The Importance of Postural Balance

Want to enhance your body, posture and athletic performance and avoid unnecessary back pain?

If you do — who doesn’t — it’s critically important to maintain the functional balance between your body’s primary muscle systems.

In this video, I describe some common postural imbalances and show you how very small increases in muscle recruitment can lead to a host of problems due to a lack of blood flow.

First, you need to know about your body’s dual sets of primary muscles and what they do.

The tonic system is composed of muscles used for postural support and joint stability, especially in situations when you need to hold a position for up to 60 seconds.

This muscle group has a larger percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers that have an aerobic metabolism and are designed for long periods of work.

The phasic system represents muscles more ideally suited to short-term, faster and likely more intense movements, such as throwing a ball or lifting weights.

The balance between those two systems is very important. Unfortunately, too many strength coaches, therapists and trainers place too much emphasis on the phasic system at the expense of maintaining strength, coordination and conditioning in the tonic system.

Then, I’ll show you how to perform the Sorenson test, a good orthopedic assessment technique to help you evaluate the general condition and balance of your body’s two primary muscle groups.

I teach this test along with exercises like the Prone Cobra to assess and address problems in my Scientific Back Training course since most people don’t have access to the kind of machines that would accomplish those same goals.

You can learn more about these tests in much greater detail in my Integrated Movement Science Level 1 program too.

Love and chi,

Paul