Posture: A Pattern, Not a Position

Most people think of posture as a “position” to hold: shoulders back, spine tall, chin tucked. But posture is actually what your body defaults to when you’re not thinking about it. It isn’t a pose, it's a reflection of how your nervous system organizes you in gravity based on your strength, your stress load, your historical injuries, and your energy in the moment.

Posture as a Reflection of Your System

Your posture is an output. It reflects:

• your nervous system (safety, proprioception, and overall stress or ease)

• how efficiently your body distributes load

• old injury patterns you’ve adapted around

• the way you breathe

• daily habits (work, exercise, stress)

This is why posture rarely changes long-term no matter how many times your mother told you to “stand up straight.” Your system organizes your structure based on survival first, efficiency second, and repetitive cues third (if at all).

I challenge you to think about what you know of posture— tension, collapse, height, poise, bracing, symmetry— as adaptive strategies rather than good or poor habits.

Why the Nervous System Leads Structural Change

It doesn’t matter how strong your “postural muscles” are, we revert to old patterns because they feel safer and more familiar. Lasting change only happens when:

• your nervous system has enough bandwidth

• your joints have actual mobility options and the capacity to move into the posture you want to assume

• your breath can move through your ribs and diaphragm and pressure is balanced in this preferred position

• your tissues aren’t stuck in protective tone (ex. guarding an injury)

• your body can sense itself clearly (proprioception is not compromised)

Osteopathy works because it supports these internal shifts, not because it forces alignment. When the nervous system is better regulated, pain is reduced, movement is restored and systems are integrated, posture naturally becomes more efficient, adaptable, and comfortable.

So What Is Good Posture?

Ill start with what it isn’t. Its not a shape, static position or a uniform position for everyone. Good posture is a fluid state where:

• you can breathe fully

• your joints have options

• your muscles aren’t overworking

• you can move in and out of positions easily

• your weight distributes without strain

• your nervous system isn’t on high alert

Start With Awareness, Not Correction

If you want to change your posture, start by improving your ability to sense your body. Here are a few cues I often give patients

1. Sense your foundation

While sitting or standing, notice how your weight is distributed left to right. Notice slight changes in your body as you inhale and exhale. Pay attention to where the breath is coming from.

2. Explore space behind you

Bring attention to the area behind your sternum, between your shoulder blades, or at the base of your skull. These regions often hold unconscious tension. See if you can soften the space there and let go of any chronic tension being held.

3. Amplify and connect movement to your environment

Starting with your breath, see if you can slightly enhance the movement that accompanies it. Do you feel slightly taller when you inhale? Can you feel your ribs depress as you exhale? Can you expand the depth of each breath, paying attention to the muscles involved in respiration? Can you engage them 10% more? Can you connect that engagement to the root of yourself— maybe its your pelvic bones (ischial tuberosity) if you’re sitting, your feet if you’re standing? Can you explore how the active breath recruits muscles not involved in respiration? Here we can gain information about your specific patterns in the body— muscular, fascial connections that create chains that form our posture.

How Manual Therapy Works With These Concepts

Osteopathic manual therapy gently reduces mechanical restrictions, softens protective tone, improves rib and diaphragm mobility, and helps the system reorganize itself. Treatment creates a window of opportunity for new patterns, while movement and strength training reinforce, sharpen body awareness, and support stability once the body has more movement options.

When you combine the two approaches, that’s where lasting change happens.