Get Rid of Sway Back Posture
Have you ever seen someone who stands with their hip forward and their body seem to be leaning back? This is a particularly common posture when someone is feeling lazy or is waiting for something. This posture is called the sway back posture. It is one of the leading abnormal postures that cause back pain.
I will discuss the details of sway posture and how to get rid of it.
What Is Sway Back Posture?
Sway back posture is characterised by an increase in the curve of the upper back and opposing lower back curve at the same time. Your chin is also protruded forward. It gives the ‘lazy posture’ impression that your mum always tell you to not do.
While this posture feels very comfortable as it doesn’t require us to use much of our postural muscles to maintain our posture, it can have adverse effects on our spine. The sway back posture puts a lot of stress on to your passive spinal structures such as the vertebrae, joints, discs, and ligaments. The excessive stress leads to back pain for people with this posture.
Why Do I Have It?
Like most other postural abnormalities, sway back posture is caused by a muscle imbalance. In this case, weak hip flexors (located at the front of your hip) and overly strong or tense hip extensors (the hamstrings) may be the cause. In addition to that, tight upper abdominals, weak lower abdominals and weak mid-back muscles may exacerbate the posture further.
How Do I Correct It?
In order to fix sway back posture, you need to address the muscle imbalance. It is recommended that you see a physiotherapist in order to determine which muscles are weak and which are too strong or tense. But, in general you should:
- Release your hamstrings
- Strengthen hip flexors
- Strengthen gluteal group
- Improve your core muscles activation
- Re-train proper posture in functional positions (Neuro-muscular control)
- Avoid stretching your hip flexors
- Avoid Slouching
We hope that this article is useful to you. Below, our therapist peh chia demonstrates an exercise to activate your core muscles to help correct your posture. If you want to find more videos with useful exercises, follow our channel. Contact us if you have any questions. Thank you.https://youtu.be/MC0Ng3hPdxU