Whether you want to improve your posture yourself or you are a trainer who has transferred his work to online platforms in these times – you certainly want to know how to check human posture and get an initial condition that will affect the programming of exercises in training.
How to make a posture diagnosis?
To diagnose the client's posture, you need three images of the body – anterior, posterior and sagittal, that is, an image of the front of the body, the back of the body and the side. How the client positions the camera and at what distance from the camera is very important. The instructions for the client are as follows:
Feet 5 to 10 centimeters apart
The whole body must be in the frame
The height of the camera should be around the center of mass, i.e. the level of the navel or a little above
The client must not pose for the picture, he must stand very relaxed
Tight clothing or swimwear
Below are pictures with various dysfunctions, the left picture is the optimal posture, while on the right picture I manipulate my body to try to show a certain dysfunction. Please note that the body positions in the images to the right are exaggerated and that these dysfunctions will be much more subtle on real clients.
I have shown the optimal posture with a vertical line that extends from the top of the head to the middle of the foot and passes through the ear, shoulder, hip and ankle. Deviations from this vertical line indicate your incorrect posture.
Sagittal image of the body
- Kyphosis and protrusion of the head
In addition to the rounding in the upper part of the back, you can see in the picture that my head also has a forward movement, which is called head protrusion. People with this dysfunction often suffer from neck and shoulder pain and may even suffer from headaches caused by poor posture.
Posterior pelvic tilt and kyphosisThe so-called “hunched back” or kyphotic spine in the thoracic region. So, this dysfunction occurs for several reasons, but the most common is too much sitting and working at the computer, as well as too much looking at the cell phone, which you hold at an inappropriate height.
In addition to the rounding in the upper part of the back, you can see in the picture that my head also has a forward movement, which is called head protrusion. People with this dysfunction often suffer from neck and shoulder pain and may even suffer from headaches caused by poor posture.
Posterior pelvic tilt and kyphosis
When you see this posture, you can notice that the person looks as if he is leaning on himself. Hips thrown out in front of the body, posterior tilt of the pelvis and upper back behind the vertical line are obvious features of this posture.
People with this dysfunction often suffer from pain in the back and between the shoulder blades, and during exercise they may have a problem with activating the abdomen, in addition, sometimes this posture goes hand in hand with hypermobile knees that have the shape of an overly straightened leg.
- Hyperlordosis
People with this posture often suffer from pain in the lower back and in the hip flexor area. In addition, if the person is a woman who has gone through menopause and suffers from an inactive pelvic floor or perhaps a diastasis of the abdominal wall – she often has this posture.
Double crossed syndrome
This posture is actually just a combination of two previous postures – kyphosis and head protrusion with hyperlordosis. Her name only describes that the crossed syndrome takes place in two places. First in the hip and back area and second in the shoulder and neck area.If you look at the picture, you can see that the spine is in hyperlordosis, which brings about an anterior tilt of the pelvis and an inactive abdomen that moves forward, and a roundness in the upper part of the spine that causes the head to protrude forward.
Anterior view of the body
Knee position
The dysfunction that we most often look for in the anterior image of the body are popularly called “ikserice / x-erice” and “oxerice”. The above colloquial names indicate the dysfunctions of the names Genu Valgum and Genu Varum. The first picture is the optimal position of the legs, the second one shows Genu Valgum and the third Genu Varum.Since the names are very similar, here's a tip on how to remember which is which Genu? The word VALGUM has “gum” in it, which means gum, it sticks the knees inside, while the word VARUM has “rum” in it, which you can imagine as a bottle of rum standing between the knees and not allowing them to come closer.
Often these two dysfunctions are noticed in the systematic examinations that children have to go through, but more subtle versions can go unnoticed. Then you have a person who has a problem with squats, lunges and similar exercises. The position of the knees often depends on the position of the feet, so if you take a closer look at your client, you may notice that he leans too much on the outer or inner part of the foot.
Raised shoulder
In the right picture you can see that I'm standing pretty straight except that one shoulder is elevated. You can often see this kind of dysfunction when working with athletes who practice handball, tennis, baseball and water polo. One hand is often stronger and in a different rotation than the other.ATTENTION! Do not correct this dysfunction in professional athletes who are currently playing a season! Correcting their posture can throw them out of the balance their body is used to and require a change in technique. If there is no time for this because they are playing games, it is better to leave the correction of this imbalance during the off-season.
Posterior view of the body
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine to the left or right, it can exist in the lumbar spine as well as in the thoracic spine. In addition, it can be structural or functional, the difference is that structural scoliosis already affects the growth of bones and changes their shape, while functional scoliosis is only an imbalance of certain muscles and as such represents a milder form of scoliosis. How to recognize scoliosis?Signs to look for are asymmetrical shoulder height and asymmetrical hip height. In the image below you can see my imitation of left lumbar and thoracic scoliosis but, note, this is really difficult to imitate if your spine is not already scoliotic. Therapy for scoliosis, in short, consists in relaxing the overstretched muscles and activating the inactive muscles.
Non-symmetry of the Lorenz triangleImagine that the empty area between your arm and your waist forms a triangle with points at A – the armpit, B – the contact between the arm and the hip, and C – your waist. This kind of triangle is called Lorenzo's triangle in kinesitherapy and it gives us information about whether the triangle on the left and right side of the body is the same.
The difference between the left and right triangles is not a dysfunction in itself, but indicates asymmetries in the body. From an overstretched QL to an inactive gluteus medius, Lorenz's triangle is an excellent indicator of where to look next.
Lateral displacement of the body
“Lateral Shift” or lateral movement of the body is a dysfunction that can easily deceive! If you look at the picture you can see that in both pictures the shoulders are symmetrical. However, in the right picture the whole upper part of the body stands more on the left side while the lower part of the body goes towards the right part of the picture.
This is called lateral body shift and is easy to miss in the client. With this kind of dysfunction, it is necessary to make a kinesitherapeutic diagnosis that reveals which muscles are not doing their job and why, that is, which muscles may be compensating for the work of their neighbors.
Conclusion
Whether you are a trainer who works online and has to do his client diagnosis virtually or just an athlete who is interested in a little more about himself, reading posture from a picture is a skill that can reveal more about a person than you think.
How much do you sit during the day, how do you sleep, do you have children, do you carry a lot of them in your arms, etc. If you notice that you have a certain posture from the right pictures, contact a kinesitherapist so that they can be solved in just a few exercises a day!
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