Posture and Body Mechanics: a Sheriff, a Girl, and a Student

 

This is my boyfriend Colin. He has good posture because he is a deputy sheriff and they must present themselves well to the public. 

This is my roommate Lily. She is sleeping with my dog in the car. She is representing poor posture and she woke up with neck and back pain. 

This is my friend Sarah. She is looking at her computer reading an email. She has bad posture. 

I am choosing to describe the picture of sarah looking at her computer reading an email. As you can see, she does not have very good posture while sitting at a desk.Since she is in a reclined position. Her neck is being strained drastically. She often complains of neck pain which makes sense considering the way she chooses to sit at the desk in class. She has a posterior pelvis tilt as she is reclining in her chair. Her spine is relatively straight but she does have thoracic kyphosis. She has drastic cervical flexion and her head is tilted downward. Her scapulae are protracted and her femurs are internally rotated. 

The position she is in is relatively stable. She has a wide base of support as most of her body is leaning on the chair for support. Since she has good stability, her mobility is limited. It would take a lot of effort for her to get up out of this position. Since she is leaning backwards, she would have to use her abdominal muscles to help her sit up. Her upper extremities are free for movement. She would also have to use her upper extremities to pull herself towards the edge of the chair to get up. If she used her arms as a base of support to facilitate her standing, she would have to use her triceps. She would have to use her quadraceps and her glutes to actually stand up. The posture that sarah is sitting in does not support joint alignment. 

I do not think that sarah could stay in this position for very long. Her neck is very flexed and after a while it would start to hurt. Her neck is strained and this is adding a lot of pressure and weight on her cervical spine. She would have to readjust her neck to a more neutral position to be more comfortable.  

It is very important to teach proper posture and body mechanics to a client who has faulty posture and poor body mechanics like Sarah. Having good posture allows you to have muscular and skeletal balance. Having good posture and body alignment reduces the risk of injury and deformities and it also allows for muscles to be able to function to the best of their ability. Teaching clients proper posture is essential because the body is most efficient in ideal posture. 

If I had a client who had bad sitting posture due to sitting at a desk all day. I would teach them the proper way to sit at a desk. I would instruct them to be conscious of their posture. I would give them a rubber band to wear around their wrist. Every time they notice that they have bad posture, I would instruct them to snap the rubber band on their wrist as a form of punishment. Studies have been done on this type of punishment and it has proven to help reduce or eliminate bad habits, in this case being posture. 

 I would also encourage them to get an adjustable standing desk. Having an adjustable standing desk allows the user to adjust their desk to the optimum level for good posture. It helps eliminate slouching and leaning over to do work. This can reduce neck and back pain and can encourage good posture. 

Weisser-Pike, O. (2023). Lecture 8 Vertebral Column, Posture, and Body Mechanics [PowerPoint presentation]. 

Pictures retrieved from: personal phone