Pain is not to be ignored. However slight it may be, pain is a sign something is amiss. Some people, however, just don’t get it. I had a client recently who had developed a bone spur in his heel that sent shock waves up into his knee every time he put his heel to the ground.

            “How long has this been going on?” I asked.

            “Six years,” he replied. “I got used to it.”

When possible, we should never get used to pain. Naturally, the rest of the client’s frame was compensating for the pain and his postural symmetry was nonexistent. If the left side of his body had been weighed it would have been 4kg heavier than his right side. He had such a pronounced tilt, his poor kidney and spleen were probably performing sluggishly.

Good postural symmetry spells good circulation as well as good neuromuscular response and more energetic and functional biomechanics. In simple terms, you move more easily.

Thanks to modern conveniences, most people lean forward like the Tower of Pisa because poor erector spinae muscle, the ones that are supposed to hold the body upright, have given in to the force of gravity. This has shortened all the muscles on the front of the body and over-lengthened and weakened all the muscles on the back.

A lot of people laugh when I start to pull their frames in every direction (one notch at a time in good old medieval fashion) to release fascia, which have a tensile strength of 2,000 lbs per square inch. Muscles are easy to lengthen – it’s the joint structures and surrounding connective tissue that really influence posture. Postural realignment is like a huge decompressing of the structure. Your whole life history is built into the body. Injuries, surgery, sports, bad habits, stress, work, domestic chores – it all ends up locked somewhere in your framework. Those so-called “holding patterns” are evident in me every week when me “stretch” guy works on those same areas, just to keep me in alignment.

You become what you do! Think of the telephonist of old who held the phone between her ear and shoulder – you could see right away what she did for a living.

What to do? For most people it’s quite straightforward. Start by identifying the tight areas (get a postural analysis). You usually lengthen before you strengthen. I always start with getting the head back on to the shoulders where it belongs – that 9kg and more will influence your whole structure. Most people between 3cm and 8cm too far forward. Then I would generally tackle the hip flexors and pelvic area because most people who sit too much have very tight psoas muscles (which run from the lower back to the front of the thighs). I always open the psoas prior to the quadriceps because it’s easier that way.

With active stretching techniques, most people can get quick responses. In five to 10 sessions you are back on track. But then comes the hard part, because it’s all up to you to maintain it.

1. Breathe in.
2. Rotate your neck 45 degrees.
3. Breathe out and tilt your head back to stretch the neck flexors.

Chris Watts is the head stretch therapist at Stretch Ltd. He also teaches courses in Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) and Postural Analysis. For more information on AIS, visit www.stretchasia.com or contact Stretch Ltd at 4/F, Winsome House, 73 Wyndham Street, Central. Telephone: 2167 8686.