Posture is highly individual to each person’s body structure and highly adapted to the sport activity the athlete is engaged in. According to Logan and McKinney, “The mature athlete tends to have a posture which is related to his particular sport if he has trained for years to become expert at his specific position or event. The reason for this phenomenon is the fact that the body tends to adjust or adapt to the various stresses or demands imposed upon it as a result of prolonged muscular activity.” (Logan and McKinney, page 149)
It is helpful to think of athletic movement not as one posture, but as a series of postures. Optimal dynamic alignment of the segments of the kinetic chain throughout movement yield coordinated movement. If one segment or link in the kinetic chain is out of sync, this sets up the potential for performance error as well as a predisposition to injury if the movement is repeated enough. Logan and McKinney have termed the muscles that are most active in resisting the force of gravity the anti-gravity muscles: “the antigravity muscles are the most important muscle groups which make possible the maintenance of body postures in sport, exercise, and dance situation.” (Logan and McKinney, page 150.) The primary antigravity muscle groups are : the gastroc soleus group, the quadriceps group, and the erector spinae group. When the body is upright, as is the case in most over ground sport activities, the antigravity muscle groups work in conjunction with other muscle groups to maintain upright posture. These muscles act on information from three major sensory systems in the body: the proprioceptive, vestibular and visual systems.
Movements that train these muscles must be given prime consideration in a conditioning program. Gravity is essentially trying to smash us into the ground when we are just standing still, add to this the complexity of running, jumping or throwing, and it is easy to see how important these antigravity muscles are in determining successful postures for performance. The core muscles play a major role in dynamic posture because the large muscles of the core also act as “anti-gravity” muscles that give the body structural integrity to allow the limbs to position and reposition according to the demands of the activity.
There is a trend today to identify muscular imbalances in static positions and seek to correct them. The key is what happens to these “imbalances” when the athlete is asked to move? We must remember that the body is fundamentally asymmetric. It is unrealistic to think of muscular balance right to left or front to back. The body is just not designed that way. We must think of proportionality rather than symmetric muscle balance. From a historical perspective it is valuable to see where the idea of posture as a static quality originated. Just as in classical muscle function, it was derived from studies of cadavers in the so-called “anatomical position.” Cadavers generally don’t move, but that did not seem to bother those people who were looking for a “normal standard” to measure against. We need to get away from the concept of the “ideal posture” and think in terms of individual needs and adaptations. “… the postural pattern is that of many small parts moving definite distances in space, in a scheme perfectly timed, and with the exact amount of effort necessary to support the individual weights and to cover the time-space movement. These delicate, accurate and intricate regulations are made in the substrata, below the ‘threshold of consciousness.’ Through such adjustment man preserves his unity and copes with his world.” (Todd, page 22) That was written over eighty years ago! Mabel Todd did not have the benefit of the sophisticated evaluation methods we have today, she was a dance teacher had to rely on a feeling for movement in the context of the desired outcome of the activity.
Basically, posture allows the body to maintain normal length – tension relationships of the muscles relative to the activity. Each posture in movement is a momentary alignment of body segments. Successful movement is determined by the ease of movement into the next posture. Therefore when we assess and subsequently train posture it should be in motion, not in stillness. Static postural measurements are non-functional baselines that can potentially red flag things to look for. But I have found that static posture has very little relationship to movement unless there is some obvious pathology or deformity. Once the athlete begins to move, especially in their chosen skill pattern, everything smoothes out and evens up. If it does not smooth out, if there are breaks in the movement, a lack of rhythm, then there is a problem.
It is also important to point out that posture is highly dependent on strength, flexibility, balance, and fundamental movement skills. Any deficiencies will result in compensations. Great athletes are great compensators, they have adapted and learned over the years, that is why you see them get away with some of the movements they do and avoid injury. Sometimes the athlete can overcome and succeed in spite of compensation, at times the compensations can come back to haunt you, especially as the athlete gets older or in a fatigued state.
A good sound strength training program coupled with an individualized flexibility routine can go a long way toward correcting any postural deviations that could interfere with efficient movement. Strength training programs that enhance good functional posture incorporate multi-joint and multi - plane movements that put the body into positions that will enhance its ability to withstand the force of gravity and meet the strength needs of the sport. A distribution of pulling, pushing, and squatting movements will accomplish this task. The body must be put in positions that force it to work against gravity in postures similar to the sport. An overemphasis on work in a supine and prone position will not transfer to dynamic postural improvement. Work on the anti gravity muscles are a key element of any sound strength training program. Although in many cases this work is quite transparent because it is accomplished in the context of total body large amplitude movements. Basically proportional muscular development is rewarded. That is achieved by focusing on movements, not individual muscles. For movement to be efficient muscles must be recruited in patterns that allow for optimum firing frequency and patterns as demanded by the activity.
Because the core is so important in postural integrity and transition through the various postures it must be trained daily. It should be incorporated as part of warm-up to wake up the core muscles. It should have a distinct module within the actual workout itself and it also can addressed as part of cooldown. The majority of core work should be done standing and moving to enhance the transfer to postural improvement and activate the muscles of the core as they are used in movement,
Tight muscles can contribute to poor dynamic posture; therefore a sound program of functional flexibility that addresses the target muscles must be part of the athlete’s daily routine. Starting from the ground up stretch the gastroc/sloeus group, if this group of muscles is tight this will lead to the inability to properly reduce and produce into the ground. The psoas must be stretched daily, a shortening of the psoas will have a profound negative effect on the ability to go through the postures necessary to perform. The lats as the connecter of the hip, to the shoulder must be stretched and the pectorals must be stretched.
Training to enhance dynamic posture is all of this is part of a sound well-rounded athletic development program. Dynamic posture is a major contributing factor to athletic performance so it must be considered daily in training. The actual work to improve posture is quite transparent, it is an integral part of the overall training program. Remember we are training to move, not to stand still.
Logan, Gene A. and McKinney, Wayne C. Kinesiology. Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 1970
Todd, Mabel E. The Thinking Body. Princeton Book Company Publishers. Highston, NJ. 1937