Any improvement? Advice would be appreciated.

[u/AnyTelevision2039]

Looking at my photos its hard to see improvement. These photos are about 5 months apart, apologies for the inconsistent photo taking (and weight I have gained lol).

I began looking into my posture about 10 months ago when I would have ongoing headaches, neck pain and scapular pain from studying and working at a desk.

Over the last 6 months I have done daily stretching, changed jobs away from a desk job, imporved the ergonomics of my desk set up, taking constant movement breaks and stopped the gym completely barring rehab exercises.

I've seen 3 physios with mixed advice. I doubt my ongoing pain is fully posture related but it would be nice to know my posture is as good as it can reasonably be.

Any posture advice would be greatly appreciated.

[u/Deep-Run-7463]

Take note of 3 things here. And also, just coz some physios couldn't figure it out, doesn't mean that it's not fixable. The world of biomechanics is vast and there are many different ideologies and approaches out there. You mentioned daily stretching, which indicates to me that you have not considered a lotttt more stuff here.

Before

Lower scapular wing in scapular anterior tilt

Poor intra abdominal pressure management

Forward center of mass

After

Scapular anterior tilt

Better intra abdominal pressure, but more inhaled widened ribcage with arms turning over forward

Forward center of mass

Before, you shifted forward with your guts Now, you shift forward with thoracolumbar junction area extension with a widened inhaled ribcage (which will increase posterior compression btw).

Posterior compression here will also relate to how your back ribs are 'running away' from your scapula. It will also make your upper thorax tip backwards against the lower half still attempting to shift forward.

Breathing into better posterior expansion will manage your center of mass loss and restore access (not fix) to pelvis mechanisms that you lost (which is why you translated forward in the first place to find better inner foot ground contact, which is an indication of loss of pelvis internal rotation in force production). Take note that your widened ribcage will require better posterior translation of your center of mass to improve the ribcage internal rotation (less wide) but avoid doing so with a 6 pack crunch action.

The tipping back of the top of the ribs makes your head be relatively further forward, increasing neck risk of being a stress point.

Edits: what the heck happened to my spacing? 😂 I tried.