What is a postural analysis?

If you’ve ever wondered what tools your Neuromuscular massage therapist uses to determine where to work on your body, then understanding postural analysis is a great first step. What is a postural analysis? It’s a simple way your massage therapist analyzes the position of your body in space and the way you use it to move.

Things we look for

We examine your posture to determine if you have things like a high shoulder that’s holding tension, if you have a long leg that is caused by pelvic imbalance, if your shoulders are rounded forward, or if your feet are splayed out. By doing this, we can get a clear understanding of the way you use your body to do daily tasks such as walking, sitting, or even your sleeping position.

Every person is different and has unique circumstances that cause postural distortions over time. However, because of the way the body is designed to balance itself, there are incredibly common patterns that I see in most people. These include lateralization to one side through the hips. Meaning that the low back will commonly be tight all the way down into the hip and leg on one side. Most people I see tend to have this issue on the right side more than the left, but seeing the left side isn’t uncommon either. This will be followed by an overcompensation in the opposite side’s shoulder and then into the base of the neck. A lot of the time, the top half of the body will go left, and the bottom half will go right to compensate and balance itself.

What it Means

Because of this, the place in your body that is feeling painful, isn’t necessarily the most effective spot for your therapist to work on. Sometimes a left low back pain is actually caused by tension coming from the right side being lateralized. Pain in the left shoulder might be coming from tension on the right. Commonly, shoulder and back pain is actually coming from the tension in the front of your body. When your pecs and neck get tight, your shoulders must compensate to keep you upright and balanced. In that case, working the back will bring temporary relief, but do nothing to correct your posture and create a lasting effect.

Postural analysis is an intelligent and more effective way for your therapist to truly understand your body and the complex mechanisms it adapts to keep itself upright. By having a deeper understanding of body mechanics, your therapist can create long term changes, rather than a quick fix.