Over the course of the past 27 years, my posture has suffered greatly from the sedentary nature of my career. The extreme muscular imbalances have created a very dysfunctional body and those dysfunctions become more and more apparent the further I push myself physically.
For example while running, more pressure is exerted on my lower shins than is normal and as a result they've become swollen (and even bruised). They're in pain constantly, even when walking. My hip flexor muscles are locked into flexion, causing my torso to lean slightly forward. Extremely tight calves and quads also prevent full extension of the legs when running.
The past few months I've been doing more running than ever before and I've broken several personal records along the way (dropped my 4 mile run time from 41 min to 30 min in 3 months). Since noticing my swollen shins, I've eased up slightly on the length of my runs (3 miles instead of 4+) and started icing and stretching.
I seriously need to commit more time (i.e., daily) to fixing the muscle imbalances in my body. For the past 6 months or so, I've been using (on and off) Pete Egocsue's excellent postural therapy program, as outlined in two books, Pain Free and Pain Free at your PC. In the long run, fixing the muscular imbalances is more important than any other physical training since exercising a dysfunctional body will only strengthen the imbalances and prevent me from reaching my full physical potential!