Why Does my Physiotherapist Give Recommendations on my Posture?
As a Physio, we quite often recommend different postures and positions. This advice is given based on your clinical signs, symptoms and your diagnosis. For instance, if you have just hurt your lower back, and a movement or position of bending forward aggravates your pain your, physio will most likely advise on avoiding that position and movement. This recommendation is based on a couple of different ideas: it hurts so don’t do it and this can continue to aggravate your symptoms or condition if we do not reduce it for the time being. Depending on what structure/s is/are hurt or damaged, it is very important in allowing adequate healing time to improve your injury or condition as quickly as possible.
Another example of this idea can be related to a rolled ankle. Now if you rolled your ankle while playing sport and sprained it (damage to ligaments) and it was causing pain, swelling and bruising. If you continued to roll your ankle constantly this will be painful, could cause more damage, and will take that much longer to heal. This to most people sounds reasonable and makes sense and the same rules can apply if you hurt your back or neck in the initial stages.
Depending on what your physiotherapist diagnoses you with will relate to the advice on posture and position they recommend. It may even be an exercise or strategy given as pain relief and to help reduce your symptoms throughout the day. This over time will change as your body heals and adapts, and eventually the aggravating positions and movements will not cause any issues through treatment that includes exercise and strengthening.
Now what about if I did not have an injury? What is this is just something that has been happening over the past few weeks to months??
As an example, you are sitting in the upcoming Avengers movies (it is going to apparently be over 3 hours!) and near the end of it you notice your knee feeling a bit sore and achy. You are a dedicated fan to the franchise and were so engulfed in the film that you have not moved at all. So, you change position, move your knee and then if feels much better. Our joints hate not moving! They are built to move, and the more normal movement they get the happier and healthier they are.
We quite often see neck and back pain related to prolonged posture and positions, from sitting at a desk all day, watching a movie marathon, or standing all day watching your kids play sport. Prolonged positions cause a few things to occur if they are done for too long. One they can cause muscle to fatigue over time if they are being asked to perform a task they are not trained for or built to do. And two your joints can become “stiff” and get used to these positions, and therefore will not want to move the same way. If this goes on for too long your body can elicit this as pain. When your body feels pain you brain does not fully understand what’s going on so it can go into a “protective mode”. This can cause muscles to become tight and joints not want to move. Again, when this pain occurs certain movements, postures and positions will increase or exacerbate your symptoms. Finding comfortable movements and positions when this occurs is key to reducing pain and symptoms. This along with treatment and exercise will help over time. The key difference, compared to an acute injury, is that most likely the positions that are causing symptoms are not causing damage to your body, it is just a way of your body reacting to staying in a position for too long. Along with this your physiotherapist may recommend a certain time frame to move or change positions. This will be based on your symptoms and diagnosis.
Take home information here is that movement is good, your body needs to move, it does not like staying in one place for too long. Movement is medicine. And until you see your physiotherapist - I always think of the message my parents and grandparents would say - “If it hurts don’t do it!”
Whether it is a movement, position or if every 45 minutes sitting it hurts, don’t do it, and come see us for advice and management of what is going on.
Depending on your condition and diagnosis, whether an initial injury or something that has occurred over time, we can help get you moving again and reducing your pain!
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