Pain from Posture

The biggest mistake for relieving pain from imbalanced posture is stretching the muscles that are in pain. In most cases, muscles in pain are already overstretched. Stretching them further will make the pain worse. What you should do is stretch the muscles on the opposite side.

Let’s explore this through an analogy. Imagine your neck is a pillar, with ropes bolted on two sides. At the other end of the ropes are workers on the ground, holding on to the ropes to stabilize the pillar. Muscles, like workers holding on to the ropes, can only pull — they cannot push.

Now imagine this pillar is falling towards the left side. Who’s going to have to work harder to prevent the pillar from falling? Yes, the workers on the right side will have to pull harder on the rope to prevent the pillar from toppling to the left. If this state is sustained for a long time without correction, the workers on the right side will start to complain. Your muscles complain in the same way — their language is pain.

So if the pillar is falling towards the left, would you keep pulling it to the left? No, you pull it to the right so the pillar becomes upright. Then the pillar can support itself. Neither side of workers needs to work hard. Everybody is happy. 

Same with your body. Let’s take an example of the neck. When the muscles on the right side are in pain, then the neck is likely leaning towards the left. If you stretch the muscles on the right side, it will pull the neck to the left even more, exacerbating the imbalance, causing you more pain. Instead, stretch the left side to bring the neck back to center. The bones in the neck are aligned and can support the weight of your neck and head. Your muscles don’t have to work hard. The cause of pain is removed.

Much of pain from posture is preventable. Through yoga practice, you can learn to use your body in a balanced manner in daily life to reduce the accumulation of strain in your body. It will also help you improve awareness, to be able to notice when the discomforts are subtle, so you can realign the body before the imbalances develop into pain and injury. The amount of pain you experience in daily life is within your control.