Postural deformity is the inability to actively stand up against gravity to keep the back or spine in a physiological position. It is caused by a weakness of the stabilizing trunk muscles, i.e. the abdomen and back. The effects are poor posture, pain, functional limitations, tension and shortened muscles.
Long-term poor posture due to muscular postural weakness can affect passive and bony structures and thus become all the more difficult to correct. A back and posture school aims precisely at such postural weaknesses, especially in professional and everyday life. You can find more information about this in the articles Back and Postural School.
Exercises
1) One of the simplest exercises and recommendations for everyday life to counteract postural weakness is movement and a frequent change of position. Long static positions should be avoided or compensated by movement exercises. 2) In order to train the important holding muscles, static strength exercises such as the board posture are recommended: in the forearm support the body is held stable like a board for about 60 seconds.
Push-ups also train the stabilization of the whole body. For more static exercises, please refer to the article Isometric exercises. 3) Especially postural weaknesses that lead to a hollow back must train the abdominal muscles in particular.
The straight abdominal muscles can be strengthened by sit-ups. For the oblique abdominal muscles, the so-called beetle is suitable: in the supine position, the upper body is lifted and in a flowing alternation, one elbow and one knee are brought together diagonally in front of the upper body. Further exercises against a hollow back can be found in the article Exercises against a hollow back.
4) To strengthen the opposite side, the back extensor, the prone position is taken. For the lower back, lift your legs a few centimeters off the floor, for the upper back, stretch your arms forward and lift and hold your upper body off the floor. For further exercises please refer to the article Physiotherapy exercises back.
5) For the musculature between the shoulder blades, which is important for straightening, a Theraband can be used. In a straight upright position the upper arms are held against the body, the forearms are held at a right angle to the front, the palms of the hands point inwards. A Theraband is wrapped twice around the hands and then pulled out slowly and with force by turning both forearms outwards.
Just as slowly the Theraband is released and the movement is repeated in three sets of about 10 times each. 6) Important to counteract a postural weakness is the development of a straight, stable and upright body feeling. Straightening starts with the feet and continues through the whole body to the head.
Start in the seat in front of a mirror. The feet are placed parallel to each other on the floor about hip-wide. The knees are also hip-wide apart and straight forward.
The pelvis tilts slightly forward, the shoulder blades pull down backwards, the spine is lollygagged towards the ceiling, the neck is stretched, the chin is pushed down slightly backwards. From this position, the feet are now pressed firmly into the floor. Feel and look how the whole body grows and becomes stable.
