There’s one thing that every child is told at least once, and that’s to sit up straight and pay attention. Posture, it seems, is something that we are all taught about from a young age and yet, we all end up slumped over at some point or another in life. As children, we pay attention and sit up straight when an adult tells us to, but we do it because we’re told to and not because we know anything about the reasons behind their demands. To be honest, most adults aren’t always aware of why they tell children to sit up straight, but they do it because they, too, were told the same as children.
Posture refers to the alignment of the body and the positioning of the spine when considering gravity; no matter how we position ourselves, gravity does its thing and exerts pressure on our joints, muscles and our ligaments. We are supposed to demonstrate proper posture to distribute the force of gravity evenly throughout our bodies to avoid stress on individual structures.
In the same way that a house with bad foundations will eventually crumble, our bodies need to have good posture over poor posture so that we don’t crumble quickly. If you took a look into every office in your country, the first thing that you notice is the workers that sit with rounded backs over their computers.
The introduction of industrialization was a wondrous time, but it brought about an increase in the amount that we sit in the modern world. Add in the technology that is quite literally at our fingertips these days, and we are permanently hunched over. One of the things that make us human is our ability to stand upright, but yet we bend over as we walk and creep around a little; not exactly ideal, right?
As a good posture is so important, we must learn how to improve our posture – which we will get to a little later. Until then, it’s also vital to understand just why good posture is essential, and here are some of the biggest reasons:
It’s not an easy feat to improve your posture. You can do it with posture exercises, and you can ask your doctor how to fix your posture, too, but it is a strange feeling at first. You may also be qualified to visit a physical therapist without a prescription if your state has direct access. If you find yourself slouching more often than not, you need to take steps to work on your posture in all parts of your life, whether you are walking or sleeping. Improvement does take time, but you can use some tips to help you to remember to correct it, as well as try out these posture exercises below to strengthen the muscles.
Your core muscles are there to support you, and they also help you to support your posture. Lie on your back with your legs bent about 90 degrees at the knee, with your feet on the floor. Pull your stomach and in and hold it. The more you strengthen your core, the better your posture will be.
Our bodies are asymmetrical, and all of our bodily systems are not quite a match on each side of the body. Even with that lack of symmetry, we still create a balance in how we move.
Unfortunately, we can still develop postural imbalances, whether we are sitting, standing or even lying down. This can develop at a young age through professional and repetitive work and over time, the repeated reliance on the dominant side of the body can lead to the over or under-use of the muscles, which then ends up with you in pain! Physical therapy is an excellent solution to posture imbalance because an assessment can be made and a plan set to help you.
You have different muscles surrounding your spine and core to help you to stay upright, and these muscles are used for long durations to keep your body aligned correctly. However, the less you use them, the more they atrophy. This means that they can’t do their job correctly, and with the sedentary lifestyles that we tend to lead today, the muscles are weaker.
Before you panic, we’ve already talked about some of the exercises that you can do to improve your posture, and we’ve discussed the ways you can stand or sit consciously to improve your spinal alignment.
If we hold a poor posture while sitting or standing for an extended period, our muscles soon learn that is how we sit, and the brain begins to believe that’s what is correct, creating pathways in the brain saying the posture is correct when it isn’t. The best thing to do is to teach the body the proper posture as early as possible so that the brain knows exactly what the body should be doing!
If you find yourself struggling with the correct posture or need help retraining your body, reach out to Premier Physical Therapy! Our expert physical therapists can help improve your posture!