What Does Your Posture Tell Others?
Your posture is a window to your health. It can tell people a lot about you. Think of a very confident
person in your life. Do they stand up tall? How do they carry themselves? Are they slumped over all the time or do they sit relatively straight? Even more importantly, do they suffer from a lot of sickness in their life or do they stay fairly healthy?
How does posture degenerate?
There is a constant struggle in your everyday live to fight off gravity and carry yourself in good posture. However, if you don’t take care to practice your good posture, there can be unnecessary wear and tear on your spine that can lead to health challenges down the road. Fortunately, your spine is designed with three curves down the length of it; cervical, thoracic, and lumbar curves. When these curves are left unchanged, they hold the body in a very stable position, where the least amount of stress is put on the spine, the spinal cord, and the tissues surrounding it.
However, if you constantly sit at a computer desk with your shoulders slumped and your head held forward, there is a tendency to lose your cervical curve. This puts a lot of added stress on not only the spinal vertebrae and musculature around it, but it puts undue tension on the spinal cord. Think of it this way. Your head weighs roughly the size of a 10 pound bowling ball. Imagine holding the ball straight out in front of you. Unless you trained for something like this, you would not be able to sustain this position for very long. Imagine how fatigued and strained your shoulder muscles, scapula stabilizers, and back muscles are getting. Now imagine pulling that ball in close to your body, directly over your shoulder. Not only is the force of the ball less, but your entire body is supporting it. There is much less stress placed on your surrounding muscles, and most importantly, the tension is taken off your spinal cord.
How does my posture affect how I feel?
Try this exercise. Slump down into horrible posture with your head held low and your shoulders
falling forward. Now think of something amazing! Make it something that makes you really happy.
Now straighten out your posture and sit up nice and tall with your head held high. Think of something
horrible that makes you really upset. Did your posture make it more difficult to have certain emotions
that didn’t correlate together? Your posture has a huge impact on how you interact with other people
and how you think and feel. Your posture also has physical and physiologic effects on your body.
When there is increased gravitational stress on your spinal vertebra, bone will remodel in response to that stress. That is how osteoarthritis develops over time. With longstanding postural imbalances, there is a risk of developing osteoarthritis along your spine. It is like when the tires on your car are imbalanced, one or two tires may wear out faster because there is more stress put on them. You can also have chronic muscle tightness and tension on your spinal cord. This tension can lead to health challenges. However, by keeping your spine healthy and moving with chiropractic adjustments, your posture is likely to improve and the stress on your spine will decrease.
How do I improve my posture?
There are very simple ways to improve posture and the easiest way is to first be aware of it and then
consciously correct it throughout the day. Look at your posture in the mirror, or get someone to help
you. Here are some tips:
- Look at your feet. Does one flare out to the side more than the other? Do both of them turn in?
- Is one of your hips higher than the other?
- Do you tilt your pelvis forward or backward?
- Is one of your shoulders higher than the other?
- Is your head tilted to one side or the other?
- Do your ears sit directly over your shoulders?
Look at your posture from all angles and sides. Talk to your chiropractor about muscle
strengthening exercises they can recommend to correct your posture and above all get adjusted!
