Sway back - am i right in thinking....

Ive started a thread some time ago regarding my sway back diagnosis.

I have poor posture which is sway back and is not helped with my job as a plasterer.

Ive been racking my brains as to why i have sway back and bad posture in the very first place.

Ive cast my mind back to when i was a child. From the ages of about 7 to 14 years old, most nights of the week i would only ever lie on my front in front of the tv with my arms up on their elbows, chin in hands, so my body is totally pushed into the sway arch of the back position... I would be like this for hours on end at a very young age where my body was still developing.

Would this have contributed to me having sway back and bad posture as i then got older up until now?

Also, am i right in thinking that sway back is the shape of your spine, so therefore cannot ever be corrected back to normal? I mean no amount of muscle balancing and strenthing and stretching surely cannot straighten your spine which is made of bone and is now "set" in an inward curve.?

any thoughts on the above two questions thanks,,,

Gday Evosy

It is quite difficult to tell you that your current condition is from childhood, genetics, a combination of both etc. and to be honest I am not sure the origin is the MOST important thing currently. People with sway backs can have unusually high stresses on their spine, especially their lumbar spine, due to the poor positioning of the vertebrae. Seeing as you are a plasterer, your job involves a lot of postural tolerance positions, i.e. leaning forward repetitively, overhead work etc. again putting a lot of force through the spine.

Do you currently have any back pain? Or issues which might require our attention? Or are you mainly after a solution to "correct" your sway back? It is quite difficult to alter the shape of your spine, and almost impossible to do it in any "short" term, unless the cause is severe muscle imbalance (i.e. extremely tight hip flexors / tight QL + weak hamstrings etc.) However, you can train some of your muscle systems to better support your back, and their are a lot of good postural exercises around.

Let me know exactly what solution you are after from this post, and I will reply more specific to your requests, rather than talking about genetic predisposition to postual toleraces and low back pain etc. which will take this thread in a completely different place. Thanks!

For a sway back I would work with pelvic tilts, posture control and focus a lot on tranversus abdominis. Even if the shape of your vertebrae has changed, you do need to gain good control of the area so it doesn't get worse as you age.
Hope this helps

Thanks for the replies. sorry been a while been busy with me child.

Ive had back pain for the last 7 years or so.

For about the last 6 months or so ive suffered alot from a stiff back after bending over for long periods of time like when i go out on my bike. But mainly in the night when i get up for the loo, it takes me ages to stand up straight.

Painwise i currently suffer from a sharp pain in my upper right buttock. I take my anti-inflammortories to deal with this.

Both my pain and stiffness are every day. I definately think pelvic tilts are the way to go and i think i mentioned these on another thread and also core strenthning. This other thread details more of the history of my pain.
http://www.physiobob.com/forum/patie...sway-back.html

but as someone said on the other thread my best is to go see a osteopath as i might be waiting for ever for the nhs physio..

Having done some research whats your opinion to lower cross syndrome in relation to my symptoms.??

thanks for any info