Posture Correction Support: Do You Know Your Posture Type?

Correcting a Bad Posture

Posture is something that has an important role to play in our daily lives. At the same time, posture is something that most of us forget to take care of. Do you know your posture can affect the way you feel?

Yes, good posture has the ability to provide us with the following benefits:

• Higher energy levels
• More confidence
• Relief from neck tension
• Relief from migraines
• Prevention of back and shoulder problems
• Support for existing back pain

On the other hand, the way you sit and/or stand can also have negative effects on your body if your posture is bad or not correct. Over time, this will convert into niggling aches or even worse.

According to medical experts, even a short imbalance in the right posture can lead to posture deformities, which in-turn will pave way for low self-esteem in some people. This makes it important to know what type of posture we have and if we find to have an improper or bad posture, we must act immediately to correct it.[1]

Fortunately, correcting a bad posture is not difficult today with the availability of several high-quality posture corrector braces in the open market. All you have to do is to identify that your posture is not right and act immediately to correct it.

Now, let’s see what type of posture you have here:

When Can We Say that Your Posture is Healthy?

Having a good posture means that our body is properly aligned. To put it elaborately, our ears should be lined up over our shoulders, when in turn should be lined up over the hips, and while standing, all these points must be aligned over our ankles. While sitting, our head must be erect, and our back posture must maintain all the three natural spinal curves. While sleeping, our pillows and mattresses are used for maintaining these spinal curves and provide support to our head and neck so that they are lining up with our upper back.

Proper Posture is Important

We have already seen some benefits of having good posture. But, good or proper posture is more important than we think it is. A proper posture is important to:

• Keep our bones and joints in a proper alignment so as to use our muscles properly
• Help reduce the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces, which is the main cause of arthritis
• Decrease the tension on the ligaments that hold the joints of our spine together
• Prevent the spine from becoming anchored in abnormal positions
• Prevent fatigue as the muscles are being used efficiently, thereby allowing our body to consume less energy
• Prevent strain and overuse issues
• Prevent a backache
• Prevent muscle pain
• A good appearance

Now that we have seen what a healthy posture is and the importance of maintaining good posture, below we can see what other types of postures you can have:

Kyphosis

This is a common condition that is caused due to the forward rounding of our upper back. When compared to our natural curves whose curvatures will be around 20 to 50 degrees, people with kyphosis will have curvatures more than 50 degrees. This excess curve can make your spine to hunch over and it will make you look as if you are slouching or having a hunchback.

Even though this condition can occur at any age, it is most commonly noted in older women after diagnosed with osteoporosis, which weakens the bones in the spine. If you are experiencing kyphosis, you may be having back pain and stiffness.

Flat Back

As mentioned above, our spine has natural curves, forming an S-shape. If you are suffering from a flat back syndrome, your spine will lose the lower curve, which makes it appear flat. This will make your spine to lose balance and you will tend to lean forward. When you have a flat back, you will have difficulty standing straight and constant back/leg pain.[2]

A person can get a flat back syndrome due to the following conditions:

• Degenerative disc disease
• Compression fractures
• Ankylosing spondylitis

Swayback

Here again, as we said, we all have a natural curve in our spine, which is called “lordosis”. But, when a person’s posture magnifies this curve, it will lead to swayback or what we call it as “hyperlordosis”. When a person has this, the spine will curve inward at his/her lower back and neck regions. This condition will cause back pain and discomfort while also affecting the person’s ability to move.

If you are suffering from this condition, it may look as if you are sticking out the belly and the butt. It will also make your shoulders to rest further back and the head to tilt forward. This will affect your balance and stress the lower back to perform harder.

You can get this posture condition due to several different things, such as:

• Osteoporosis
• Obesity
• Kyphosis
• Pregnancy
• Wearing high heels
• Sleeping on stomach

Forward Neck

When a person has this posture position, his/her head and neck will be in a forward position where his/her head will be stretching out past the shoulders. This posture is also called text neck because as we are hunching more and more over the phones and computers, our neck will tilt forward.

If you have a forward neck, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Tension
• Stiffness
• Pain in the neck, shoulders, and/or back

Scoliotic

A scoliotic curvature denotes an abnormal sideways curve of the spine, which could lead to an improper alignment of the neck, shoulders, and back. The most obvious symptoms of a scoliotic curvature are an asymmetrical shoulder height and a non-vertical neck angle.

If you have a scoliotic curvature, you might be experiencing back pain and a progressive infringes on your internal organs function.

The Bottom Line

So, now you know what type of posture you have. If you find that your posture is bad or improper, you must start wearing a good quality posture corrector brace immediately and start with proper exercises to correct it.

References

1..https://www.livestrong.com/article/105229-types-posture/

2..https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/4485-back-health--posture

3..https://www.mstrust.org.uk/a-z/understanding-and-improving-your-posture/good-and-bad-posture