We’ve all been there. You’re slouching at a family gathering as a young child when all of the sudden you hear your mother’s voice loud and clear saying “Stand up straight!” You immediately fix your posture, but just brush the incidence off as your mom nagging you yet again. But what if I told you that all those years ago your mother was actually giving you a piece of timeless wisdom that would positively influence your health? This blog will aim to further expand upon your mother’s wisdom and provide you new insights into why you should be focusing on improving your posture.
Let’s dive in and explore the importance of your posture in greater depth
The effect of poor posture goes far beyond just being aesthetically unpleasing. Poor posture increases stress on your joints (especially your neck and back), which can result in unwanted aches and pains. And even worse, poor posture could be at the root of why you fall or experience an injury.
So how did we end up in this place where we have poor posture? There could be several potential causes. One of the most common causes of poor posture is that we stay in one position for a sustained period of time and then our muscles adapt to this position. This causes the muscles to shorten and produce that feeling of “tightness”. Other reasons you could be experiencing poor posture include having experienced a stroke. After having a stroke, you may find it more challenging to obtain good posture because of paralysis or tightness in your body that makes your extremities more difficult to move.
So with all this talk about poor posture, you must be wondering what is “good posture”
From a mechanics standpoint, it’s easiest to think about good posture by thinking about drawing a straight line from your ear down to the front of your ankle and then imagining that all the
“blocks” of your body need to stack nicely on each other along this line. You can find this position by standing in front of a mirror or by taking a video of yourself on your phone to get feedback on what your posture is without you actively thinking about it. This feedback can then help you determine what you need to work on improving to develop a better posture.
At the end of the day, improving your posture is a lifelong journey. If you continue to work at it each day, you will start to notice changes not just in how you look, but also in how you feel. So do yourself a favor and “Stand up Straight!”
For more information about what you can do to fix your posture and step-by-step video guidance on how to build a home exercise program for you, explore TRCare's online exercise portal today!