22 Apr How Important is Your Posture?
You hear about the importance of good posture all the time, but do you know why? Your posture not only communicates wordlessly to others, but it speaks volumes about the health of your joints and muscles. Living with bad posture can be a dangerous thing. The muscle and ligament imbalances that result from poor alignment can lead to all sorts of preventable problems. The chiropractic physicians at Mile High Spine & Pain Center can help you learn how you can improve your posture and how it affects your daily activities.
Benefits of Good Posture
Good posture isn’t hard to incorporate into your life and is packed with life-altering benefits. Taking the steps to practice good posture allows you to take an active role in your health. The efforts you make to practice good posture help you avoid back pain, neck pain, muscle strains, compressed nerves and other spinal injuries. Since your spine houses key elements involved in your nervous system, good posture also fosters many positive physical, emotional and mental health benefits. Good posture improves your appearance and helps you project self-confidence.
The Importance of Posture
30 percent of our day is spent at work, and another 33 percent sleeping. This equates to a great deal of time either sitting, standing or lying down. If these activities are executed with poor posture, we invite injury and pain into our lives that could have been easily avoided. Sitting and standing puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your lower back. Standing exerts up to five times more pressure than lying down, and sitting is even more strenuous. Forcing your lower back to carry this extra pressure causes the upper body to shift forward when you are sitting making the back muscles strain to hold you upright. Slouching increases pressure on your lower back 10 to 15 times more than lying down, and hunching tenses muscles in the neck and upper back. If these pressures are not relieved, injury and chronic pain are often the result.
How’s Your Posture?
One of the first steps to improving your posture is to evaluate your current posture. It is important to stand in front of a mirror, from time to time, for the direct purpose of evaluating how your standing and your natural spinal alignment. You will know that you have need for improvement if you see that your shoulders are slumped or rounded, if your abdomen protudes, or if you have a noticeable curve in the lower back (swayback) and a caved-in appearance to the chest. Often poor posture will manifest with other symptoms such as back and neck pain and headaches.
Tips for Improving Posture
Simple stretching and strengthening exercises can target muscles that are essential to good posture. Check with a chiropractic physician at Mile High Spine & Pain Center before beginning an exercise program and ask about exercises that strengthen your core and stretch your back, abdominal muscles, thighs, hamstrings, neck and shoulders. All of these areas play an integral role in maintaining and obtaining good posture. When working towards improving your posture, other things to do include:
- Strengthen your core. Having a strong core strengthens your lower back muscles that work to keep your spine in proper alignment.
- Maintain a healthy weight. Excess weight can put extra strain on your back and abdominal muscles and lead to bad posture. A member of our Mile High Spine & Pain Center team can help you determine what a healthy weight is for your body type and frame and make suggestions to help you reach your weightloss goals.
- Change your sleeping position. Try to avoid sleeping on your stomach—the best sleeping position for your back is on your side with your knees bent. Make sure your pillow supports your neck in a straight position to prevent neck pain and sore muscles that can interfere with good posture during the day. Make sure your mattress firmness is requisite with your body weight and height requirements for optimal support and comfort. New mattresses should be rotated every 3 months to provide adequate support and prevent sagging, overused areas.
- Get new shoes. Good posture is also tied with what you are putting on your feet. Make sure your shoes fit properly and offer good support—especially when you’re on your feet a lot during the day and when you’re exercising.
Free Posture Consultation
If you are suffering from back pain or headaches it may be connected to your posture habits. The team at Mile High Spine & Pain Center is ready to help. Mile High Spine & Pain Center provides specialized treatment plans for neuropathy to patients in the Westminster and Broomfield area. We can help you understand where your symptoms are coming from and what it will take to improve. Call (720) 507-0080 today to schedule your free consultation!