 345 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:05,319 candid and hopefully as useful as I can possibly make them for 346 00:17:05,319 --> 00:17:06,800 you. So that you can then go on, of 347 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:08,839 course to speak with your qualified healthcare provider 348 00:17:08,839 --> 00:17:10,640 and and see if perhaps they help you. 349 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,599 I don't know, Think of some things differently, or maybe 350 00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:15,880 just even understand your body differently. 351 00:17:16,599 --> 00:17:19,640 But let's start with thinking about posture as a whole. 352 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:21,480 So we've talked about what posture is. 353 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,079 It's a body position. Posture does not have to be like 354 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,319 a standing posture, although it's certainly one posture that 355 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:30,360 someone can have. But posture is reduced into this 356 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:32,600 binary good posture and bad posture, and that does a 357 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,520 disservice to all of the complex and beautiful ways that the 358 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:40,800 human body can be positioned. Now, it's also important to 359 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:46,320 think though about is there even anything that is a good posture? 360 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,240 Does the concept of a good posture even exist? 361 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:51,400 Like, this is the type of thought experiment I want you to 362 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:55,200 go on. OK, So what is a good posture? 363 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:59,240 For me, a good posture is going to be one that serves that 364 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:01,000 person and the needs of their body. 365 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,520 It's going to be one that doesn't contribute to injury in 366 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:05,800 that person. It's going to be one in which 367 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,480 they feel comfortable. Maybe they feel happy in it even 368 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,440 because we'll talk about how posture can affect mood in a 369 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:15,640 second. Now, when it comes to posture, 370 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,600 there's a quote that I've I first came across it on social 371 00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:20,000 media. But there's this idea of the 372 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,880 next position is the best position. 373 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:24,640 And I think at the end of the day that's a really good take 374 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:26,640 away from this episode if you're looking for just something to 375 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,240 remember. By changing positions and 376 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,200 changing postures regularly, you avoid the thing that I think 377 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:36,080 make well that I know can make any posture injurious to people, 378 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,680 which is being in one position for an extended period of time. 379 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,000 If you stand up with that, like perfect, which by the way 380 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,320 doesn't exist, but that perfect upright posture, and you're 381 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,240 doing that for eight hours, you're probably going to be 382 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,160 pretty uncomfortable at the end of that, if you can even make it 383 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:52,240 that long, which I know I couldn't. 384 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,240 If you sit slouched for 8 hours, again, you will probably be 385 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,160 uncomfortable, right? It's at some point around there, 386 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:02,320 so it's important to think about posture and the risk of almost 387 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,160 overdosing on a a certain type of posture which may be all 388 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:08,400 right in moderation, but which may start to injure people if 389 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,440 they do it for too long. And what is too long is going to 390 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,360 depend on the person. Now going back to analogies for 391 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:17,920 posture, because you know, I love analogies, posture can be 392 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:21,440 thought of almost like vitamins. So every single person needs 393 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,680 some vitamin A. If you don't have vitamin A, bad 394 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:24,680 things are going to happen to you. 395 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:28,920 But if you only have vitamin A and you don't have anything 396 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:30,680 else, that's going to be a big problem. 397 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:33,320 You're going to potentially overdose on vitamin A and be 398 00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:35,160 deficient in all of your other vitamins. 399 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:39,400 So if we take that analogy and apply it to posture, yeah, being 400 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,000 able to have like a a relatively upright posture is is 401 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,440 beneficial. It's a good thing if it's 402 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,560 possible for someone to have an upright posture. 403 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,080 But if that's the only position you're ever in, you're going to 404 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:51,640 have too much of that upright posture and you're going to be 405 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,760 deficient in all of the other beautiful ways that your body 406 00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:57,600 can move. What we want to do is achieve a 407 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,360 variety of postures. We want to find multiple 408 00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:03,040 postures in which someone can comfortably position themselves, 409 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,960 and we want to make sure that we are avoiding the postures which 410 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,280 might be particularly injurious to that person. 411 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:11,760 So we'll talk more about that in a second, depending on your body 412 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:13,040 and what injuries you have going on. 413 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:16,320 We want to make sure that we enjoy and really indulge in more 414 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,400 of those beneficial postures which which you feel comfy in 415 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,120 and which you. Which you just find feel good. 416 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:23,680 If something feels good, it often is good. 417 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,600 At least that's how I approach a lot of the work that I do. 418 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:31,440 Now A question I get asked all the time is will fixing my 419 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,560 posture fix my pain? And this is typically coming 420 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,560 from someone who's been told by other manual therapists that the 421 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,280 reason that they're in pain is their fault. 422 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,360 They're the bad one. It's patient blaming, obviously, 423 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,040 but they're being told, you know, you have neck pain because 424 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,680 you were bad and you had bad posture and it's your fault. 425 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,520 And by the way, I just have to say that's such an easy way to 426 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,720 find excuses for not actually helping patients with their neck 427 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,120 pain is by saying it's their fault. 428 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:57,680 So it gives you a really good out if you're a manual 429 00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,800 therapist. And it's kind of messed up, I 430 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,600 think, how people do that question one will fixing my 431 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,520 posture, fix my pain? And this is the kind of question 432 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,120 I get asked all the time from patients in particular who've 433 00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:10,760 been told by other manual therapists prior to seeing me 434 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,920 that it's their fault that they're in pain, that they have 435 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:15,920 neck pain because their posture is bad and they should be 436 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,680 forcing their shoulders back and cranking their, you know, their 437 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:20,920 head up or whatever, and that that's going to fix their pain. 438 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,800 I've never seen that happen. Now, theoretically, could it 439 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:25,720 happen? Perhaps. 440 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:29,000 But I can certainly say professionally and anecdotally 441 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,720 that I've I've never seen a case where fixing a patient's posture 442 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:36,320 in isolation was what fixed their injury and fixed their 443 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,880 pain. I think it's also a very common 444 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,720 way to simply do patient blaming. 445 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,760 So if you are, if we have the example of a manual therapist 446 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,640 who for example is not able to fix their patients pain or 447 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,000 improve their symptoms or provide care which is beneficial 448 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,000 to that patient, it's a lot easier to blame the patient and 449 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,600 say hey this is actually your fault instead of saying, you 450 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:56,920 know what, I've reached limits of my professional expertise. 451 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,000 I'm sorry that I can't help you further, but I'm going to try 452 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,520 and find someone who can or I'm going to try and help you, you 453 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:05,400 know find some other option. And I'm sorry I can't be of more 454 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,680 assistance. I have to say that is my thought 455 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,120 on why that happens so often, but it does certainly happen. 456 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,480 Now, going back to the question, will fixing my posture fix my 457 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,000 pain? We already know, hopefully by 458 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,400 now, that there's no such thing as truly good or inherently good 459 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,120 or inherently bad posture. So the idea of fixing and and 460 00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:29,000 finding that perfect posture becomes quite fantastical, quite 461 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,880 frankly. But we can certainly look at 462 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,120 someone's postures and body positions throughout the day and 463 00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:37,480 try and think, OK, are these positions that they're putting 464 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:39,000 their body in? Are they serving this 465 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,440 individual, or are they injuring them? 466 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,520 Perhaps. So let's think of the example of 467 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,560 an office worker. And they're sitting in their 468 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:47,320 chair all day and they're really, really slouched. 469 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,600 Is that a good position to be in for eight hours or 10 hours 470 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,960 during the day? No, it's not. 471 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,320 It might be an excellent position for one hour or for 472 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,360 half an hour, but it's not going to be a good position to be in 473 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,520 for an extended period of time. Not because it's an inherently 474 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:07,200 bad position, but because it's simply almost. 475 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:08,640 Think of it like a repetitive strain injury. 476 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,040 The the volume is too great and it exceeds the ability of those 477 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,160 tissues to cope with that stress placed on them by that one 478 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,680 position without rest. If you want studies and research 479 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:19,080 by the way, please go check out my website 480 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:22,280 itshypermobilityhq.com. I will put a study on there 481 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,560 which really illustrates what I I mean when I talk about this. 482 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,600 But when we look at studies of medical imaging, I believe they 483 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:30,840 used MRI in the study I'm referencing and they're looking 484 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,400 at people's spines. They find that there is less 485 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,520 stress placed on the disk, that the force transference is 486 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,360 reduced when you have someone actually sitting in a slouched 487 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:44,760 posture because it, it just allows the erector erector spiny 488 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,400 muscles and some of the soft tissue to take some of that load 489 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,400 instead of having everything go through the spine if they were 490 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,120 to sit perfectly upright all day long. 491 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,040 So again, if that office worker was to try and say, you know, 492 00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,080 I'm going to sit upright, bolt straight for 8 hours a day and 493 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,840 that's going to fix my low back pain, I would be very surprised 494 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:03,800 if that happened. And and often I find that 495 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,000 patients actually get worse after they take that approach 496 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,320 and try that. So again, we'll we'll fixing my 497 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,400 posture, fix my pain back to that question. 498 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,240 I'm going to say it's unlikely, but it's certainly something 499 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,160 that's good to think about. And I would think about it more 500 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:20,640 from the perspective of are the postures that I'm in potentially 501 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,200 challenging my tissues too much that they're injuring me? 502 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:27,040 And can I find a greater variety that's going to cause less 503 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:31,520 stress on my body and just allow me to kind of challenge 504 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:33,360 different tissues at different points throughout the day. 505 00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:36,960 So I don't challenge anything too much, as the Greeks like to 506 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,520 say, everything in moderation. That is how I sum up that answer 507 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,240 to that question. The next question I have a 508 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:45,880 lordosis. Is that bad? 509 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,920 I get asked this question again of remarkable amount of times by 510 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,520 patients who see me in clinic. I also sometimes get messaged 511 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,080 about it. But anyways, a Lord people get 512 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:58,280 told having a lordosis is bad. What I don't know if this is a 513 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,480 fault of the physiotherapist or osteopathic chiropractor or 514 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,280 medical doctor or whatever. I don't know if this is a fault 515 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,840 of the healthcare provider that they're seeing or if this is the 516 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,040 fault of the patient, perhaps misunderstanding things but 517 00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:13,160 everyone has a lordosis. In fact you have two hopefully 518 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,280 most people are going to have a curve in their low back that is 519 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:19,560 your lumbar lordosis and that just means that it is a a curve 520 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,120 that is concave. It literally just rounds in. 521 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:23,840 OK. It's the it's the the curve of 522 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:25,960 low back. You also have a bit of a curve 523 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,240 in your neck again and that is a bit of a lordosis. 524 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:30,960 We don't want a neck that's jutting out like that. 525 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,960 We don't want that kypholordic posture that we we see in people 526 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,320 who are perhaps if you think of like a really, really like old 527 00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:39,840 person who's like hunched over and they're trying to keep their 528 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:41,960 neck up, like that's when we start to see a kind of hunchback 529 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:46,080 kyphrobatotic posture, right. But we do all have a or not we 530 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,520 all do. But most of us should have a 531 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,360 lordosis in our cervical spine in the neck that produces just a 532 00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:53,920 gentle curve. And I'll explain why in a 533 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,280 second. OK And guess what? 534 00:25:56,280 --> 00:26:00,280 We all should have a kyphosis. So a kyphosis refers to a convex 535 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:01,680 curvature. So it's just that little bit of 536 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,360 a rounding in the thoracic spine. 537 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:06,160 If you had a perfectly straight thoracic spine, that's actually 538 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:08,680 like, not ideal. You want a tiny bit of a 539 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,440 kyphosis there and the reason for this. 540 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,280 And I was going to get a model for this episode. 541 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,800 Maybe I'll do it for a TikTok or real one day. 542 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:19,160 But if you have a stick of spaghetti and you put pressure 543 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,080 on it, actually hang on, I'm just going to get a stick of 544 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,680 spaghetti a few moments later. We didn't have a stick of 545 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:26,280 spaghetti, but we have a rice noodle. 546 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:28,280 This rice noodle is pretty straight. 547 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,640 There's no curves in it, but if we take it and we put pressure 548 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,560 from the top and the bottom, even just a minimal amount, it's 549 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,040 gonna go like that. It snapped. 550 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:39,560 It did not cope well with that pressure. 551 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:44,000 If the rice noodle had a lordosis like kyphosis and then 552 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,480 a lordosis, so it makes like a little S shape, that's going to 553 00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,720 help it cope with that loading, that pressure of of being 554 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,560 upright, the force of your weight plus gravity pulling on 555 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,400 you. That is going to cope better. 556 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,880 And we would, we know based on studies. 557 00:26:57,880 --> 00:26:59,600 I'm sure they're out there, Check my blog post. 558 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,360 I'll try and put all the good stuff in there. 559 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,000 But we know that that's going to tolerate the force of being 560 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,160 upright better than a straight up and down line. 561 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:12,160 And actually the patients I see who have the worst low back pain 562 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:14,520 are the ones with the very, very straight spines. 563 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,800 They are the ones with the reduced lordosis of course the 564 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,720 people who have what some people will call like a a sway back 565 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,080 posture so on or they have a really excessive, they have a 566 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,200 hyper lordosis in their lumbar spine and excessive curvature. 567 00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:29,720 So kind of tummy out and kind of bum sticking out. 568 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,720 Those people certainly will have more low back pain, potentially 569 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,080 not always again, but some of them will have more pain than 570 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,880 like the a person with an average spine. 571 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,480 But the spine, which I would want to not have the most, would 572 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,080 be a reduced lordosis in the lumbar spine, a very, very 573 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,720 straight spine. That's the type of spine where I 574 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,680 see the most problematic cases in the patient population that I 575 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,080 work with. So if you're someone with a 576 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:53,720 hyperlordosis and you've been made to feel really 577 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,160 self-conscious about it, there are other types of spinal 578 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:57,800 anatomy which I think are more problematic. 579 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,120 And I say that because I'm someone who has been told 580 00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:03,520 repeatedly that I have too much curvature in my low back and I 581 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,080 find ways to make it work for me. 582 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:07,200 So there might be solutions out there for you. 583 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:10,960 Now in terms of other problematic spinal anatomies, we 584 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:13,600 do see as as well things like a scoliosis. 585 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,440 And I'm going to save that for another episode because that's a 586 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,400 whole topic of its own. But a scoliosis refers to 587 00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,160 abnormal curvature of the spine. They can occur in different 588 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,040 planes. So you can have a scoliosis 589 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,960 which affects the spine forward and backwards side to side or in 590 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,040 a rotational aspect. We're going to save that for 591 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:30,720 another time. But of course, the scoliosis 592 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:31,960 certainly just complicate things. 593 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,400 And these are patients who require a specific care, they 594 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,240 require a diagnosis, and they require a little bit more 595 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,120 management than a patient with like an anatomically relatively 596 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,360 normal spine. Although I do want to stress 597 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,520 we're all a little bit weird. We all have a little bit of 598 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:47,320 abnormal stuff going on to some extent. 599 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,440 One of my eyebrows is higher than the other. 600 00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:51,720 One of my legs is longer than the other. 601 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,240 Like we we're not pixels on a screen like we are. 602 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:58,000 We are people and building human bodies as complicated as is 603 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,360 maintaining them. Now one other thing I want to 604 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,920 say, going back to postures, it's important to think about 605 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:07,960 the person and how they're positioned. 606 00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,400 And I I meant to mention this earlier, but I I completely 607 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,880 forgot. Did I tell you get stressed 608 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,200 making these? Anyways, we need to think about 609 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:21,360 posture and disability and posture and mobility aids and so 610 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,960 on. So again, this idea that upright 611 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,520 is good and anything other than upright is bad. 612 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,600 I think it's very, very ableist. I think that it really hurts 613 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:33,760 people who can't perhaps achieve that upright posture. 614 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,160 And it doesn't take into account people who, for example, are, 615 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:41,480 you know, wheelchair users in some respect, or people who rely 616 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,200 on different types of aids where they're using like rollators, 617 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,480 for example, or a cane. These are people where they need 618 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:50,440 to work with healthcare providers who are going to help 619 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,600 them have the best positioning of their body possible for usage 620 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:58,800 of the mobility aid which they need and benefit from to move 621 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:00,680 around. So we always want to look at 622 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:04,400 posture in the context of that individual patient and all of 623 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,120 the ways in which they're positioning their body 624 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,600 throughout the day to do what they need to do with their hyper 625 00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,080 mobile body. The next question that I get a 626 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:15,280 lot is, OK, you've told me how I don't need to, like, fixate on 627 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,480 good posture versus bad posture, but I want good posture anyways. 628 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,920 I say good in quotation marks. Again, I want that upright, 629 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,600 straight posture. I just want it so I can like 630 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,840 have it for photographs or feel comfort or whatever. 631 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:27,480 What can I do? How can I achieve that? 632 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,400 And again, I don't think it's a bad thing to want that. 633 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:32,960 I think it's important that people who are able to have that 634 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,000 upright standing posture or a really good version of that, I 635 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,160 think it can certainly be beneficial for people to have 636 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:39,840 it. It is beneficial quite frankly, 637 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:41,240 if it's something that you can obtain. 638 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,680 I just don't think you should live in it 24/7. 639 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,400 Now the first thing I would say is that it's important to get 640 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,080 injuries addressed. So when you stand up, and I do 641 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:52,720 this with patients all the time in clinic, I'm like I'd like you 642 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:54,680 to try standing up really, really straight and tell me what 643 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,400 you feel. And you know what, as much as 644 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,320 precise orthopedic assessment is important, it's important to be 645 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:02,760 scientific. It's important to, you know, be 646 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,640 as strict with these things as you can be, as objective as you 647 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,880 can be. I do find it sometimes helpful 648 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,520 to ask patients like what's your body saying to you like just 649 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,880 like what's what's going on because it can be hard to feel 650 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,040 things. And you will probably definitely 651 00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,000 understand that if you're someone who's hyper mobile, but 652 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:21,120 also what's your body saying to you, what are you feeling? 653 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,000 And very often the issues which patients report noticing, 654 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,360 they'll often come from kind of the interscapular region. 655 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:32,080 Interscapular region is one of my favorite medical terms ever, 656 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,000 Anatomy terms, you know that place between your shoulder 657 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,000 blades, that is your interscapular region. 658 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,520 So very often all of patients say, you know, it feels like my 659 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,400 shoulders aren't quite settled. And this goes back to a viral 660 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,720 TikTok I did back in the day where I talked about my 661 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,840 shoulders feeling homeless. And this is in these types of 662 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,080 patients, I'll very often see the shoulder blades slightly 663 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:51,920 forward. They'll be protracted, so 664 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,680 they'll have kind of that rounded posture. 665 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,200 These are people who will be told to try and, like, force 666 00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,440 their shoulder blades in. But these are patients who will 667 00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:00,920 see me and say, like, I've been trying to force them back. 668 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,240 I've been doing all of these exercises and I'm just not 669 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,600 making any progress. In these patients, I will very 670 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,520 often look at the the musculature and the the tissue 671 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,320 and the nerves between their shoulder blades. 672 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,640 So the dorsal scapular nerve, I'll look at the spinal 673 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,680 accessory nerve, I'll look at the scapulothoracic joint and 674 00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,240 how that shoulder blade is sitting in the muscle and 675 00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,080 connective tissue in which it is embedded. 676 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,480 I'll look at the rhomboid muscles and so on. 677 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,160 Because I I want to see like what's going on in the place 678 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,160 where they're feeling pain, which is a pretty reasonable 679 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:29,920 place to start for a lot of the issues that hyper. 680 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,120 What people present with. What I tend to notice is that 681 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,560 these patients very often, even if they have hypermobile 682 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,680 scapulothoracic joints. So the hypermobile 683 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:40,960 scapulothoracic joints will be people whose shoulder blades are 684 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:42,840 winging. But it's also really important 685 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:44,800 to know there are people who will report feeling like their 686 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,720 shoulder blades are almost glued on their back and they they 687 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,360 almost like can't move. So they might even have 688 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,560 hypermobile lenohumeral joints. So that's the shoulder joint out 689 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,520 that I'm pointing to it on the video if you're watching this, 690 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,120 but if you're not watching this, it's what people think of as the 691 00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:58,840 shoulder joint. It's what you would call your 692 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:00,880 shoulder. But anyways they can even have 693 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,840 hypermobile glenohumeral joints, but hypomobile. 694 00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:07,080 So less than ideal mobility, scapulothoracic joints. 695 00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,080 And in those patients, those patients that have that really, 696 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,840 really stiff tissue in their interscapular region. 697 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,440 What I want to do is work with them on trying to improve or 698 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,880 positively affect that tissue quality, on trying to build 699 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:23,280 muscle and tissue, which as a whole is more functional to 700 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,720 allow that shoulder blade just to settle nicely in that kind of 701 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,400 down and in position. If you just do a little 702 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,640 experiment, if you're someone who is able to get your shoulder 703 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,360 blade a bit down and in, you will feel that when you do that 704 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,440 and you're standing, it's very easy to just have your arm by 705 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,120 your side. It feels kind of light, It's 706 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,120 just hanging out. But if your shoulder blade is 707 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,200 forward, if it's in that protracted position, you will 708 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,120 notice very quickly that your arm feels heavy. 709 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,760 So finding ways for people to get their shoulder blades down 710 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,480 and in, if it's possible for them is a great place to start. 711 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:54,880 And that's a whole complicated thing. 712 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,240 I'll I'll get into it more in another episode, but I hope that 713 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,040 gives you just an idea of one place I would look. 714 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,360 I'm also going to be looking at their feet. 715 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,480 So very often people who are hypermobile have abnormal foot 716 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:06,960 anatomy. Again, everyone's quirky, but 717 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,080 hypermobile people are often a bit quirkier and there are a 718 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:12,199 couple of different types of foot anatomy presentations which 719 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,320 I'll see. One of them is a four foot 720 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,560 virus, another one is a flexible flat foot. 721 00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:19,880 But regardless, these are people who will very often have feet 722 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:21,920 where their arches are kind of collapsing. 723 00:34:22,159 --> 00:34:24,520 So when you look at them lying down on a a table, they do have 724 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,920 an arch in their foot. When you assess them, you see 725 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,400 it's not a true Pez planis, it's not a true flex. 726 00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,480 It's sorry it's not a true flat foot, but when you look at them 727 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,920 carefully you'll see actually they have a flexible flat foot 728 00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:38,880 which is commonly mistaken for a Pez planis or they have a four 729 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,679 foot virus or both. But anyways what you want to do 730 00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:44,800 with these patients, often it is work with them directly or work 731 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:48,600 with someone who is able to help them find an insole which is 732 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:50,800 just going to lift the the ground up to them. 733 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,000 So we stop that collapse because when that arch collapses, that 734 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,159 knee will cave in and that starts to put tension on the 735 00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:59,440 hips and we kind of got a a downstream effect or an upstream 736 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,000 effect, perhaps I should say, if we're looking at the knock on 737 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,000 consequences of that. But thinking of foot anatomy 738 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,800 here is also important because if if your feet are in the right 739 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,560 position, you're kind of in trouble from the start. 740 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:14,480 That being said, I I can't think of a single time where I've come 741 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,080 across a patient who's been really happy that they've like 742 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,960 spent a lot of money on orthotics. 743 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,520 I think that it's really important to start with basic 744 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,760 interventions. I think it's important, you 745 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,840 know, if you can find someone who's going to make you perfect 746 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,240 orthotics, by all means to do that. 747 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,280 But a lot of these corrections are more straightforward and I 748 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,560 think more accessible than they're presented by the 749 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:36,720 healthcare and medical industries to be, quite frankly. 750 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,240 So ideally your healthcare provider will be working with 751 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:43,240 you because it's a relatively straightforward issue addressing 752 00:35:43,240 --> 00:35:45,080 a flexible flat foot or a four foot virus. 753 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,360 But that's just my opinion. As auk registered osteopath, we 754 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:52,120 also want to be thinking about gaze and where your eyes are 755 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:53,720 going. And this kind of ties in really 756 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:56,000 nicely to a holistic appreciation of life in a 757 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,320 hypermobile body. So hypermobile people, they are 758 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,560 often a little bit clumsier. This goes back to issues with 759 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:03,400 proprioception and a few other things. 760 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:05,520 But then you know, of course there's a correlation with ADHD 761 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:09,000 and neuro divergent and other stuff going on, but we want to 762 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,520 really think about where you're looking. 763 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,760 If you go for a walk and you look down and you have someone 764 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,080 film you, you'll notice that there are probably knock on 765 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,080 consequences to your posture. You're probably looking a lot 766 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,840 more slouched than if you go for a walk and have your eyes level 767 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,600 looking straight out in front of you. 768 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,480 Your eyes determine where the rest of your body goes and your 769 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:32,000 body will do everything it can to perfect protect that 770 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,840 horizontal sight line. Being able to see is very 771 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,640 important for function. Obviously sight is a a very 772 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,200 important sense that we have or that's most of us have as 773 00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,200 humans. So your body will do any 774 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:48,000 compensation necessary to try to be able to have you see the 775 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:49,680 world in front of you as much as possible. 776 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,360 So This is why, again, if we think of that kind of the the 777 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,680 stereotypical like little old lady or grandpa or whatever 778 00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,920 who's really, really slouched over, they will then get that 779 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,800 extension in their neck. They'll get that kypholordotic, 780 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,800 that excessive kypholordic posture in their thoracic and 781 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,840 cervical or so they're mid back and and neck because their 782 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:10,760 body's trying to keep them able to look at the world around 783 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:12,080 them. They're trying to keep that gaze 784 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,240 up. So think where your gaze is when 785 00:37:15,240 --> 00:37:17,600 you've done all of those things, when you've had the injuries 786 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,200 treated, when we've had any anatomical abnormalities in the 787 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,120 feet address we've thought about things like gaze. 788 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,320 We then get on to, of course, things like pelvic floor, which 789 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,560 can certainly have packed your posture, having tension and 790 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:30,760 appropriate attention. Not too much tension because a 791 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,400 lot of hypermobile people have issues with that certainly. 792 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,800 But having appropriate tone there in the muscles, having an 793 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,480 awareness and also when it comes to breath again, having good 794 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:42,760 breathing mechanics or just having even good enough 795 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,440 breathing mechanics, that can make a big difference as well. 796 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:51,480 And my final tip is to think about the actual bio mechanic 797 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:55,560 beauty of of movement in particular, because if you're a 798 00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,440 hyper mobile person, any opportunity you have to dose 799 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,320 your body with good movement, with good mechanical stimulus is 800 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:02,960 beneficial. So I'm going to use a little 801 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,960 story time here. So back when I was about 20, I 802 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,480 was told that when I walk, I look like I'm carrying two 803 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,600 suitcases and I had a think and I was like, you know what I I 804 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:13,600 looked at some videos of me walking. 805 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,440 I was like, that's correct because basically my, my 806 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:19,160 shoulders, my, my upper body was not moving at all. 807 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,520 All of my movement was stopping kind of around my low back and 808 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,000 I'm one of those people who had the shoulder blades glued on the 809 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,440 back problem. I had a lot of neck pain and a 810 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,840 lot of kind of mid back pain and one thing that helped me, it 811 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,240 didn't fix everything but one thing that helped me and and 812 00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:36,080 this is easier of course when you live in an area where maybe 813 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:38,840 you don't have too many people watching you walk or or you just 814 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,840 don't care, that'll work too. But I would try and walk and 815 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:46,080 really just feel and appreciate the rotation that was that was 816 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,560 going up my spine. So I would try and walk and make 817 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,760 sure my shoulder blades were moving and I was getting a 818 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,240 little bit of a rotation up that mid back as I was walking out. 819 00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:57,080 My shoulder blades were moving as I swung my arms and that 820 00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:00,000 movement wasn't stopping at my glenohumeral joint, so my 821 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,640 shoulder proper or my low back. So trying to just allow that 822 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:07,640 like diffusion of of movement from every step that I was 823 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:10,160 taking. And I know that sounds very like 824 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,680 we were or whatever, but just feeling that for me really 825 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,160 helped. And I think all of my clinical 826 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:17,840 work with patients and everything I've done with 827 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:20,600 myself, it's all about fighting for those 1% improvements. 828 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,840 So I do think that that was one of those little positive changes 829 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,320 which made a difference. And it's something which I think 830 00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,360 of to this day. And of course I had to be very 831 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:30,840 conscious initially when I was doing it. 832 00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,880 I had to think, don't look like you're holding suitcases when 833 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:35,240 you walk, walk like a normal person. 834 00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:37,080 Like that's what I was thinking. Like just try and look normal 835 00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:38,280 when you walk, which is so weird. 836 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,280 And it's that's not really the best line of thinking, but it 837 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:45,000 eventually evolved to try and feel that really juicy little 838 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:48,200 bit of diffuse rotation of your spine and gentle movement of 839 00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:49,680 your shoulder blades as you walk. 840 00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,840 And that went on to become my normal. 841 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,720 And I have to say it's really weird to go throughout a a 842 00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:57,280 decade, a bit more than a decade. 843 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,960 But to have that experience of being someone who was being, you 844 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,080 know, not just being told, but who objectively, if you look at 845 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,480 photos of me and my late teens and stuff I didn't have, I 846 00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:08,880 didn't look comfortable in my body. 847 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:10,880 You know, I don't like the whole good and bad thing. 848 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:12,800 You know that by now. But I didn't. 849 00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:17,760 I wasn't able to. Sit in ways which just looked 850 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:19,680 comfortable and felt comfortable to me. 851 00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:21,720 There were these abnormalities in my movement which weren't 852 00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:24,360 serving me. So now to be someone in my 30s 853 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:27,240 which is able to sit in positions which I feel serve me 854 00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,360 and feel comfortable. And they do, you know, they do 855 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,920 look good and photograph well. There's a reason why artists 856 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,640 like to have people in that very upright posture because it just, 857 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,400 it has a certain aesthetic look to it, right? 858 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,360 But anyways, it's been an interesting experience just to 859 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,200 see and appreciate how changeable that can be and how 860 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,560 it can go from being a really conscious thing to a an 861 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,520 unconscious thing. It's anyway such just a personal 862 00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,360 note for me and that kind of wraps up to my my final tip. 863 00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:55,600 This isn't a question, this is a this is a tip. 864 00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,040 So we're finishing up our coffee or a drink or whatever. 865 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:00,360 The bar is closing. I want to give you the best 866 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,160 advice I can because I don't know if we're going to meet 867 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:03,280 again. I hope we meet again. 868 00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:04,880 I hope you're back for next episode. 869 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:09,520 But don't think about posture in terms of good or bad. 870 00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,040 Think about what serves you and what doesn't serve you. 871 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,280 So be selfish. I think more people need to 872 00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:19,040 think about what serves them in different aspects of their life, 873 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:20,880 and posture is no exception to this. 874 00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:24,160 So I want you to think about what feels comfy, what feels 875 00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,800 good, what makes me feel powerful, what makes me feel 876 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,280 capable going back to a posture and what serves you. 877 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,400 I'm just going to give you a few examples of postures that have 878 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:34,280 served me. So right now I've been seeing 879 00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:35,560 cross legged a lot of this episode. 880 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:37,440 I switched because I started. I started to kind of 881 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:39,280 uncomfortable in that position, so that's why I switched. 882 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,040 I'm going to grab another pillow actually, because that would 883 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,960 make me comfy right now. If you're a hyper mobile person, 884 00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,600 you might notice that postural aids serve you. 885 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:50,360 You don't have to do it all alone. 886 00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:54,120 You might notice that wearing a a corset or a stomach or serves 887 00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:55,240 you. There are a lot of people in my 888 00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:58,040 online communities who like different types of supportive 889 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,640 undergarments ranging from shapewear to corsetry. 890 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,720 Use that. It gives you a little little 891 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:07,400 brace, little support. Think again of propping things 892 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:08,560 up. I'm literally propping like my 893 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:10,520 body up on pillows right now. Why? 894 00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:12,920 Because it feels comfy and I enjoy it. 895 00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:16,120 That's why I'm doing that. OK, You will probably never see 896 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:18,680 me record an episode ever in that upright good posture 897 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,000 position. I don't like the feeling of my 898 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,240 legs being below my hips. It causes blood pooling and 899 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:26,840 feels uncomfortable, so I avoid that like the plague. 900 00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:29,560 Other postures which serve me leaning on things. 901 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:33,000 If you've seen me in clinic, I I'm like a little like avoiding 902 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,400 standing upright ninja like I can do it. 903 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,480 I do it for photos. I do it when it serves me, but 904 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,400 I'm leaning against the wall as much as possible because I'm 905 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:46,800 tired sometimes as well. One posture, one body position 906 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,320 which comes to mind which really served me at a time when I 907 00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:51,760 really needed it was back in my early 20s. 908 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,520 I had the worst neck pain. This was the thing which really 909 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,280 sucked. The most for me was this 910 00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:01,320 horrible intense neck pain and these tension type headaches 911 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:03,920 with migrainous characteristics that were of a disabling 912 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,160 intensity in the sense that I could not leave the house for 913 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:07,440 days at a time when they would happen. 914 00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:09,720 They were awful. I would just lie in bed with a 915 00:43:09,720 --> 00:43:12,440 pillow on my face for days waiting for them to stop because 916 00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:14,120 they sucked that much. Couldn't eat because of the 917 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,160 nausea, eye pain, tooth pain. It was horrible. 918 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:19,600 Worst thing ever. I hated them. 919 00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,840 They suck if you have them. I'm so sorry. 920 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:24,880 They're the worst. But one of the positions which 921 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:26,560 really helped me. And again, it's not going to be 922 00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,120 appropriate for everyone. It's not going to be appropriate 923 00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:31,680 for people perhaps with serious eye issues in particular. 924 00:43:31,680 --> 00:43:33,680 So please go talk with your medical doctors. 925 00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:36,600 Please go do that before you ever do anything that you hear 926 00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:39,600 me talk about on the show. But I had a treatment table at 927 00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:41,080 the time because I was doing my osteopathy degree. 928 00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:43,840 So I had a treatment table in my home and I would have these 929 00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:47,680 headaches and I would just go lie like tummy on the table, 930 00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:49,680 face in the face hole, face down. 931 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,480 I'd put the iPad on the floor. I think I had a footstool to 932 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,680 bring it up slightly closer and I would just lie there and like 933 00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,360 just watch ATV show. And that position really took 934 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:02,760 tension off my neck, and having that position as an option 935 00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:04,120 helped. So again, I wouldn't stay there 936 00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:07,200 for 8 hours, but I might go watch ATV Show for like half an 937 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,040 hour or an hour there and it just felt like it gave my neck 938 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:13,680 musculature and nerves a break from whatever was causing them 939 00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:16,560 injury at the time. So that's an an example of kind 940 00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:20,360 of a a creative or weird posture which I found which served me. 941 00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:23,400 I haven't done it in years but it's pretty darn comfy and it's 942 00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,360 something which you certainly might want to consider and speak 943 00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,080 with your medical doctor about of course and as well the whole 944 00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:29,920 cross legged thing. So I mentioned sitting cross 945 00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:31,800 legged earlier. I do it all the time. 946 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:33,560 I like to make people comfy in my clinic room. 947 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:36,000 So if patients want to sit cross legged, I don't mind. 948 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:39,680 You sit in a way that's comfortable, but do not sit 949 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,880 cross legged for hours on hours that will injure you. 950 00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:47,520 Do not do what I did and go for like 20 years only sitting with 951 00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,760 your legs crossed one way. Everyone's kind of going to have 952 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,080 like a preference one way or the other because of variations and 953 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:53,680 mobility and their hip joints or whatnot. 954 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:57,320 So switch sides and do it evenly. 955 00:44:57,760 --> 00:44:59,320 Find ways to enhance that position. 956 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:01,280 Put pillows under your knees and so on. 957 00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:03,400 See if you can have a supported posture. 958 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:06,840 See if you can find a position. That's what I call true REST. 959 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:09,560 So that just means having enough stuff to prop you up that you 960 00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,840 can really just go floppy and you're supported. 961 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:13,920 Which feels so luxurious and so restful. 962 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,840 I have some content on it on my TikTok, maybe on my Instagram, 963 00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,360 but go check that out. Maybe I'll do a blog post on it 964 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:21,720 one day on my website. But finding positions of 965 00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:24,560 supported REST where you can actually rest, of course, is 966 00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:26,880 also key. But again, it all comes back to 967 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:30,480 that last tip, which is find what serves you. 968 00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:33,200 Ask yourself, is this helping me? 969 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:37,040 If you're one of those people where they claim that standing 970 00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:40,480 perfectly upright and sitting bolt upright their entire waking 971 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,520 existence, if that serves you and you're comfortable doing 972 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:44,760 that, that, by all means do that. 973 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:47,680 But at the end of the day, be critical. 974 00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:54,000 Be thoughtful, Be curious. And I I hope that through doing 975 00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:57,640 these things, you will find ways to position your body that work 976 00:45:57,640 --> 00:45:59,880 for you. Whether you're someone who you 977 00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:02,360 know stands on your own or someone who uses mobility, it's 978 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,600 it's all about finding what works for that person, for that 979 00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:07,320 individual. And I hope that as we're 980 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,120 wrapping up today's episode, you have felt my passion for posture 981 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:14,640 and that it has inspired you to think more about your own 982 00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:18,760 hypermobile body and how you are going to position it throughout 983 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:21,000 your day. Take care. 984 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,480 Thank you for being here. Be sure to sign up for my e-mail 985 00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:26,520 newsletter list. Seriously, it's how we keep in 986 00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:29,160 touch with with each other. Lots of exciting things coming 987 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:32,080 up and I'll see you next time. Bye.