Posture and Lordosis (exercise suggestions)

[Ryboflavin]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone on the community has struggled with posture issues. I recently discovered that  I have Lordosis an overarching in my lower spine, coupled with slouchy shoulders.  Consulting with Personal Trainers and the Internet I turns out that my Hip flexors are too contracted and short and my chest muscles are tight.  All of this among other issues.  To fix this I'm currently doing the following:

• Hip flexor stretch (crescent pose)
• Glute bridges
• Myofascial release on my chest, legs, hamstrings, and triceps
• As well as various core exercises, most centered around planks, shoulder exercises using TRX.

I'm looking for some more suggestions on stretches and exercise to mix in to keep it interesting. 

Anyone?

[Corney]

An excessive Lordosis could also be caused by a condition known as Spondylolisthesis, the forward slipping of a lower Lumbar vertebrae over the adjacent vertebtae, if this is the case, you should have your spine X-rayed, because some of what the personal trainer and the internet is telling you to do could make it worse.  If it is Spondylolisthesis and it keeps slipping forward, it could start impinging on the spinal canal, and injure your spinal cord.  I doubt your personal trainer knows anything about Spondylolisthesis.  I suggest you see your Dr. and have your spine X-rayed if it hasn't been done in the past 4-5 years.  After 38 years as a Physical Therapist, I would never advise someone with an excessive Lumbar Lordosis to do any type of exercise until the spine was X-rayed.  My Son has it and I was always telling him to sit up straight and not to slouch, but after complaining of back pain his back was X-rayed, and I shut up, because slouching was the best thing he could do.

[too_spicy]

I agree with the above, always check with your doctor before beginning or changing your exercise regimen if it could put you at risk for injury. However, if the arch in your spine isn't REALLY serious and it's also not causing you any pain, you're probably right that it's simply a muscular issue.

One thing that's really important about corrective exercise is focusing on both agonist and antagonist muscle groups. Your training regimen seems good for stretching all your agonist muscles, which are overly tight, but not on strengthening the antagonists so that they can properly resist the movement of the agonist muscles. 

For your slouchy shoulders, make sure you're performing exercises like a bent-over row, or a seated row. This is going to work the muscles which pull your shoulders back, in addition to stretching your chest out. You can even substitute the rowing machine for the treadmill during your cardio. I do that, because I have the same problem. 

For your lordosis, I would recommend back hyperextensions if those are comfortable for you. If not, any exercise that requires you to stabilize your back (like the planks they have you doing) are fine. 

Obviously, the most good you can do in correcting your posture is going to be mindfulness about how you're sitting and standing. Check in with your body every so often, and if you notice that you're slouching, sit up.

[Corney]

If it is Spondylolisthesis it isn't necessarily painful unless it's impinging on nerve tissue.  Stretch you chest muscles by standing in a corner arms at shoulder height and lean into the corner for10-15 sec times 6-8 times.  Then use the exercises suggested by too_spicy.  For the lordosis, back hyperextension is the worst thing you can do because it just causes more hyperlordosis.  Be mindful of stretching hip flexors because their origin is on the posterior bodies of the lumbar vertebrae which could  cause more anterior slippage of the vertebrae.  Work on flexion exercises, like situps on an exercise ball.  As far a sitting goes if sitting erect is uncomfortable, slouch, because this lessens the lordotic posture.  As with most things aim for neutral posture, nothing hyper or hypo, but above all listen to your body, any exercise that causes undue pain stop.  Remember, stretching should never cause pain, you should feel a mild stretch over a period of 10-15 seconds, no balistic stretches.

[too_spicy]

After further review, Corney is definitely right. Hyperextensions are the worst thing you could do. I was thinking HYPOlordosis instead of HYPERlordosis and didn't think it through properly. My bad. There's no need to stretch the hip flexors when they're already stretched out, and there's no need to strengthen the back when it's already overly strong. You should definitely be doing any and all ab work that you can think of. If it's not uncomfortable, try doing your ab exercises with your legs slightly raised off the ground (think bicycles or leg lifts).

BUT I'm standing by my "go see a doctor" on this one. Sure, it could be a slipped vertebra, but in most cases, it's just bad posture that's gone unchecked over the years, compounded by inappropriate exercise choices. NEITHER OF US ARE DOCTORS so it's best to get a professional opinion about your back pain. There's really no way to know what's going to be best for your back until you do. If you go with my advice and I'm right, you'll fix the problem. If you go with my advice and Corney's right, you'll make the problem worse. If you go with Corney's advice and he's right, you might make the problem in your shoulders worse, but your lower back might get better. If he's wrong, you're gonna make your problem worse.

Bottom line-- your spine is super important, and if something's wrong and you don't get it treated, it could make things worse to the point where you're in chronic irreversible pain. It's better to **ahem** anything serious in the bud than wait and hope.