Posture and Body Mechanics

    I have attached 3 pictures to this post. The first one is of my friend, Andee, holding a snowboard in Colorado. The second picture is of my other friend, Michaela, sitting on a horse while we were riding in Zion National Park. The final picture is of my little brother, Jack, holding my puppy. 

    In this post, I will focus on the third picture of my brother sitting on a hammock, holding my puppy the day we got it. While sitting on the hammock, Jack’s elbows are flexed, and his pelvis is at an anterior tilt as it rolls superiorly over the head of the femur. He has a slight flexion of his spine in the sagittal plane and coronal axis. He has a slight cervical curve to the right, a slight thoracic curve to right and a normal curve. His scapulae are protracted at the scapulothoracic joints and his head has a little forward tilt with a slight rotation to the left. His femurs are flexed with a slight internal rotation. 

    This position is more efficient for mobility rather than stability. Although Jack’s base of gravity is in the center of his body, his feet are not planted on the ground, so he does not have the support of the ground for stability. It would be difficult to change out of this position because he is not only holding a puppy, so he doesn’t have the use of his hands to help him stand up, but his feet are not planted on the ground and the hammock offers little base of support. In order to change position, Jack would have to hand the puppy to someone else so that he can use his arms and hands to propel himself off the hammock. There is a small base of support because his feet are hanging from the ground. The upper extremities are not free for movement and are not being used for support because Jack is holding the puppy with both hands. However, if he handed the puppy to someone else, he could use upper extremities to propel himself from the hammock. This position places additional force on joints because of the lack of stability and force on his lower back. I think Jack could stay in this position for a few minutes before changing because he does not have much stability and his lower back could start to hurt due to bad posture. He might need to shift often because this position might place unnecessary force on his lumbar vertebrae. 

    It is important to teach proper posture and body mechanics to a client who has faulty posture to minimize the risk of injury and prevent lower back pain. About 80% of the adult population will have lower back pain at some point in their life so it is important to educate so they may prevent it. Proper posture can also prevent disc injuries such as herniated disk, ruptured disk, or bulging disk. Clients can be more functional when competing everyday activities and live more independently if they focus on posture. I can teach proper posture and body mechanics as an intervention with my clients by showing them how to lift objects. I can use techniques such as the golfers lift where you lift one leg off the ground and bring it back while keeping the other foot planted on the ground. When lifting a heavier object, I can teach the client to get as close as possible to object by bending the knees and then lift the object with their legs while keeping a straight back and the load close to the body.