The Importance of Neutral
Side view of human skeleton.
There is a lot of information out there about posture. What to do, what not to do, and so on. If you’ve ever seen the spine of an individual, you’ll see that it curves pretty often. This right here is a neutral spine. It has a low back curve and another one where the thoracic spine meets the cervical spine or your neck. One thing I’ve never understood is when folks tell you to flatten your low back to the ground in movements such as the dead bug or hollow body hold. This cue is NEVER used when coaching people to squat or deadlift. Like hey, before you squat, I’m gonna need you to FLATTEN YOUR LOW BACK OUT….. This right here is important to understand because when we train the core, we want to train it in a NEUTRAL position to avoid it collapsing under pressure or load. Train the position that you plan to use often. For some people, this looks different and that’s alright. We all have different goals. In this blog, I explain why I think it’s important to find this neutral position and train it to make it strong so your days aren’t quite so long.
But first, this video here by Jeff Nippard outlines that having a mobile posture is ideal. In other words, if you like to sit with one foot up and a hip hiked, change the foot and hip often. Get up and stretch often. Change sides that you lean on too often. If you slouch, then be sure to straighten up every so often. Use support for a while, then take it away, etcetera. Plus, Jeff here outlines some studies that I believe are important to understand.
Slouching posture can lead to tight muscles and get you stuck 😬
Too much slouching could lead to tight musculature on the front and back of the body. Specifically, the hip flexors and the hamstrings. If you never sit on your sit bones with your ribs in a neutral position with both feet on the floor, this posture may be uncomfortable for you. I’d suggest that you practice this posture often. Not for 12 hours straight but maybe start with 5 minutes. Get to the point that you forget you’re sitting this way and then you can slouch, use support, and readjust yourself as needed to get through the day. It’s when we lose the ability to sit this way, in neutral, with ease that gets us into trouble.
Why would not being able to sit this way be trouble? Let me explain.
Deeper Breathing
Taking deep nasal breaths is much easier when your ribs are lined up with your pelvis. Sitting on the sit bones with a neutral chest, where your ribs aren’t flaring, is ideal for this. This position allows your diaphragm and lungs to expand fully, whereas shallow chest breathing is more common with slouched mouth breathing.
Deep breathing comes with a calmness which is known as the relaxation response. Deep breathing can be used to calm those who feel anxiety, stress, or depression by slowing the heartbeat and stabilizing blood pressure. On top of this, taking shallow breaths can lead to stress and anxiety. The more stress we feel, the more we tend to tense up. Before we know it, our face scrunches, shoulders elevate, back muscles tighten, and neck is taught. All of this will lead you to more aches, and more pains if you don’t eventually address it. Deep breathing influences better posture and better posture allows for deeper breaths. Do yourself a favor and unwind with several deep breaths often throughout each day. At the top of every hour works or you can set a timer to go off every 20-30 minutes. These can be done standing, sitting, or lying down in a supine position.
Pelvic floor and core activation
The bad news is the core and pelvic floor become weak without daily usage. The good news is, that it’s as easy as breathing to continue utilizing these areas. The core and pelvic floor typically become weak without a consistent training schedule, such as everything else. The average untrained individual goes about their daily habits without needing to worry about bracing or breathing to lift heavy objects. Or we go through a period of fragility like pregnancy, injury, or illness which deteriorates our strength from prolonged rest. What used to be habitual with movement has now become a chore you need to constantly remind yourself of.
Training starts with lying, standing, or sitting in a neutral posture to allow the core and pelvic floor to connect while pulling the core inward and upward during an exhale to activate the Transverse Abdominis (TVA) and inhaling to relax the TVA. As time goes on, you attempt exhaling on the difficult portion of the movement while inhaling on the easy portion. After a while, you get better and better at activating the core and it becomes second nature, just like it used to be! Congrats and welcome back to being a basic human.
Without that neutral posture, with the ribs lining up with the pelvis, the core and pelvic floor may not be strengthened in unison. Or maybe your top abs would be doing most of the work and your low abs would never activate. An imbalance in this relationship could lead to incontinence or even hernias when improper pressure is applied to certain areas of the abdominals repeatedly. Not everyone has issues with breathing and pressuring but if they do, a neutral posture is much better than an overly flexed or extended one.
Strength Training
Training 2-3x a week consistently with basic movement patterns will allow for a very balanced posture and physique. Stronger postural muscles during exercise will allow you to support weight in the front, back, above, or side of your body without injuring yourself with a fall or pulling something. Spinal movement under heavy loads could lead to spinal injury. Hence the importance of staying structurally sound when going about daily tasks such as lifting cases of water, children, soil, or other odd, heavy objects without issue. Strength train your body’s basic movement patterns and you’ll most likely lose the fatiguing pain you feel in your back or neck. Basic human movement includes:
Vertical Push and Pull: Pullups or pulldowns and DB or BB Presses, etc.
Horizontal Push and Pull: DB or BB Bench Press or Pushups and Cable or DB or BB Rows
Hinge: Deadlift, RDL, Hip thrust, etc.
Lunge: Reverse, walking, Side lunge, etc.
Rotate: Russian Twists, Twisting arch ups, Stiff leg Windmills, etc. (This includes anti-rotation such as Pallof press, Suitcase carry, etc.)
Squat: BB, DB, BW, etc.
These movements allow for a balanced strength training program. If you’re short on time, split them up as needed or focus mainly on the compound lifts (squat, deadlift, press, pullups, rotate). Be sure to fuel your body if it’s feeling weak or tired. More protein will allow for a faster recovery. It’s the basis of my programming for clients. I plan to have a free program that follows these movement patterns on my website soon for download. Sign up for weekly emails here to get a reminder when it drops!
In Conclusion, if you find yourself leaning all the time or propping yourself up on your joints all day long, consider strengthening your postural muscles with a strength training program or simply pay attention to your daily habits and redirect them to being more mobile and using more of your muscles and less of your joints. Your body will adapt to the demands you put on it, just give it some effort, time, and rest properly. Be more mobile to avoid stagnant posture by setting reminders to get up and stretch or take yourself through some bodyweight movements such as pushups, lunges, squats, good mornings, down dogs presses, etcetera. A good bit of blood flow can come from these bodyweight movements that will allow you to be more alert and get better work done more efficiently. Listen to your body when it begins to feel agitated. Typically, there will be a movement you can do that will help it rest properly. Let me know what has helped you with your posture in the past.
