Singers, speakers and countrymen, lend me your ears…and spines!
It’s time we addressed a little issue called posture and its implications on the voice!
Lets go back to basics and look at (one of the roles of) the spine.
Our spines do some pretty epic things, one of which is to keep us upright and in a reasonably vertically straight line.
Now, you only have to walk down Deansgate on a Saturday afternoon to see the majority of people practically folded in half with their heads willowing over their iPhones, or peer into the office windows in Spinningfields to see Derek from Accounts sat, concave, face planting his meal deal!
In todays’ society we are so used to slouching, texting, sitting at desk chairs/car seats for countless hours that our poor spines and necks, which were once just used to carefully balance our weighty heads on, are now screaming with muscle tension trying to hold our heads in this forward placed, unnatural position.
‘So what has this got to do with my voice?’ I hear you cry…..well……..try standing upright and slowly lean the whole body forward keeping the feet still (aka Michael Jackson Thriller Video!)….feel your thighs, quads, hamstrings, butt, calves, toes all gripping to try and maintain some stability? That is exactly what happens to the muscles in the upper back and NECK (you know…the bit where you larynx is) when your head protrudes forward.
These postural imbalances not only inhibit respiratory support and function (breathing!!) but can result in a negative change within the tissue of the pharynx as well as the muscles which support the larynx in its movement..which will massively impact the control and sound produced! The larynx isn’t free to move therefore the voice will not be functioning at its usual capacity!
Highly likely the results will be strained voice, a voice which tires and fatigues quickly as you are having to work super hard and promo shots which make you look like Quasimodo!
So….stand up, stretch out, get a decent chair, do some yoga and always incorporate head and neck stretches into any warm up and cool down for the voice!