Why is Good Posture Important?

Chances are you may have suffered from the effects of poor posture at some point in your career. According to the Arthritis Disease Center, 50 to 80 percent of Americans complain of back pain in the workplace, often as a result of poor posture over time.

Poor posture is a result of bad habits used when sitting or standing around your office space. It is important to know what good posture looks and feels like to reduce pain and discomfort during the work day.

How Bad Posture Occurs

Posture is built by habit during both work and leisure time. How you sit during a car ride, while playing video games and working on the computer sets the foundation for your posture habits.

Sometimes bad posture is out of our control. Poor posture can also result from a combination of these factors:

• Accidents and injuries

• Foot problems or improper shoes

• Excessive weight

• Poor sleep support

• Weak muscles

• A poorly designed work space

Risks of Bad Posture

Posture affects every physiologic function from breathing to normal hormonal production.

When your posture is bad, pressure on your spine is increased leading to tension, soreness, back pain, headaches and fatigue. Bodily systems such as digestion, breathing, muscles, joints and ligaments are all compromised.

Poor posture first leads to fatigue. As your muscles begin to work harder to hold you up or maintain an abnormal way of sitting, you’ll exert more energy leaving you without as much.

As you begin exerting more energy, muscles become tighter in your neck, back, arms and legs. More than 85 percent of neck and back problems result from tight or achy muscles from on-going posture issues.

Tighter muscles lead to joint stiffness and pain, all the result of bad posture. As you begin to experience stiffness and pain in your joints, you’re at an increased risk for arthritis that if not treated, will leave you with a lifetime of pain and discomfort.

6 Tips to Maintain Good Posture

Taking time to focus on your posture has many benefits. As you go throughout your daily routine, having good posture allows your bones to properly stay aligned giving your muscles, joints and tendons relief.

To ensure you’re preventing any unnecessary health concerns related to bad posture, follow these tips:

• Be mindful of how you sit -- Use the backrest of your chair to support your lower and middle parts of your back. Make sure that you relax your shoulders, keeping your forearms in parallel to the ground.

• Don’t sit for too long -- Make sure that you don’t sit for long long periods of time. Stand up, walk around and stretch at least once every hour

• Stand up straight -- Keep most of your weight on the balls of your feet, with your knees slightly bent (don’t lock your knees!). Stand straight, pull your shoulders back and tuck your stomach inwards.

• Maintain a healthy weight -- Excessive weight in your midsection can pull on your back causing major back problems resulting in bad posture. Reducing your weight will allow you to walk, sit and stand straighter taking much of the pressure away from your spine and other joints.

• Create an exercise routine -- Not only will this help you accomplish your weight loss goals, an exercise routine will keep you flexible while allowing your body to maintain muscle strength to support good posture.

• Have your eyes checked -- If you find yourself squinting or straining when sitting at a desk reading your computer screen, you may be unknowingly hunching or leaning over, impacting your posture.

A Chiropractor Can Help

One of the reasons that Chiropractic care is well suited to help correct poor posture is that most people suffering with poor posture also have misaligned bones in their spines called subluxations. These misalignments can put stress on your nerves, bones, ligaments, discs, tendons, muscles, tissues and internal organs. Your nervous system coordinates and organizes your entire body and its proper functioning is essential for physical and neurological health. A doctor of chiropractic like the doctors at the Chiropractic Center at Styertowne are specially trained to locate and correct spinal misalignment and help restore normal posture. Call The Chiropractic Center at (973) 767-1677 for a consultation.