When you look around yourself, you will find employees hunched over computers in the office, fellow commuters tumbled over their smartphones in the subway, and friends and family always slightly stooped over while standing or walking. With industrialization, almost all our work can now be done with our bodies glued to our seats and thus, most of bodily movement is restricted these days.
The human body is designed to develop muscular reflexes that would facilitate effective posture and adjust spine moment for assuring a stable and balanced posture. However, improper use of furniture around us since childhood has been playing a significant role in distorting our posture. Our body responds to new and unusual conformations when we overtly make use of backrests, footrests, armrests or headrests. They can cause short term discomfort and over time, people have also experienced real pain syndromes, pertaining mainly to low back pain.
How Furniture Affects Our Posture
When people sit for elongated hours at a stretch on their desks with their necks bent forward, it leads to strain on the neck and back. Small uncomfortable furniture usually makes people slump forward which puts a lot of pressure on the spine whereas sitting with legs hanging down and knees higher than bottoms put a lot of unwanted pressure on butt bones. Most conventional chairs are designed with rigid seats with inclined backs that can cause problems in blood circulation, tense shoulder, neck, and back muscles, rounding of back, and digestive organs constriction. This is how furniture affects our posture.
Sitting on hard wooden chairs for prolonged time periods can tighten your hip flexors, causing reciprocal inhibition of glutes. Restricting your pelvis rotation can cause lower back compression, leading to back pain which can develop into chronic pain gradually, if left unchecked. Also sitting on particularly hard surfaces can induce back pain, butt shape changes, or Haemorrhoids.
Soft sofas that give you a lot of comfort can particularly be blamed for an increase in back problems. Reported symptoms like shoulder strain and lower backache are common cases of reclining on softer and comfy furniture. Because they encourage more of slouching in individuals rather than sitting in more supportive positions. Cushioned chairs and modern sofas built on soft upholstery contribute more to poor posture, as they do not provide support for neck and spine muscles.
Using malformed mattresses can bring in potential health issues as they do not provide proper back support as well as alignment. Furthermore, people who sleep on their stomach should always go for firmer mattresses that come with convoluted foam. Do not pick mattresses based on coil count or design as they hardly affect the durability or quality of mattress. Also these need to be replaced every 8-10 years before they are worn out.
Back pain can be best avoided by sitting with your knees at the hips level while providing adequate support to the lower back and placing both feet on the floor. Sitting for long times in a cross-legged position or placing them above on the sofa or chairs can again lead to aches followed by the development of a bad posture. Check out these best deals on recliners. Do you want to know more about correcting and maintaining your posture? Don’t forget to check out various methods and products that can help you out here.
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