Poor posture can be the reason for headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain as well as lower back pain. Often on my twitter feed I remind my followers to sit up straight. This may be one way to improve posture but can there be an easier way.
I stumbled upon this research paper titled, “Effects of respiratory-muscle exercise on spinal curvature“, and thought it would be worth sharing.
This was a random controlled study taking 26 adolescent swimmers (13 performing breathing exercises and 13 doing nothing). Swimmers were used because they often have increased thoracic and lumber curves. The exercise group worked out for 10 minutes, three times a week using a commercial product called the Spiro Tiger. The Spiro Tiger allows for personalized respiratory exercises through maximal inspirations and expirations. Spinal curvature was measured in the thoracic and lumbar region using the SpinalMouse. After 4 weeks of training they re-measured the spinal curves.
The authors found an -13.1% reduction in thoracic curve and -17.7% reduction in the lumbar curve. There was no change in the control group. This means than their posture improved to a more “ideal” curvature.
The authors concluded that that respiratory-muscle exercise straightens the spine, possibly by stimulating the local stabilizers.
My Thoughts:
- This is a very interesting finding. Improving posture may be as easy as 10 minutes of breathing 3 times a day. This would be a lot easier than hourly reminders to sit up straight.
- The improvement was found in adolescents and not in adults. Would the results be the same in adults or would it be less due to stiffening of the spinal structures.
- I am not familiar with the SpinalMouse’s validity and reliability regarding its use in measuring spinal curvatures.
- The Spiro Tiger is a very expensive piece of equipment. Most patients would scoff at purchasing such an item. Are there other breathing trainers that are cheaper that could result in similar results?
- This is only one study more research is needed to reproduce these results.
- Does the improvement in posture result in decreased injuries/pain especially in the shoulders of swimmers?
P.S. Here is the PDF version of the paper
Originally posted on May 17, 2022 @ 4:36 pm
