How important a good posture is?

“A good stance and posture reflects a proper state of mind”- Morihei Ueshiba.

image from google

Whenever we talk about ‘posture’, the body’s position and alignment comes to our mind. How a person is standing, sitting or lying, puts a major impact on the other person. A good posture is liked by everyone. And a bad posture is indicative of your negligence towards your own physical health. People like a person who takes care of himself or herself. We all automatically get attracted to a person whose body posture is good. We often blame the evolving technology for our poor health, the uncomfortable office chairs, the mobile phones, computer desks and what not. When you take advantage of the technology for your uncountable uses, it also becomes your duty to compensate for the loss you might be having while fulfilling your own demands. I think, Technology is not to be blamed, but it’s our own carelessness which is causing such harm to our bodies. Just stand in front of a mirror and have a look on your body from front and from side as well. See how your shoulders are aligned. Are they symmetrical?  Are your ears in- line with your shoulders? See how your spinal curvature is, do you see a hump on your upper back? Or your neck hanging forwards? Or your lower back has increased its depth of curvature? Are your butt excessively positioned outwards?  Are your knee caps facing forwards? Are your knees bowed or knocked? These are some very simple ways to find out yourself what your body is telling you, also called as the 'mirror test'. Your body indicates you about its condition every day. It’s just that you never pay attention to it.
The muscles of our body are constantly working for us to maintain a posture. When a person is having a bad posture, the muscles has to work even more in such conditions. When you put your muscles go through extra work every second of the day, they will obviously get fatigued just like we get tired after an extra time in workplace or college. Just like we need a proper distribution of work and rest our body also needs the same. As I have mentioned in my previous articles rest promotes healing and helps the muscle to grow stronger than before. Excessive work and no rest will definitely cause muscle overuse leading to pain, tenderness, and stiffness like symptoms. Which tells that something is not right in the body. There is a line of gravity which is passing through the center of our body distributing each part into equal halves, distributing the force of gravity equally. A bad posture causes alteration in distribution of forces in the body. Which leads to putting up of excessive load on one part more than the other. So, now you can imagine what problems the body might face. As your muscles and ligaments are unable to work as they are supposed to, they become weak and are unable to further do their job of holding the posture correctly in place.  Hence, the posture gets worsened day by day resulting in formation of a fixed deformity in the body and degenerative changes. So, I am sharing with you some very effective strategies to cope up with a bad posture.

image from google

·        STANDING

Our parents and grandparents, often nag us to sit and stand straight. Well, yes they are right to do so. We must keep our spine erect while standing. Keep your shoulders a little backwards, not too much causing extra work for muscles to do and downwards, relaxed. A chin up and in will help to keep the neck a little in position for those having a hung neck posture. Keep equal weight on both knees while standing, as sometimes we shift all the weight to one side hanging our limb. Which is okay to some extent to avoid stress by switching the legs to bear weight when you stand for long hours but not okay to put all the weight to single limb for hours. Also do not make it a habit to stand on one leg.
·        SITTING

The very first thing to keep a check on is the ‘ergonomics’ which plays a very important role in your posture. A firm back rest, arm rest by the sides, height of the chair, and level of computer are some basic things to be kept in mind. While sitting, keep your spine straight. Keep your feet in contact with floor making an angle of 90 degrees at knee. This can be done by adjusting the height of your chair. The arms should make and angle of 90 degrees at the elbow while you rest your arms on the desk or arm rest of the chair. The computer screen should be approximately 10-20 degrees below the eye level. Have some notes with a reminder written on it to keep a check on your posture regularly, stick them on your working desk.

·        SLEEPING

Attain a side lying posture with knees bent. Here, it is important to keep the whole body in same alignment. Use a pillow to keep your head in level of your spine. Or sleep supine i.e. on your back, with a thik pillow under the head or a roll of a cloth under the neck supporting the cervical spine. Avoid sleeping prone i.e. on your tummy.

·        WALKING

While walking, keep all the above mentioned advises of standing posture. In addition, observe your pattern of walking. Avoid excessive toe in or toe out while walking.

Take Care,


Jasrah. 

Comments

sana naaz said…
Thanks jasrah, it was very important for me to know as i have a very bad posture . It helped me alot.. thank you ones again .. :)
22 January 2017 at 07:01
Ardmore Orthopaedic Clinic said…
Good post…. I like it and more details go with this.achilles' tendon singapore
2 February 2017 at 04:45
PTalert said…
Thank you :) keep reading.
2 February 2017 at 08:22
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