Posture is the keystone of every movement of your body. It helps you to understand how your body adapts the common stresses of your daily life: weight-bearing, sitting, and gravity. That’s why your grandparents have always advised you to stand straight and not to slouch more to maintain a good posture.
Various unhealthy habits of humans lead to bad posture. Maintaining a wrong posture stresses your whole body. It weakens your body joints. The muscles of your body may become tight, which restricts your body movements. Some muscles might stop functioning and decrease the functionality of your lungs. As a result, it will deeply impact the capability of your body to handle everyday body stresses. Moreover, poor posture can arise various problems such as back and neck pain, tension headaches, pain sensitivity, sciatica, and scoliosis.
A good posture depends on the shape of your spine. If you have noticed your spine from one side, you would have found that it is categorized into three different curves: cervical, lumbar, and thoracic.
To keep a good posture, you must stand straight with your shoulders at back and your ears lining up with the collarbone. Your legs should be relaxed with a slight bend in your knees. The sacrum should lie directly between the ankles to provide support to the base of your body.
Maintaining a good posture allows your body movements to work efficiently and smoothly as easily as possible by putting less little strain on your ligaments and muscles.
Importance of Good Posture:
The most important reason to focus on maintaining a good posture throughout the day is to protect the natural curve of your spine, starting from your neck to mid-back. If these curves are not properly maintained, then it can cause tremendous pain in your lower back and neck.
Keeping a good posture enables the muscles around the spine to support and balance it properly. Knowing the benefits of good posture enables a person to work harder to achieve them. Some of the benefits of maintaining a good posture are as follows:
- Minimize neck and lower back pain
- Reduces headaches
- Reduces tensions in your neck and shoulders
- Enhances the energy levels in your body
- Improves digestion and circulation
- Elevates capacities of lungs
- Improves specular and core strength
- Look tall and confident
Everyone desires for keeping a good posture, though it is not an easy task. It requires paying more attention and care. Practicing wrong habits daily is a prime cause of poor posture. Standing straight helps to maintain a good posture, however, one cannot stand upright for the whole day. So, it is important to acknowledge certain habits that lead to poor posture, which can be further avoided by your routine. Here are some tips that can help you maintain a good posture:
- Text Neck is a common habit developed amongst people when they are using smartphones or laptops. Looking down continuously can be a primary cause of your neck pain. Try to avoid spending long hours looking down at your mobile phones and laptop screens.
- Lifting a heavy backpack can strain your muscles and cause pain in your shoulders and back. To ensure nothing happens, keep your backpack close to your body, equally balanced both the shoulders.
- Wrong sitting positions at your desk while working create postural problems and generate pain in your lower back. To bolster the natural curvature of your spine, keep every equipment to your proximity to avoid hunching over a keyboard, mouse, or any other devices.
- Improper sleeping positions can also lead to cause pain in your back. So, try sleeping on one side or back with a good pillow enables good posture.
- Do not sit for long hours and keep your body moving by engaging in exercises and stretching.