Remember your mother or your teacher snapping at you to sit up straight and to stop slouching? It might have been annoying, but, as it turns out, they were right to correct you. Maintaining proper posture is the most important factor in preventing or reducing lumbar issues. It's also the simplest thing you can do to help reduce your own neck or back pain.
Maintaining healthy posture is important for keeping your spine strong and stable. When you slouch or slump, it puts additional pressure and strain on the muscles and ligaments that maintain balance. This in turn can lead to fatigue, back pain, muscle strains, headaches, weakened abdominal muscles and other issues. Bad posture can also cause movement or displacement of inter-vertebral discs, a common source of chronic back pain in chiropractic patients. It can also result in weakening of various muscle groups that help maintain correct posture, which can make it even harder to sit or stand properly.
Good posture, meanwhile, has many health benefits. It improves your airflow and helps maintain muscle strength in your torso. Good posture prevents strains, and is healthier for the muscular and skeletal systems. It also looks better - standing or sitting upright makes a person appear confident, put together, and assertive to others. You also look taller, thinner, and younger when standing up straight. Your good posture just may get you noticed!
What is Good Posture?
Contrary to popular belief, sitting or standing upright with your shoulders and head thrown back and your spine kept straight with your legs locked is not good posture. In fact, holding this position regularly is as harmful as slouching. Instead, a proper posture will maintain the natural curves of the spine.
The human spine has three natural curves:
- the cervical curve, a forward curve at the neck
- the thoracic curve, a backwards curve at the upper back
- the lumbar curve, a forward curve at the lower back
Proper posture will lead your back to naturally fall into this position, rather than exaggerating the curves and pulling on the back by slouching, or trying to straighten the curves and leading to stain.
Maintaining Good Posture
To have proper posture while standing, you should hold your chest high while you have your shoulders back and relaxed. Pull in your abdomen and buttocks while keeping your feet parallel and with your weight balanced evenly between them. Another way to help position yourself properly is to keep your ears, shoulders, and hips aligned together. Doing exercises, stretches, or yoga is a good way to strengthen the muscles used to maintain proper posture. If you've been slouching, these muscles may have become weakened, making it difficult to maintain your upright position.
Meanwhile, good seated posture involves keeping your neck, back, and heels aligned and feet flat on the floor. You should sit all the way back in the chair and use the chair back for support. Avoid bending or leaning forward, or natural slouching. Use of a lumbar pillow can help you maintain this position even if you forget about your posture or grow fatigued. Sitting this way reduces stresses on your back, which can help prevent or alleviate back pain.
Good posture is not just something that adults used as an excuse to yell at you during your childhood. It makes you look and feel better, and helps maintain muscle and skeletal health. Having good posture can keep you from suffering from back pain. So remember, sit up straight, stand up straight, and stop slouching. You don't even have to tell mom she was right.
If you have questions about your posture or back pain, visit a NJ chiropractor for a thorough analysis of your spine.
No comments:
Post a Comment