"Can Stretching or Strengthening Exercise Improve Spinal and Lumbopelvic Posture?"
Abnormal posture (e.g. loss of lordosis) has been associated with the occurrence of musculoskeletal pain. Stretching tight muscles while strengthening the antagonists represents the most common method to treat the assumed muscle imbalance.
Spinal alignment and posture have been investigated for about 250 years Research has found a strong cross-sectional relationship between reduced lumbar lordosis and low back pain
Changes in lumbopelvic or spinal posture are commonly related to muscle imbalance .
Such imbalance is suggested to originate from extended periods of biomechanical, psychological and social stresses as well as repetitive activities
While some muscles respond with tightness or shortening, their antagonists may become too weak to maintain the normal joint position
Researchers looked into whether you should stretch OR strengthening programs would be better for muscle imbalance.
They found in contrast to popular beliefs in practice, moderate-certainty evidence does not support the use of stretching when aiming to tackle imbalance-related posture deficits
The study revealed a large effect of strengthening which also was superior in direct comparison to stretching.
As a consequence, exercise therapy for posture can be substantially economized by forgoing stretching tight muscles and instead focusing on strengthening weakened muscles.
From a physiological point of view, it has been argued that chronic stretching of a tight or shortened muscle would lower its stiffness or tone. While stretching of two to eight minutes acutely reduced muscle stiffness
For more information about how we can help. Please call Health Wise Chiropractic 03 9467 7889 or book online to see one of our Chiropractors in Sunbury or Melton/Strathtulloh Today!
We are also really proud to offer our patients an APP for their Mobile- iPad. With access to your rehab exercises and our health tip blogs with over 500 articles.
Chiropractic has moved online. We offer our online program -STAND CORRECTED- To help you through the day.
We have over 30 programs on different health conditions
Each program contains
- Information about the conditions
- things to do and things to avoid
- nutrition advice
- all the stretches that are needed to help
Warneke K, Lohmann LH, Wilke J. Effects of Stretching or Strengthening Exercise on Spinal and Lumbopelvic Posture: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Sports Med Open. 2024 Jun 5;10(1):65. doi: 10.1186/s40798-024-00733-5. PMID: 38834878; PMCID: PMC11150224.