February 13, 2008

 C posture is characterized by any excessive rounding of the upper back or thoracic spine. The pattern of muscle imbalances that creates this posture is known as “Upper Crossed Syndrome”.  The following muscles are tight and shortened – the pecs, the lats, levator scap, and the SCMs. The opposing muscle groups – the lower traps, serratus anterior, and the deep neck flexors- become weak and elongated.

  This posture is quite prevalent in our society – desk jobs make us prone to slumping over the keyboard for hours. Over the years we develop the slumped forward shoulders, the rounded upper back, and the head forward posture we are describing here. This is largely an occupational issue. If left to worsen over time severe joint restrictions can develop in the thoracic spine, making this posture extremely difficult to correct. Your golf game will suffer as a result.

 This posture is a problem for golfers- the reduced ability to extend and to rotate the thoracic spine makes it difficult to get a good shoulder turn on the back swing. It also creates a few different swing faults;

1. Loss of posture on the back swing leads to two misses - a block to the right and hook to the left. Tough to be consistent when you have two misses.

 2. Early extension or loss of posture on the downswing. The hips move closer to the ball and the players hands get stuck or trapped behind the body. This creates the same two misses described above.

3. Chicken winging - when the thoracic curvature restricts shoulder range of motion the lead arm breaks down through impact and loses extension. High weak shots an tennis elbow result.

 In the next posting I will show you three moves with the foam roller to correct C posture and to attack its associated swing faults. Try these three moves on the foam roller for improve your ability to extend and to rotate your thoracic spine. Your shoulder range of motion and stability will also benefit from these.