Once you stop this, you can't get it back
This is not medical advice.
I shouldn’t say “can’t”, maybe “rarely” would be more appropriate. In my experience, once people stop lying on their stomach, they are unable to ever do it again. So it makes sense to continue doing so as long as possible.
This posture isn’t just for sleeping. It is the erect postures for sitting and standing that are more important.
I see many people who start to hunch over with age, a common and sometimes normal transition.
We all pass a point in our lives when we are so flexed forward, that we are unable to lie on our stomach.
Lying on your stomach, for as little as 2 minutes per day, helps to maintain some erect back posture, and stretch out our hip flexors. Most of us do too much sitting, and our hip flexors get tight from this prolonged posture.
This article is not suggesting you have to sleep on your stomach. Many people are unable to do that for several reasons, sometimes involving shoulder or abdominal pain.
So to those of you who can still do this, I say continue to monitor that ability, because getting it back is extremely difficult and sometimes painful.
McKenzie
There is an entire back pain protocol named after a Dr. McKenzie. In a very oversimplified explanation, it involves this posture for decreasing you symptoms. This has worked for many people, but is not for every patient. Some people have too much arch.
Great tip - I'd not heard of this and will start giving this a try. I just subscribed to read more from you.
How interesting Mike.