The Effect of Gravity on Posture

Line up with gravity for better posture.

Gravity does more than have an effect on posture --- posture can be defined as how you align your body to the pull of gravity. Posture is a direct response to gravity.

Brain Power

Around 90 percent of your brain's waking activity --- no matter whether you notice it --- is keeping you upright. Gravity pulls you down, and muscles switch on and off thousands of times a minute to keep your mass balanced above a shifting center of gravity.

Alignment

Gravity does not deviate in its direction of pull. This requires an effective architecture --- your skeletal system --- combined with a system of biological levers and pulleys, or joints and muscles. While standing still, if your skeletal system is undamaged, your bones' alignment is designed to carry weight with a minimum of effort. But people seldom simply stand still, so posture becomes a dynamic --- not a static --- response to gravity.

Head and Lower Back

The lower back, or lumbar spine, and the head are two critical points along the body's axis that gravity impacts. Your lumbar spine flexes constantly to correct posture, and it's under great stress by gravity. The human head weighs around 10 pounds. By carrying your head forward of the correct alignment, as many people do, you shift the pull of gravity away from the line of bodily support and force the muscles around the neck to hold your head up, creating stress in the neck and headaches.

References

• University of New South Wales: Gravity and Posture
• Resources in Movement: Posture and Respiration
• Zendurance: Gravity

Resources

• Southern California Orthopedic Institute: Posture