Slouching Towards Retirement

Before I moved to California in 1976, I read a book about California called Slouching towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion.  She wrote about all the different influences, both good and bad, about the way life was in California.  While I have forgotten most of what the book was about, I have not forgotten the title, and have taken poetic license to modify it.

            Your mother always told you to stand up straight and not slouch when you sat, but alas, you went ahead and did it the way that felt right to you, and look at you now.  Your posture is not the man (and woman) you used to be ( ah, yesterday).  Why?  Because your slouching is the tendency towards progressive deterioration – forward head, humped back, and tilted pelvis.  This means that your normal patterns of activity  and movement have become less efficient biomechanically, causing you to use more effort and energy just trying to stay upright.

            Your posture reflects how well, or poorly, you resist the constant force of gravity, and how you stand, sit, walk and sleep impacts the normal function of your musculoskeletal system.  Even the ancient Greeks saw this and realized that those people with the best posture tended to be the healthiest.

            Think of your body as having four main blocks – the head/neck, torso, pelvis and legs, all stacked on top of each other.  There should be an evenness and natural alignment to these blocks when you are standing.  If these blocks don’t stack up evenly, instead of falling down, as would a child’s set of blocks, they create a strained imbalance, which equates to aches, pains, spasms, tightness and soreness.

            There are reflexes and nerve endings in your bodies, plus opposing muscle groups, which are supposed to help hold you together in a balanced manner.  However, when there is chronic, postural overload and repetitive movement, the same way day after day, year after year, you override those reflexes and shorten those muscles until you’re standing and walking like Groucho Marx.

            So, what to do?  Be aware of how you move and stop during the day.  Are you standing evenly on both legs, knees unlocked, shoulders relaxed?  Are you sitting with your pelvis level, back supported by the chair, head balanced over your shoulder?  If not, then it’s time you did a postural evaluation on yourself and note what changes you can make.  Then, as you head toward retirement, your body will be in good enough shape to enjoy it.

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