Suffering from Postural Pain or Postural Injuries?
Postural Pain and Postural injury is one of the most common complaints we see at City Physio. Postural Injuries is a term used to describe any pain or injury that results from specific or sustained postures, such as prolonged desk use or ballroom dancing.
Generally speaking- it relates to how you hold your body in the postures! As such, postural pain requires a multi faceted approach. Posture can be very difficult and requires many subtleties in how everything is positioned and held that creates stability without stiffness and restriction. The Physios at City Physio have dozens of different cues and postural “tweaks” we can use and layer to help find your ideal positioning for your workday or sport requirements. Optimal posture should feel light and easy, unload overloaded structures, reduce stiffness or excessive muscle bracing and be sustainable for your full work day. If only it were that simple!
At City Physio we address postural pain in a very specific way.
Firstly, your overall posture is assessed from head to toe in both sitting and standing. How do you hold your arms, your head, your shoulder blades? Is there a difference or asymmetry from side to side? How does the posture change with movement vs sitting/ standing still?
Secondarily- we zone in on the areas of pain or symptom. What structures are being stressed or overloaded, and why is this occurring? What is the pain quality like- sharp or dull, deep or superficial? Does it change with cough, sneeze, rolling in bed, moving the arms, rotating the trunk? Is the pain a separate injury exacerbated by posture, or is the posture itself causing the symptoms?
And lastly, we work to address any restrictions. Are the joints stiff causing an overload with prolonged postures? Is there weakness we can address to help unload the joints and muscles? Is the desk or chair contributing to the postural issues?
At this step we use a combination of modalities specific to the individual to address the pain, stiffness and postural issues and develop a Game Plan to address these issues in the short term (often pain relief), medium term (correction of any postures, desk set ups, joint stiffness etc) and long term (identification of asymmetries in muscle length or strength, specific correcting exercises or modification to current exercise programs) to fix the problem once and for all! Treatment may include manual therapy, exercises, stretches, postural changes and taping and is customised to the individual!
City Physio & Sports Injury Centre has been providing musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the MLC Centre for over 30 years. Our team are expertly trained in providing detailed full-body assessments and delivering personalised treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, sports injuries, headaches, neck and back pain.