Slouchiness Can Harm Your Health!

It’s true. Slouchiness is as poisonous to your health as bad cholesterol. It can damage your spine, cause you pain and give room to other health problems. Therefore, it’s significant that you have a Good Posture. Let’s know how to perfect your posture.

What is good posture?

Good posture is a lot more than sitting, walking, or standing straight. It is a pivotal part of your long-term health. It defines how to stand or sit. It makes sure your body weight is evenly balanced and positioned correctly so that the muscles, skeleton, and ligaments aren’t strained or overstretched.

What Defines a Perfect Posture?

A good posture is defined by how you hold your body. Mainly, there are two types of posture:

• Dynamic posture: it is the way you project your body while moving, walking, or running.
• Static posture: it is the way you project your body while standing, sitting, or sleeping.

So, it is important to maintain both Dynamic and Static posture to project a good posture.

Moreover, the key to a perfect posture is a strong spine and maintaining its three natural curves. The neck, mid-back, and lower back are the three natural curves of a spine. Image consultants suggest working on these three vital curves of the spine to prevent slouching. These curves should be well balanced. It will make you more mobile, prevent back pain, and feel less tired.

A great posture means leaving your body flexible and loose; follow this while standing:

• Back straight
• Head and chin up with looking straight ahead
• Maintaining eye contact while conversing
• Evenly balance weight on your feet
• Keep your knees straight

While sitting:

• Back against the chair
• Knees and feet should make a 90-degree angle
• Don’t cross legs
• Maintain distance from the computer screen
• Never slouch in.

Good Posture vs Poor Posture

As mentioned above, Good posture can increase your spine’s strength making you feel stronger, confident, more mobile and less tired. Whereas, poor posture or slouching over can:

• Misalign your musculoskeletal system
• Weaken your spine, make it more prone to injury
• Decrease your flexibility
• Cause shoulder, neck and back pain
• Affect your body balance
• Increase the risk of falling down
• Impact joints motor response
• Make it harder to breathe properly

What Causes Poor Posture?

Posture issues can also be caused by several conditions that damage one or more of the systems that support the body, including back muscles, the spine, hips, shoulders, and neck.

In most cases, people inherit disorders from their parents. It affects the shape of your backbone and hips muscles and may alter posture from birth. Such factors may be controlled to mitigate the adverse impact they can have on posture over time.

In other cases, sports injuries can also affect your posture. Often, our posture impacts the job that we do or other behaviors that contribute to the overuse of various parts of the body.

Sitting for too many hours a day, year after year can cause muscles and ligaments to contract or become weaker. This may lead to poor posture, too.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tips to perfect your posture –

Tips to Perfect Your Posture at Home:

• Yoga and Pilates can strengthen your spine and also help improve your muscles and fix your posture.
• Walk daily for ten minutes with spine and knees straight.
• Workout to strengthen your core (pelvis and torso) to have a much greater impact on your posture.
• Stand tall, put your shoulders down to their resting position and tighten your stomach muscles by breathing in.
• Do simple neck exercises to loosen the neck muscles.
• Lay your back straight on the ground. Avoid using pillows or support and let your body to relax.
• Always wear well-fitting and flat shoes to balance your weight distribution.
• Always ensure to lift using your knees, hips and thigh muscles to lift things, not your back.
• Avoid crossing your legs, it can alter the positioning of your spine with time.
• Don’t sit on low-seated sofas or very soft chairs for too long.
• Use a single pillow or firm support while sleeping to prevent neck pain from developing. The best way to sleep comfortably is to lie on your side with your knees bent. Try it!
• Take care while carrying heavy things. Your weight should be evenly distributed on either side of your body.

Tips to Perfect Your Posture at Work

• Keep your back straight while working on the computer. Maintain a right angle with your knees and feet on the ground. Take the help of a footrest if needed.
• If your job requires long sitting, support your lower back with a rolled-up towel, or any other commercial product.
• Avoid hunching while using a laptop or computer. Ensure to get up and move a little at regular intervals.
• If your job requires a lot of time on the mobile or telephone, you may get phone strain. To avoid this, use a comfortable headset and don’t rest your elbows on the desk while using the phone.

Tips to Perfect Your Posture While Driving

• Always keep your car seats and headrest in the correct position so that they promote safe comfortable driving.
• Adjust the steering wheel to the level of your chest, not above it.
• Drive with your arms bent and thumbs on the rim.
• Provide support to your left leg by sitting deep in the driving seat. And also adjust your seats fairly upright so your shoulders and back are supported.

Tips to Perfect Your Posture While Standing

• Keep your feet shoulder-width apart while standing. It helps in distributing weight equally on both feet.
• Gently pull your stomach in to attain a neutral spine (the position where your neck and back are strain-free or stress-free allowing them to function properly.
• Adjust your body in such a way that your knees are pointed forward and slightly bent or relaxed.
• Let loose your arms and allow them to hang naturally at the sides.
• Keep your head high and look straight forward so that your earlobes are parallel with your shoulders.
• Keep your chin parallel to the ground and always stand tall in any situation.

Good posture promotes a healthier version of you. If you are struggling with poor posture and cannot decide how to turn it into a good one, connect with me. I, Dr. Shivani Sharma, will help you overcome your fears and help you stand tall and confident.