Are you conscious of your posture during the day? Do you suffer from sore shoulders & back pain? This can be due to poor posture. A lot of people don’t think or care about posture as they are not aware of the benefits it can have on your lifestyle.
Having correct posture will make you look confident, breathe better, limit the chances of injuries to muscles, joints and bones and also helps your body operate more efficiently.
So what is posture?
Posture is the alignment and distribution of forces across the joints of the body.
This can be explained much like a car, the more you drive the car it may lead to imbalances and changes to the ideal set up or distribution of the forces that are experience during regular everyday movements.
Think about it, if your wheel alignment is out it puts extra strain and stress on the joints causing imbalances in the weight distributed across them.
What are the most common postural abnormalities?
As there is quite a few I will focus on the most common abnormalities for the everyday office worker who sits for long periods at a time in front of the computer.
Kyphosis of the thoracic spine (upper back) – This is excessive outward curvature of the thoracic spine causing hunching of the upper back. The ability of the vertebral column to absorb shock and bear weight is reduced.
Flat Back – Is the absence of a curve in the lumbar spine (lower back). Flat back posture increases the likelihood of disc pathologies due to chronic tension on the posterior (back) aspect of the inter-vertebral disc. This also reduces the ability of the vertebral column to absorb shock.
Poke neck – As it sounds, is when the chin is excessively poking forwards (excessive protraction of the cervical vertebrae). This causes greater stress across the soft tissue structures of the cervical region resulting in neck pain.
Exercises you can do to improve your posture?
Watch this video below for some basic exercises you can do to correct posture without moving from your work desk.