Chris Young Occupational Therapy

22/05/2022

The narrative about posture is finally beginning to change! Professor Peter O’Sullivan is one of my favourites on the topic and this Life Matters segment is rather good.

“Ideal posture”, “perfect posture” and “sitting up straight” and their importance for health is not supported by evidence. In training to hold a particular posture, people switch off their innate protective sensations in favour of uncomfortable, unstainable “posture”.

Switching off the innate mechanisms is a fast track to pain and injury. Adapting and adjusting posture is preferable and actually useful.

All humans are shaped differently. Prof O’Sullivan says, “We have to get away from the idea that there is one ideal way to hold the body. The body is uniquely different for every human being, and so learning to adapt your body in a way that is comfortable and efficient is way smarter than trying to hold everyone in a homogenous position.”

YES!!!

Social impacts on “posture” are huge. People end up with more pain from ‘holding their core’. If the ‘core’ is used as part of an overall movement pattern then magic happens. Not when it is isolated as a strategy. Movement is developed in patterns; NOT individual muscles.

Prof O’Sullivan says, “Your best posture is the next posture” (that’s right!), not a rigid, guarded, upright posture! Find a posture that's comfortable, change your posture, engage in regular activity and care for your whole health. There is more evidence aligned with varying your posture. Maintaining a single upright posture through your day - that's exhausting! Even though people swear that they maintain a “posture”, as a stealth OT I know they don’t. Varying your posture is vitally important. There's nothing wrong with sitting up straight, but there's also nothing wrong with sitting back, relaxing into a chair, crossing your legs, doing “stuff” that people have been warned is not good for you.

Fidget – while skilfully tuned into your sensations.

If you've ever been told to 'stand up straight' or 'don't slouch', you might believe that posture is important for your health. But a growing number of physiotherapists say our obsession with straight backs is more grounded in culture than science.

21/04/2021

This post says it all. It is a similar strategy to that which I use to help adults notice what is happening in their bodies to help reduce pain.

11/07/2020

I think this works for all ages.

“Our mind, brain, and body are all interconnected.

When your child is dysregulated, their brain produces high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. It also produces adrenaline. An increase in cortisol spikes anxiety and dysregulation.

When this occurs, functional and social communication skills decrease – because the brain can’t access the prefrontal cortex, that controls executive functioning...”

https://hes-extraordinary.com/improve-emotional-regulation-just-7-minutes-per-day

07/05/2020

Simple, adaptable, affordable options to encourage pleasurable posture. Love this post by Petra Fisher.

20/02/2020

The mind and body....the body and mind....they work together. A great talk about the link. Gorgeous stories of how exploring this territory can be useful.

NOTE FROM TED: Please do not look to this talk for medical advice. While some viewers might find advice provided in this talk to be helpful as a complementar...

15/09/2019

The “movement movement,” a way of framing fitness not by how much we exercise, but instead by how little we move.
Katy Bowman is one of my idols.

Most of us live such a sedentary life it is affecting our health and wellness—and running is not the solution.

04/06/2019

Back pain is virtually unknown in cultures that still sit in traditional ways. Japan has a back pain rate of around 3%, America has a rate of about 80%. Spines are the same.
Turner Osler speaks of all I believe in. I love his term "Sanctioned squirming". The design of the chair he has designed up with is brilliant.

Why do 80% of Americans seek medical care for backpain during their lives, compared to only 3% of Japanese? In this fascinating talk Turner Osler examines th...

03/06/2019

The red column is tempting......the green column wins by a golden mile. Sometimes babies need a little help to get to the green column. There might be a reason that they are uncomfortable. Parents and caregivers can help babies find comfort with a few minor tweaks.

The positions and activities you have your quickly developing baby in will set their spine and nervous system up for the rest of their lives. I strongly encourage you to pay attention to the positions you have your children in so they can develop well rounded, balance musculoskeletal and nervous systems! Building Your Baby From the Ground Up

07/05/2019

A great reminder.

07/05/2019

Habits are useful. They can be more useful when they are adaptable.

02/05/2019

Early intervention is so important to children and families.

Thanks Decoding Dyslexia we agree

22/04/2019

30/01/2019

Friends dog missing. Holly is a lovely girl.

19/12/2018

"Before you finish reading Crooked, you’ll understand that the pain in your back (or your hip or your leg) also exists in a political, psychological and economic context that greatly influences how you’ll be treated – and if you’ll recover. You'll know which approaches are likely to reliably bring you some relief, and exactly what's involved in each."

My goal with Crooked is to set the back pain industry’s offerings in their proper context, so that patients have the information they need to make good decisions; to know what works sometimes, what works rarely, and what can cause harm.

19/12/2018

Back pain. This episode of The Health Report is superb. Our experience of fear and the habits of how we complete every day movements contribute to issues like "gluteal amnesia". Each persons experience is different. It is never as straight forward as "a back". Maybe it is how you use your feet with every step, or how free your pelvis is to respond, or maybe chronic breath holding? We have a lifetime of habits. Find out how your habits are contributing to pain and begin to implement instant solutions.

Do you suffer from lower back pain?

28/09/2018

Everything about why i love this method so much.

The slow and subtle movements of the Feldenkrais Method aim to retrain the body and brain.

27/09/2018

Lovely article about the art of sitting and the history of chair design.

Chair design shifted dramatically about a hundred years ago, and it hasn't been good for our backs. Our daily lives are filled with chairs that make our posture worse. Luckily, we've got hacks.