TuneUpFitness Blog

The Importance of Good Posture

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You know that nagging feeling in your low back after a long day sitting at a desk? You can’t quite put your finger on whether the sensation is soreness, strain, or pain – but you know it doesn’t feel good, and you would give anything to find relief. I think this happens to most of us at one time, but my Mom had been complaining about this low back pain for the past few months and I wanted to help her find relief. With low back pain, there is a very good chance your seated posture could be the culprit. When constantly sitting and typing on a computer, the spine is often put into flexion, creating rounding in the back body. This rounding puts the muscles of the back body into a persistent state of stretching, which decreases their tonicity. This is problematic because the muscles of the back are super involved in core stabilization. If these muscles lack tonicity because they are constantly overstretching, then they cannot properly support an intelligently stacked spine; which is one in which the natural spinal curves are intact.

To reverse the process of habitual hyper flexion of the spine while seated, it is important to stabilize the core muscles, which include muscles of the front, back and side body. One important and often missed core stabilizer is the Quadratus Lumborum, aka the QL. The QL muscle is often considered a deep abdominal muscle, and is located beneath the more superficial back muscles, and above the pelvis and adjacent to the spine on both sides. The QL muscles (there are 2!) can be strengthened in several Yoga Tune Up® poses, but my personal favorite is the Locust Minivini shown here and on the Quick Fix for the Lower Back video:

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