Posture describes the alignment of our bodies in relationship to gravity.

Most believe that there are “good” postures and “bad” postures.

Today, we’re going to debunk the idea that “good” and “bad” postures exist.

In doing this, I’ll describe what the literature we have on posture says - and what posture actually is.

In addition, I’ll give you my practical advice for managing the complexities of posture in your daily life.

Posture is Not A Thing

When people refer to posture, they’re usually describing the position of the spine and shoulders in a single position.

We’ve been told that some postures are “good”, while other postures are “bad”.

“Good” and “bad” postural presentations are typically illustrated like this:

When I asked ChatGPT what “good” posture is, this is what it told me:

And when I asked ChatGPT what “bad” posture is, this is what it told me:

But these are dramatic over-simplifications based on false assumptions of “alignment” and how stress in the body works.

Why?

Aside from the fact that the human body is an unpredictable complex system of structures…

1. Our bodies are capable of assuming a potentially infinite number of positions.

2. We are capable of interacting with an infinite number of forces.

For example: should posture look the same in standing and seated positions?

Should posture look the same while walking and running?

Should posture look the same while lying on the couch and lying down to perform a heavy bench press?

These questions seem silly to most people - most people assume I’m being facetious (which isn’t entirely wrong) and that these are rhetorical questions. In a sense, they are.

But the answers I receive to these questions usually go something like this:

“Err, well, no?”

The postural movement promotes a “one-size-fits-all” approach not only to standing and sitting but also to every other circumstance.

This isn’t to say that position doesn’t influence the stress our bodies experience - of all people, I won’t be one to argue that biomechanics aren’t important.

But where the postural movement falls short is in the assumption that all people should assume the same posture in every position.

Posture & Pain

“Bad” posture likely became a thing because some people - some of the time - experienced discomfort in slouched positions.

But my experience tells a very different story. And, if you think about it, many of your experiences likely do, too.

How many people do you know that present with “bad” posture and aren’t in pain?

And how many people do you know that present with “good” posture that are?

I’ve trained many different archetypes of people, ranging from an 84-year-old with “poor” posture to 24-year-olds with “good” posture.

And if there’s one thing I’ve taken away from these experiences, it’s that most of my attempts to predict pain or discomfort have been completely backward.

The 84-year-old I trained never had back pain. I trained him for over a year, and we did deadlifts, squats, and all of the traditional exercises you’d expect someone with “poor” posture to get hurt doing. In that time, he put over 40 pounds on his deadlift 10 rep-max - nearly a 30% change in load for TEN reps.

The “good posture” 24-year-old I trained? They had constant back and neck pain. We dealt with constant battles to improve the pain - specifically through the traditional means of “postural improvement” - all to no avail.

The only thing that seemed to help the 24-year-old?

Training within his tolerance and getting him to move more throughout the day.

This experience is far from unique to me.

Many of the coaches and trainers I’ve collaborated with (now well into the 100s) have had many similar experiences - clients they initially assumed would have constant pain rarely did, and clients they assumed would be perfectly healthy frequently experienced issues.

This isn’t to say that posture doesn’t matter - of course, it does - but rather that our assumptions about posture and pain have no clear association, especially not in research.

So what does the evidence tell us about this alleged “bad” posture, and what can we make of it?

Research on Posture

One study from 2016 looked at over 1,100 participants (age 17) that examined the effects of posture on neck pain.

The study categorized posture into 4 different neck positions, based on the participant’s comfortable resting position: upright, intermediate, slumped thorax/forward head, and erect thorax/forward head.

The results?

No significant difference in the odds of neck pain or headache across all categories.

Another study, done in 2011, examined a similar question of the posture-pain relationship but in the lower back.

The purpose of the study was to examine whether the degree of “slump” in sitting played a role in reports of pain and discomfort.

Just about 1,600 participants were included in the analysis (all adolescents) - the results?

That “a greater degree of slump in sitting was only weakly associated with adolescent back pain”, which was contextualized with “causality cannot be determined from this study, and 60% of sitting posture variation was not explained by the measured variables”.

Another study, done in 2021, assessed whether neck posture was a risk factor for persistent neck pain in young adults.

Almost 700 participants were studied, and the results - as you might now expect - did not draw a correlation between position and pain.

Sitting neck posture (the “slouch”) was not a risk factor for persistent neck pain in the males who participated.

In females, however, slumped posture/forward head were actually protective of neck pain compared to upright postures.

Can/Should Posture Be Improved?

Starting with our new assumption now that there are no inherently “good” or “bad” postures - what should we do about posture? Should we just forget about it? Should we try to change it?

I contend that we should not make an active attempt to change the way that we present - because attempting to change our structure is a fool’s errand - but rather that we should make an active attempt to ensure we’re capable of assuming many different kinds of postures (positions).

The best “posture” - if there was such a thing - would be the one capable of adapting and responding to differing demands.

“Bad” posture doesn’t become “bad” unless you’re in it all day.

“Good” posture can easily become “bad” if you never leave it.

If you’ve heard the adage “don’t use it, lose it”, the same applies here.

Much like any exercise adaptation, if you don’t expose yourself to a variety of resistance demands and positions, it’s likely that, over time, you’ll lose the ability to “get into” those positions over time.

This does not require some special rehab program that you pay $1,000 for.

It does not require you to spend an hour every day breathing into a balloon.

All it requires is daily activity and exercise that exposes you to different positions with graded exposure to more challenging experiences over time.

If you’re someone who works on a computer all day, I recommend getting a standing desk. I often alternate between standing and sitting every 30 (or so) minutes whenever I’m feeling stiff.

I also frequently get up out of my chair to walk for about a minute (picture me pacing across my apartment like a lunatic).

It took me over an hour to write this article, and throughout that time, I shifted where my browser was on my screen from left to right, the way I’ve sat whenever I sensed discomfort, and I’ve got up several times to walk and use the bathroom.

It doesn’t have to be complicated - just move more.

-Ben

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References:

1. Karen V. Richards, Darren J. Beales, Anne J. Smith, Peter B. O'Sullivan, Leon M. Straker, Neck Posture Clusters and Their Association With Biopsychosocial Factors and Neck Pain in Australian Adolescents, Physical Therapy, Volume 96, Issue 10, 1 October 2016, Pages 1576–1587, https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20150660

2. O'Sullivan PB, Smith AJ, Beales DJ, Straker LM. Association of biopsychosocial factors with degree of slump in sitting posture and self-report of back pain in adolescents: a cross-sectional study. Phys Ther. 2011 Apr;91(4):470-83. doi: 10.2522/ptj.20100160. Epub 2011 Feb 24. PMID: 21350031.

3. Richards KV, Beales DJ, Smith AL, O'Sullivan PB, Straker LM. Is Neck Posture Subgroup in Late Adolescence a Risk Factor for Persistent Neck Pain in Young Adults? A Prospective Study. Phys Ther. 2021 Mar 3;101(3):pzab007. doi: 10.1093/ptj/pzab007. PMID: 33444448.