Does "Bad Posture" really cause pain?

One of the most common lines I hear when I treat people in my studio is “I get pain in X,Y,Z, it’s probably down to my poor posture’.

​Improving posture is one of the main reasons people start Pilates classes.
 
But does ‘bad’ Posture actually cause use pain?

Before I go any further, I need to ensure that I point out that by no means in this article I am saying that posture is not important. I still put an emphasis on posture when I am treating people and also when I am teaching my Pilates classes, however this article is about whether posture is actually causing your pain.
 
When I first started out in this industry (this is when I was a fitness instructor, not a Therapist & Pilates instructor), correcting posture was the ‘in thing’. After a while I started to notice... none of these people are really getting any better (pain wise). Whilst there posture may well have improved, their pain was pretty much the same (or in some cases it got worse).
 
At this point I would like to know, how many of you have got rid of your pain just be standing and/or sitting in a better posture (without adding in any Therapy or Pilates/yoga class)?
 
There have been many bits of research over the years that have told us that someone with good posture gets as much with someone with bad posture.
 
It seems over years we have been taught to believe that bad posture = pain. However there seems to a couple of things missing in this equation. Weakness for one, mobility for two. What I have found over the years is people don’t just go into ‘bad postures’, they usually fall into them to make up for the bodies imbalances (weakness, movement). So try thinking of it this way instead:
 
Weakness + Lack of movement (stiffness) = Pain = Bad Posture
 
What if people go into bad posture to try to minimise their pain (hence why some people get in more pain when they try correct posture alone).
 
There must be an underlying reason people go into ‘bad posture’ in the first place. Surely its more effective finding the underlying cause and attempting to correct this, rather than trying to simply correct the resulting posture (I have find it to be far more beneficial).
 
It is worth mentioning here I am not disregarding posture in any shape or form. I still find it a vital part of any treatment and/or Pilates class. You can definitely improve your posture (and let’s face everyone feels better with improved posture), what I am saying is an pain/injury you get is unlikely to be down to ‘bad’ posture, and by trying to improve it is unlikely to stop the pain.
 
As always please ask if you need any help at all.

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About the author
I am a Manual Therapist covering a range of different disciplines including massage & Biomechanics. I also run small specialist Pilates classes around Corfe Mullen, Broadstone, Wareham, Wimborne & Poole. Instead of just purely rubbing the pain, I always look to see if I can find a potential cause (or causes of the pain) and then work on treating this.