Posture

In terms of correcting my posture am I looking to get my shoulders back or down

[Goldiwonder1]

Lotsofpain I think you need to keep your back straight and your shoulders down. You don't say where you experience the pain. I have fibromyalgia which causes pain in many different parts but not all at the same time. I take tramadol and it helps. Hope you feel better soon.x x

[Hidden in reply to Goldiwonder1]

The pain is between the shoulders. Can you define the difference between shoulders back and shoulders down

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

If you sort of lift them up and roll them back they will be in the correct position.but will be something to constantly be correcting if anything like me!

[Barnclown]

My fav for helping posture is the Alexander Technique: it saved my life, made a career possible etc despite early onset spondylosis & infant onset systemic lupus. Am 62, I began Alexander in my 20s & have never looked back. I also have experience of tai chi, which combines well with Alexander...helping me maintain Alexander benefits during movement. Yoga & pilates fit well with Alexander & tai chi: try them all and make the most of any aspects that really work for you...we're all individuals!

Have a go at this: If you pretend you're hanging from a string coming out of the upper middle bit of the crown of your head, your whole body will fall into alignment naturally, like a marionette: shoulders & arms will drop, spine will extend, hips & legs will relax...all this happens naturally, no forcing or strain necessary

The Crown of the Head refers to the area at the upper back of the skull. The Crown begins at the point where the top of the head begins to curve downward to the back of the head and ends at the point just above the Occipital bone. It is a semi-circular area.

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[Boozybird]

The problem is with directions for posture is that 1) people have usually been stiff for a long long time and stiff tissues rarely obey and 2) directions to lift, lower, straighten etc...usually just lead to more stiffness. I must hold my shoulders back ends up as I must be stiff like a soldier. My personal horror is on the telly when you usually see a physio telling people with back pain to sit up straight. Well, that virtually assures you'll maintain a life long back problem. With mid back pain there could be many reasons for pain but I'd bet that you are stiff as a board everywhere. As Barnclown suggested try various bodywork stuff but deep tissue type massage Is a must to try to get some flexibility into the tissues first... Best wishes

[Barnclown in reply to Boozybird]

Agreed! And things are even more complicated, if, like me, you're globally hypermobile (ehlers danlos type), which misleads physios + osteopaths + ortho surgeons + neurologists to imagine your ligament laxity = globally loose jointed...which is right, EXCEPT without systemic treatment lupus causes tendon denaturing which results in tight tendons having to cope with loose ligaments = contradictory soft tissue function and a lifetime of misdiagnosis + chronic pain.

Until 4 years ago when my infant onset lupus diagnosis was recovered, I had had 50+ years of severe chronic joint & muscle pain complexes. Once I started on systemic lupus meds, any tendency to that chronic pain pattern virtually melted away...yes I do still have to keep up my lifestyle management (deep massage, Alexander etc) and am now intensively doing rehab to stretch my tightened tendons, but life is much better & my commitment to bodywork is even greater than ever. I'm 62, feeling better generally than I have since my 20s...

Now I do believe there is always hope...but i admit that during my younger decades, when I was trying so hard to understand & manage my pain etc, I had begun to be very pessimistic about my future

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[Boozybird in reply to Barnclown]

Hi Barnclown, you give me hope and inspiration!

[Barnclown in reply to Boozybird]

👋👍🍀. I remember you were having facet joint pain clinic procedures, boozybird. I hope this treatment is paying off for you. I'm still v glad I underwent Denervations to my facet joints: for sure these have numbed that aspect of my pain & made rehab possible...but, as you wrote in your first reply in this thread, I had decades of chronic trouble to undo before I could really feel the rehab had begun to pay off (and at that point I was started on lupus meds...I still cannot quite believe how dramatically these meds have helped me...where as prescription NSAIDs & analgesics helped only marginally)

Wishing you every ounce of possible good luck😉☺️🌻