Maintaining Good Posture

Having proper posture is essential for your spine health. Your good posture in sitting and standing leads to an improvement in blood flow and maintains great support for your muscles, ligaments and tendons as a result of having proper alignment.

So what is posture?

Posture is how you hold your body and there are two types.

  1. Dynamic Posture is how you hold yourself when you are moving 

  2. Static Posture is how you hold yourself when you are still or not moving

It is important to have good dynamic and static posture. The key to achieve this is to ensure you maintain the three natural curves of your spine, the neck, mid back and low back. 

Too often, we assess that posture is affecting a patient’s pain, hence we encourage proper technique and posture when performing daily tasks and when participating in physical activity.

Poor posture can affect many parts of your health, including;

  • Misalign your musculoskeletal system

  • Cause neck, shoulder and back pain due to being misaligned

  • Decrease your flexibility or range of motion

  • Affect how well your joints move 

  • Makes it harder to digest food and breathe

Proper posture enables your muscles to coordinate efficiently, as your body is utilising less energy to perform this natural task when you are positioned in an unnatural stance. By doing so, you are eliminating muscle fatigue allowing you to perform tasks for longer.

Your correct posture aids in preventing back and muscular pain as you are standing with your spinal joints in place. With your aligned spinal joints, the possibility to injure is minimised as a result. Having correct posture decreases the abnormal wearing of joints as they are properly aligned.

Improve your posture starting now

Be mindful of your posture during your everyday tasks and exercise. Correct your posture when necessary to prevent increased risk of injury.   

Adjust your chair

For those who are sitting at a desk for the majority of the day, correctly adjusting your spine to support proper posture is increasingly important. The height and angle of your chair should allow your feet to be parallel to the floor, this is an integral part. Your feet must be grounded on the floor, raising or moving your feet to a different position will disrupt the alignment of proper posture. The backrest of your chair should be angled at 90-11 degrees to allow your shoulders and low back to comfortably rest against it.

Treat yourself to regular breaks

Ideally, you shouldn't be in the same position for more than 30 minutes. Yes, we understand that this may be inconvenient at times, especially during those long work meetings. However, your body was made to move and when it stops, it reduces normal functions. 

Our Narellan chiropractors can assess your posture and provide you an individualised treatment plan. Book with Kinetic Healthcare online or give us a call on (02) 4666 2796.

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