Posture: Frequently asked questions

Flexibility exercises and resistance exercises will help in getting that spine back to form, thus leading to better breathing function. Stretching will also focus on deep breathing, which will help retrain your body and body to breathe properly. Normally, stretches are to be done after completing your regular workout sessions. Ideally, stretches that are done for at least 20-30 seconds on each side are very effective.

The Recommended Exercises for correcting a Forward Head

• Posterior neck stretches
• Chin tucks
• Trap smash

The Recommended Exercises for correcting Kyphosis

• Thoracic extensions
• Band pull aparts
• Double overhand stretches

The Recommended Exercises for correcting Rounded Shoulders

• Doorway stretches (with external rotation)
• Rear delt flys
• Any horizontal pulling exercise

The Best Posture Correction Exercises for Anterior Pelvic Tilt

• Hip stretches
• Glute bridge
• Plank
• Hip extensions

Use a good comfortable bed. Do not go for a bed that is too soft it will not be good for you back. You would need one that can support your spine while sleeping.

If you weigh more especially in the abdomen region, it can lead to bad posture because your body will have to work harder than normal to keep a good posture.. With a big belly, your muscles have to work harder to keep your body straight. If ignored, this can be too painful. It can even lead to agonizing spasms. Do leg lifts by lying on your back to help strengthen the abdominal muscles and give relief to your back.

Exercise regularly. This will help you shed that fat, tone down the muscles, and keep you flexible. Thus, maintaining your posture can become easier.

Maintain a healthy spine. Consult the chiropractor frequently to get your misalignments addressed and to enhance your muscle tone. Muscle tone and back pain are the common causes of bad posture.

Get your eyesight checked. Eyesight problems will make you hunch more often to see clearly, which will affect your posture. Get your eyes checked regularly.

Certain other basic things like a properly fitting dress, a proper chair at work, and not letting your feet dangle are to be taken care of.

Deep tissue massage involves the release of soft tissues which is done manually to reduce the stress and pressure that is built up in the soft tissues after being in a straining status. Deep pressure that is used to release the accumulated stress improves the blood circulation to the deep muscle fibers, which in turn, will produce increased blood supply to the muscles. As such, the main objective is to lessen the pain and increase the range of movement.

The following are the benefits of a deep tissue massage are:

• Better breathing
• Less fatigue
• Better lifestyle
• Less headaches
• Less pressure and tension
• Better circulation of blood
• Strengthening and balances muscles
• Better muscles and joints
• Enhanced joint mobility
• Enhanced posture

Try to avoid using your phone while walking as this will make your neck bend down and leads to bad posture. After having looked at the phone or other gadgets while walking, you must mindfully gain back the posture. If this is not done, you may end up into having bad posture without even realizing it.

It’s a good idea to use devices like Bluetooth earbuds or headphones for calls as they will prevent you from looking at your phone.

According to science, poor posture can increase your blood pressure. As such, poor posture and blood pressure are neurologically linked. As the body's posture tilts forward, it increases the stress on the heart and lungs. The human body is made to stand on two feet and we are designed to stand all the way up every day. Any less in the amount of time in this can adversely affect the heart and other organs.

According to research, slumping in a seated position and slouching in a standing position can lead to high blood pressure. Also, the forward rolling of the shoulders and/or rotating of the back can affect the breathing. According to Okouchi, “the neck has certain receptors that can actually affect blood pressure.”

The side effects of bad posture are:

• Back pain
• Nerve constriction
• High risk of cardiovascular disease
• Poor digestive system
• Dislocation of organs

Poor posture can be harmful because:

• Wrong posture can disturb the alignment of the spine and knees, which in turn, can increase the stress on the knees. This is worse if you have arthritis.
• Retaining poor posture while being seated for long hours daily can lead to problems in circulation.
• Poor posture can affect your level of energy negatively.
• It can also affect your mood as suggested by research.
• TMJ or temporomandibular joint syndrome can be caused by poor posture.
• Poor posture can compromise your breathing abilities.
• The natural curvature of the spine can be compromised by bad posture, which in turn, can cause headaches. Bad posture can also cause tight neck.
• Poor posture can cause shoulder pain.
• Too erect position, also known as “military position”, can causes back pain, thus causing the lower back muscles to stress too hard.
• Poor posture can adversely affect sexual function.

Always imagine you have something delicate placed on your head. This will keep your head up and back straight. If imagination doesn’t work, try placing something real.

Maintain a good posture while standing and extend it to walk. Chin up, shoulders back, eyes straight, and chest out is the ideal posture.

Do not push your head forward.

Choose proper supportive footwear. If needed, choose the ones with comfortable padding, which could help you hold yourself erect. Additionally, the arches need good support too. Remember, good posture always begins with the feet.

Heels are something to be avoided since it can misalign your body.

If you want to stand for a long duration, add padding to the ground to give you extra comfort.

Massages can help in correcting the posture since they will help loosen the stiffened muscles. Decompression of these muscles will make you aware of how wrongly the muscles are employed by you. It is advisable to focus on strengthening the core for a better posture than going for unhealthy compensations.

Massages will also help reduce the stress and tension, thereby boosting your confidence. With relief from pain, you can breathe easily and feel happy. This also would help with better digestion and fewer headaches.

Age is not a hindrance when it comes to correcting the posture provided you choose the right way.

Practicing yoga, different exercises, meditation, etc. are some methods to correct the posture. These methods will require your consistent efforts and wait for good results.

No, it is never too late to fix the posture. Start taking steps from now. This will make sure that things don’t get worse. The effectiveness of the results will depend on the following factors:

• The current posture and how much bad it is
• Your routine activities
• Your consistency with your exercise schedules
• How well you have chosen the exercises to correct your posture

People with extremely curved upper back (kyphosis) and internally rounded shoulders are more susceptible to depression of the sternum. While inhaling, the sternum can’t fully expand, and the motion of the ribcage is limited on the front side of your body.

An overstressed lumbar curve (lordosis), just like the posture, when your pelvis is inclined forward, will reduce the range of motion of your lower lumbar spine while also shortening the latissimus and lower back muscles. This, in turn, will shorten the crus of your diaphragm and restrict the range of motion of your diaphragm. When this happens, your breath’s expansion will decrease. As the stomach muscles are “over-contracted” in this posture, these muscles will not be able to function properly during exhalation.

Thus, sometimes individuals may face difficulty in breathing with an overstretched curve in the neck, in a condition called lordosis of the cervical spine, due to the compression of their larynx.

Correcting your standing and walking posture:

• Stand up straight and tall to find your mid-point
• Correct your position with the help of the wall
• Place the body weight on the balls of your feet
• Always walk as if there is a book on your head
• Choose comfortable footwear for walking and standing

Correcting your sitting posture:

• Your back must be at 90° to your thighs
• You can verify your posture by sitting on your hands
• Keep your legs convenient and keep the feet flat on the floor
• Choose a chair that helps for a good posture
• When you work on a computer, make sure to adjust it to improve your posture
• Even while driving, try to maintain a good posture by adjusting the seat
• Take standing breaks in between if you have been seated for a long time

Correcting your sleeping posture:

• Support your back with pillows while sleeping
• Turn your body as a single entity while turning around
• Always choose a comfortable mattress

Focus on your posture while at work. You must always lean back in the chair by keeping your back erect with the chair’s support.

Choose a better and comfortable position. Make sure to keep your feet flat on the ground and focus your weight between the butt and the pubic bone.

A quick and easy method to check if you have the right posture is to look into the mirror and stand casually. If you find your palms facing the thighs, with the thumbs pointing ahead of you, it means that you have a good posture. On the other hand, if you find your hands rest ahead or behind the thighs, or the palms are facing backward, then you have a wrong posture.

Once you get up, always stretch. Take a walk or get up  once every half hour of sitting. When you stand and stretch, support your lower back with the palm against the lower back with your fingers pointing down. Lean back as much as possible and hold at least for a few seconds.

Watch out your sleep posture. If you tend to sleep on your sides, insert a cushion between the knees to reduce the stress on the lower back. If you sleep on your back, place a cushion below your knees. This will release the stress on the lower back.

When you carry something heavy, try to balance the weight in order to keep the tension off the muscles and joints.

When done with attention, walking can improve the posture. Standing up with your back straight can make you look younger immediately. The posture influences the appearance. An erect posture is often perceived as being young and active.

Influencing the appearance is just a by-product. Postures have a great effect on holistic health.

When one walks at a fast pace, the muscles that are used to sit up erect and carry oneself have to put in extra efforts to keep up. Though simple walking can strengthen these muscles, it is even better to focus on the posture while walking.

Why not? Yes, it’s better to have followed good posture practices right from the beginning of your life. However, it’s always better late than never to improve your posture.

The first step towards improving your posture is to start exercising and focusing on strengthening your core muscles like abdominal and lower back muscles, which connect the pelvis and the spine.

If you aren’t sure where to start, you can start using a posture corrector brace. It will help correct your posture by enhancing the shoulder and back alignment. It will also help avoid slouching and hunching.

Certainly yes!

The spine is compressed due to bad posture while it will be elongated by good posture.

This compression can add up to 2 inches in your height depending on how much compressed the spine is due to your bad posture.

Although you may not feel the negative effects of bad posture by just sitting with it for a few hours, you can see it is affecting the spine and leading to anatomical changes in it with due course of time. Eventually, this will lead to the tightening of blood vessels and nerves. Additionally, the stress caused by bad posture can lead to back pain along with other ailments in muscles, discs, and joints.

You can identify if your back pain is caused by poor posture by looking for the following:

• Back pain that is intense during certain times in a day
• The pain that originates in the neck area and moves down into the upper and lower back regions
• The pain that alleviates by changing sitting or standing positions
• A sudden pain that is caused by the recent changes in your life, such as your new job, a chair, or a car

There are many factors that can cause bad posture. Injury, some diseases, genetics or a combination of these can cause them.

As such, seven common causes for bad posture are:

1. Muscles in spasm are likely to show a diminished functionality at least for sometime after an injury.
2. Excessive tension and weakness in muscles may bring about various things like the way one performs their daily routine or workouts.
3. Your body will most likely adopt the bad posture and leave out the proper posture and alignment to accommodate the issues like:
1. Muscle spasms
2. Weakness
3. Tension
4. Imbalance in muscle groups
4. Your body loses its alignment due to the way you use technology, be it a computer, tablet, phones, or any other device.
5. Internal causes of bad posture can be stress and mental attitude. They can cause changes in the breathing pattern and leads to an excessive contraction in the muscles, which in turn, can cause bad posture.
6. The footwear you use can also affect the posture. In fact, it is one of the common causes.
7. Sometimes it is just genetic.

• Always sit with your back straight and shoulders back. Sit in such a way that the back of the chair is in contact with the butt.
• While being seated, make sure all the back curves are proper. You may take the help of a rolled-up towel for this.
• You can slouch after being seated at the farther end of the chair.
• Hold while drawing yourself up accentuating the curves for a few seconds. Now, release the position by about 10 degrees. This is called the perfect sitting posture.
• Let your body weight be distributed evenly.
• Slightly bend the knees at 90°. While being seated, keep your knees at a level higher or the same level as your hips. You could use a footrest for this purpose. Do not cross your legs.
• The feet must touch the floor completely.
• Keep changing the postures every 30 minutes.
• Your chair and your workstation must be adjusted in such a way that you can sit close and can be tilted towards you. You can rest your elbows and arms on the desk or the chair while having your shoulders relaxed.
• If you use a rolling chair, do not twist at hips while being seated. Instead, turn the entire body.
• To stand up from your sitting position, slide to the edge of the chair and then get up by straightening the legs. Never bend at the waist. Immediately, do at least ten standing backends and stretch your back.

Watch out for these 7 signs of bad posture that are very common:

1. A very common sign of bad posture is a forward head carriage. A proper posture is where the ear hole sits over the middle of the shoulder.
2. Slumped shoulders, also known as rolled shoulders, are yet another sign of bad posture. This is mainly due to long hours of sitting in a position where you lean forward and stare at the PC.
3. Increased Kyphosis is an increase in the curve between the shoulder blades through the mid-back. The extreme form of this could be termed as Hunchback.
4. Sometimes bad postures lead to a forward tilt in the pelvis. This is known as anterior pelvic tilt.
5. If the posture leads to a backward tilt in the pelvis, it is termed as posterior pelvic tilt. The occurrence is more frequent in men.
6. One of your shoulders appearing to be higher than the other is another sign of bad posture.
7. Flat feet, which refer to the disappearance of the arches in the feet, are also a sign of bad posture. This can alter the biomechanics of the whole body.

This is more specific than that of a bad posture because it is based on one’s needs and how much you have succeeded is not possible to measure.

A good posture is not something fixed. It changes often. The key is to keep moving and staying active. If you are unsure, then keep trying various other postures, just like how your diet needs to be varied yet balanced.

While one has to be consistent in physical activity, people are more often consistent in not doing them. Even active people tend to become less active. It is better to have a variety of movements and not stick to a particular position.

You don’t have to take excessive efforts. At the same time, you should keep yourself from trying. To strike a balance between these, adopting a variety of postures will help. Exit your comfort zone but don’t go too far away.

It is simple. Any recurring posture that causes pressure and tension leads to poor posture. It is hard to cope with postural challenges in this case. In simple terms, anything that makes it harder to retain a comfortable posture is a postural challenge. One of the common postural challenges that we all face is the bad usage of tools.

Example includes having your knees under the chair for a long time while sitting for hours.

Having said this, how much does the poor posture affect the body is an entirely different topic in itself.

• Concentrate the body's weight on the balls of the feet
• Bend your knees a little
• Spread your feet such that they are shoulder-width apart
• Let your hands loose
• Stand with your back erect and tall and slightly pull your shoulders backward
• The stomach must be tucked in
• Stand such that your pinnae are parallel to the shoulders
• In case you must stand for a long time, keep shifting the weight from toes to heels or between the feet.