"Perfect posture" includes slouching

Perfect posture is a thing that everyone strives for, notices, makes comments on. We seem to understand that the flattest, straightest, shoulders back-ist, chest out-ish posture seems “perfect”... but is there a perfect posture?

The body loves movement. We’ve known this for thousands of years and all studies on movement and exercise tells us that the evidence is in favour of movement as a reduction method for all-cause-mortality. The argument of posture is multi-factored though. One party debates that having a “correct” posture will reduce tension in muscles and limit additional forces from gravity which will reduce a lot of pain. This theory is correct. The other party argues that a posture held too long will cause tired, sore, and spasm-prone muscles which causes pain. This theory is also correct. So who actually wins?

If both parties are correct it is because they are. The body loves to be in a posture that limits any extra forces that it doesn’t need to have applied. This reduces the amount of energy spent keeping the body moving and the more energy one saves, the more energy one has left in the “tank”. But when a posture is held for any prolonged time, we know that muscles fatigue, spasm, and cause pain. This is especially true for the habits we build as they are repetitive prolonged positions.

The posture theory was best summarized by Sir Isaac Newton's first law of motion which states, “an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force” (NASA, 2022). This phrase can be altered to make sense of the posture argument by saying, “a muscle at rest remains at rest, and a muscle in motion remains in motion”. Muscles, like ordinary objects, enjoy movement more than being stagnant. If told to contract in a certain position for a long period of time, that is the position they end up being held in until they give up (ie. a muscle spasm). If constantly moving, they want to be actively changing and adapting with the motion.

Both parties are correct because the body wants to perform the least amount of extra work but the body doesn’t want to remain stuck. Therefore, the best posture is a moving posture. That can include some slouching, some desk position, some upright posture, some lying down. The phrase, “too much of a good thing” applies to posture as well. Too much standing at attention will hurt the back just as much as too much slouching like a couch potato. Just keep it moving and try not to make any one position too much of a habit.