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When it comes to improving posture, I firmly believe there are three very distinct components to getting it right. One, you’ve got to identify muscle imbalances and address any tightness through foam rolling and stretching. Two, you’ve got to identify muscle imbalances in terms of weakness and strengthen through some form of weight training. And three, arguably the most important piece to the puzzle, awareness of how you move in your activities of daily living, otherwise known as your ADLs.
ADLs cover everything from how you get out of bed in the morning, to how you stand when you brush your teeth, to how you get into and out of your car. You can be working out with perfect posture every day, but if you’re not also becoming more mindful of your movement patterns during your ADLs, it’s going to take a very long time to improve your overall posture.
One of the things I wanted to address was how to sleep. I believe there are a couple ways to sleep for optimal posture.
1) Sleep on your back, without a pillow. Why no pillow? Well, when you’re propping your head up, you’re essentially bringing your head more forward which then may continue to exacerbate slouching. Instead, take the pillow away (or at least switch to a very thin pillow) and that’ll keep the head in line with the rest of the spine, bringing you into a more neutral position. You also want to think about the positioning of the legs. If you tend to bend one knee and bring it out to the side, you are lengthening that adductor which may cause the arch of that foot to fall. Focus instead on keeping both legs about hip distance or so.
2) Sleep on your side with a pillow under your head and between your knees and ankles. The purpose of the pillows in this position is to help keep the spine neutral. The pillow I’m using here it just a little too thick, because ideally you want your knees ankles about hip distance or so, but you get the idea.
And honorable mention for another way to sleep would be on the stomach in a prone position, if you can position yourself so your legs stay hip distance and one doesn’t bend out to the side. It’s an okay position, although not as optimal as the other two because unless you can sleep face down (and who can do that?! We have to breath!), you’re going to have to turn your head to one side, and this may cause some neck issues.
If you’re struggling with pain from your posture, my suggestion would be to start by looking at your position when you sleep to see if there’s some room for improvement, since we spend many hours per day sleeping. How do you sleep right now? Let me know down in the comments section below.
If you’re interested, we are starting up an Ongoing 6 Week Low Back Workout Program to help with low back issues. Registration closes on the 6th, so sign up now.