How Posture Fixed My Back Pain
I grew up playing sports my whole life, so I figured I had to have good posture, right? Well… not exactly.
My back tightness started in undergrad when I was lifting heavier weights with squats, deadlifts, and lunges with maybe not-so-good posture. I thought the back soreness I felt afterward meant I had a good...workout.
But things got worse in PT school. Long days of sitting in class, followed by even more sitting to study. Over two years that really started to take a toll. I began experiencing low back pain anytime I sat for too long, and even randomly throughout the day. I constantly felt like I needed to stretch my back just to feel relief, but it never lasted long.
Fast forward to my clinical rotation in Steamboat Springs, CO. By that point, the pain had become more of a daily discomfort, a nagging tightness I mostly ignored. However, I was lucky enough to be learning under some of the best physical therapists in the country, educators from the Institute of Physical Art, a group known for helping even the most chronic, complicated cases using Functional Manual Therapy. It was only a matter of time before they helped me, too.
One day, I was chatting casually with the front desk staff when Vicky Johnson, known as the “Posture Queen,” walked by. She placed her hand on my lower back and said, “Relax your back.”
I was stunned. I had no idea my back was even tense. That one moment made me aware of something I had never noticed before: I was constantly bracing and tightening my back muscles without meaning to, even just while standing and talking.
That small cue shifted everything. I started paying more attention to what my back was doing throughout the day. I made an intentional effort to relax my back and shift the effort into my core. And just like that, the discomfort started to disappear. I couldn’t believe it.
That realization led me to dive deeper. I later took Vicky’s course, CoreFirst Strategies—not once, but twice. It was an intensive three-day training focused on discovering the best posture for your body, finding optimal spinal alignment, and learning to use your core the way it’s meant to be used so your back doesn’t have to pick up the slack.
We learned how to recognize and correct inefficient posture patterns in ourselves and in our patients, and more importantly, how to apply those corrections to real life: lifting, sitting, standing, working, and walking.
That course changed everything for me, and it’s done the same for my patients. I’ve helped many patients find relief in their neck, back, hips, and knees simply by learning how to feel and fix their posture. Bringing awareness to tight areas and learning to shift the load into your core, hips, and legs!
From there, I continue to support my back every day by ensuring correct alignment in standing and sitting, and the hardest one to implement — sleeping on my back!
So, if you’re dealing with back pain, try this: place your hand on your lower back and just feel. Are the muscles tight? Rigid? That constant tension isn’t always a good thing. See if you can let go of that tightness, let your back muscles relax, and shift that effort into your core instead.
It might be a small change, but sometimes those are the ones that make the biggest difference.
If this story resonates with you and you're experiencing discomfort in your body that may be related to posture, reach out. Let’s get started on improving your posture and relieving that tension. I needed someone to guide me at first, and now I’m grateful I get to help others do the same every day.
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