ABSTRACT
If you look at a room full of people you will see that everyone sits, stands and moves in a variety of different ways. We might describe the way a person holds themselves as their posture. This is a simplistic definition and different exercise professionals have varying perspectives on what posture is. Posture influences quality of movement, athletic performance and predisposition to injury. In this chapter we identify the key factors contributing to posture and what is meant by ‘good posture’. We look at how posture can be assessed and what steps can be taken to start to correct a client’s posture so that they move and perform better. The assessment of posture is a highly complex
skill and it is important to understand that a trainer should never make assumptions about a client’s posture and should never claim to be able to ‘diagnose’ medical conditions on the basis of this information. It is extremely important that as personal trainers we refer on anyone with any chronic or acute pain and build a relationship with
their physical therapist, GP, physiotherapist or chiropractor in order to move the client forwards.
