What Is a Postural Assessment?

A postural assessment is an observational assessment often carried out as the first step of a full physical assessment.

Postural analysis tests are part of kinesiology, the part of physical therapy that focuses on studying the body's anatomy and the physiology of the way that the body moves.

The first thing to know is that a postural assessment is used to analyse a person’s static posture and their alignment.

Performing a postural assessment allows us to look at a person's overall alignment and assess how their body is moving and functioning and how their muscles and joints work together. 

The purpose of this is to observe the person’s posture and then interpret the implications of what is seen and put the intervention and corrective strategies in place. 

In the simplest terms, that means looking for any abnormalities and imbalances and then assessing how they are affecting the way that the person’s body moves and functions.

How Can a Postural Assessment
​Help You Achieve Your fitness Goals?

Carrying out a postural assessment allows me to learn a lot about a person’s muscular structure just by looking at them. 
A postural analysis can determine whether a person has any postural deviations, imbalances, muscle weaknesses, or any other faults in their movement patterns which could be causing pain or discomfort. 

By carrying out this postural alignment assessment, the assessor will be able to identify which muscles are overactive (or ‘short and tight’) compared to those that are underactive (or ‘long and weak’). 
If any abnormalities or muscle imbalances are highlighted, carrying out postural analysis should be able to identify any underlying causes so that they can then be dealt with. 

Although this kind of observational assessment can be carried out to seek answers to a client's complaints of pain or discomfort, it’s important to note that imbalances and abnormalities can often be observed in clients who are not experiencing any physical discomfort. 
​
Regardless of whether the client is experiencing pain or not, it’s still important to recognise and then deal with any and all problems highlighted before it becomes a problem or injury. 

It the start point for all our Personal Training Clients along a few other specific assessments to obtain a start point for you.  ​