Check yourself before you wreck yourself (Why good posture matters)

I think most people know having good posture is important. It’s not like anyone wants be walking around looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I just believe many of us do not realize how important good posture actually is in preventing pain and other medical problems. And ensuring that we are maintaining good posture while tending to one of the million daily tasks we are completing is just not high on our priority list. But it should be. So lets take a look at why posture matters.

Why does posture matter?

Generally speaking, good posture is placing your body in the best possible position for all the different systems of the body to work properly. Besides the musculoskeletal system (which is the most obvious system to benefit from good posture) your circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems can all greatly benefit from good posture.

Additional benefits of good posture include:

• Less headaches
• Less risk of wear and tear on your joints
• Improved breathing and lung capacity
• Improved appearance
• Less low back pain
• Improved athletic performance and form with exercise
• Decreased risk of injury
• Less neck pain and tension

What does good posture look like?

Firstly, let’s review what good posture looks like. Imagine a straight line that passes from just behind your ears, through your shoulder blades, through your low back and straight down to the floor. This is a neutral spinal position (the middle picture above). To achieve basic good posture with a neutral spine pull your shoulder blades back, chest up, chin tucked, and align your hips under your low back.

Bad posture commonly looks like a slouched position with forward rounded shoulders, a rounded upper back, and a forward head. This is known as thoracic kyphosis. A little kyphosis is normal but excessive rounding can lead to shoulder, neck, and upper back pain among other health problems.

Moving down the spine we come to the lumbar spine. Someone with good posture would have an erect low back with a very slight arch known as lumbar lordosis. Slight lordosis is normal but people, especially women, (and especially pregnant women) tend to have too much lordosis. This usually means poor core activation, tight hip flexors and can lead to shortening and tightening of the low back muscles.

On the flip side, men (and some women) may not have enough lumbar lordosis. This looks like a rounded spine in the low back and contributes to an inability to achieve a fully upright erect posture either sitting or standing.

Common pitfalls of bad posture

Ok, so you know why you need good posture and what that posture looks like; but how can we prevent ourselves from slipping into bad posture? Below are some of the common pitfalls of bad posture and quick tips to avoid succumbing to these bad posture traps.

Tech Neck

“Tech Neck” is the head and neck posturing that comes from looking down at our cell phones. This is the second pandemic of our generation. People young and old spend much of their day looking down while holding their cell phones in their lap. This causes a forward rounded posture and stress on the neck and shoulders. Instead try propping your arms up on a table or pillows so you are able to view your phone at eye level.

Desk Work

Similar to “tech neck” desk work can lead to very poor posture. Prolonged sitting leads to tightness in the front of our hips which pulls our pelvis forward. It also tends to cause tightness in our chest muscles and a lengthening of our muscles between this shoulder blades. And this can lead to pain and strain of the neck and shoulder muscles. Try placing a lumbar roll at your low back to cue your body to sit upright. Make sure your computer screen is straight ahead at eye level and that your arms and shoulders are supported. Also, getting up every 30-60 minutes to stand and stretch can be helpful.

Body Mechanics

Unfortunately caring for children is setting our bodies up for posture failure. Things like carrying our babies, carrying diaper bags, nursing, changing diapers, and picking kids up all have the potential to place our bodies in very bad positions. Luckily there are several easy ways to try and avoid these posture pitfalls which you can read about in Basic Baby Body Mechanics.

Pregnancy

Ah pregnancy. As if growing a baby for 9 months wasn’t hard enough. Our growing belly tends to cause many posture problems. As the belly grows larger the lordosis in the low back increases. Additionally, to counteract the weight of the belly pulling forward pregnant women tend to lean their upper trunk backwards. Strengthening hip and back muscles during pregnancy is one of the best ways to avoid muscle strain and pain that can come from bad posture during pregnancy.

What’s next for fixing bad posture?

The good news is posture can be fixed! Hooray! By stretching some of the tight muscles and strengthening some of the weak muscles we can help our bodies achieve a neutral and upright position. Be sure to come back later this week to check out the best exercises to fix bad posture. Until then be sure to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

–Monica