Today we are talking about sitting posture and why is it so important.
In today’s day and age, it’s obvious to most of us, that posture is getting progressively worse. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, next to nobody has good posture. Every day, we are hunched over, on our phones, reading articles, scrolling through socials, or sitting long hours at a computer.
Our spine is not designed to sit. It increases the pressure on the lumbar spine, and discs and can be a huge problem for people in this day and age.
Your posture is the way you hold your body when you’re sitting or standing, is the foundation for every movement your body makes. The effectiveness of your posture determines how strong you are when you put stress on it. Such as, carrying heavy things, sitting in awkward positions, and gravity, which we experience every day.
If your posture isn’t optimal, it requires your muscles to work harder to keep you balanced, and therefore, can begin to tighten, or even become inhibited over time.
Poor posture can increase wear and tear on both joints and ligaments of your spine and body. This is because you are weaker, it can increase the likelihood of you experiencing accidents or injuries. There is also a link to poor posture and degeneration of the spinal discs. When these degenerate, it increases the stress on your nervous system and increases your chances of having back problems.
There have been studies that link poor posture to scoliosis, tension headaches, and also back pain. So if you’re sitting with poor posture, you could be increasing your chances of getting these or if you already have these could be making the problem worse.
Poor posture is like tooth decay or rust, it happens extremely slowly and over a long time. Sometimes we don’t notice that it’s getting worse.
When it comes to the time that you want to improve your posture it takes an extreme amount of effort and a long period to try and improve it so the best thing that we can do is prevent it from getting worse in the first place.
It’s important to get on top of seating posture at an early age, so if you have children, ensure you let them know when you see them slouching, and give them instruction on how they can fix their posture as simple as “lift your chin”, stop rounding your shoulders, or pull yourself upright like someone is pulling you up with a piece of string.
This is vital to ensure they aren’t creating bad habits of sitting with poor posture for 8 hours a day while they are at school. While kids are growing, they’re also teaching their bodies how to be when they’re older. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again “as the twig is bent so does the tree grow”
Ways to fix your posture:
While standing, you can look at your posture in a mirror and take a look at your spine… ensure your vertebrae appears to be ‘stacked’ in a straight line when viewed from both front and back. Everyone has natural curvature in their neck, the shoulders, and the lower back when looking at the spine from the side of the body.
Stand up against the wall with your feet your butt your shoulders and your head all in alignment. You can also apply the same posture to sitting.
When seated, your neck should be vertical, not tilted down and forward like we tend to fall into the habit of. Your shoulders relaxed down, not elevated towards your ears nor should they be rounded forward like we tend to see people do while seated. It’s also a great idea to sit with your knees bent at 90 ° and your feet flat on the floor.
You can improve your posture By exercising, it helps your muscles to ensure they are strong enough to support you properly. It also reduces the time you would be spending sitting down.
So after you (read this) or watch this video why not go for a walk and get your body moving before you focus on ways you need to improve your seated posture.
If you would like to look at our video about standing desks, this could help you decide on whether or not you may need to change the way you are working at your computer every day for prolonged periods.
We talk about adjusting your screen at or slightly below eye level to encourager better seated posture when working at a computer
Now, at Robina Chiropractic Wellness Centre, we practice a technique called Chiropractic biophysics. You see these machines behind me. These have been specially designed to help people improve their posture and when you have better posture you have better health.
Chiropractic biophysics is one of the most researched Chiropractic techniques on the planet and one of the key factors that we talk about is making sure that your spine is in improper alignment.
Because when your spine is in improper alignment your nervous system is in the best it can be. When your nervous system is the best it can be, YOUR health can be the best it can be.
Standing desk video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tp1WBW8cg
Seated posture video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dsZafCHNAU