Thursday, September 20, 2012

Posture - It hurts when I.....

References courtesy of CDI

References:
1. Bohns, V. K., & Wiltermuth, S. S. (2011). It hurts when I do this (or you do that): Posture and pain tolerance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

2. Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. J. (2010). Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance. Psychological Science. 21(10), 1363–1368.

The people we see typically display crooked postures both when viewed from the back and side and it is common for these postures to change along with reported discomfort (ie people typically feel better the straighter they stand and the more freely they move).

What's going on?  There are two sides to the issue.  The force of gravity on poorly aligned and controlled structures (posture is dynamic and constantly changing) makes them fail and hurt but posture also influences both our state of mind and our ability to feel pain.

In short improving ones posture and movement can increase our tolerance to pain and our feelings of control over pain.

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