Bad sitting, poor standing, and lousy walking lead to pain.
Mental Posture
Humans are the only animal that develops poor posture as a result of thoughts and emotions. We carry our feelings, stress, and anxiety in our bodies. Correct posture not only relieves pain, but it can also give us more energy.
Use Fewer Muscles
Good posture takes less effort than slouching. That is why proper posture can be maintained without triggering pain. A slouch strains muscles that are not designed to hold your body upright. Poor posture also strains the tendons and ligaments that connect your joints.
Posture Affects Breathing
Poor posture tightens muscle around the ribs and can even shorten the diaphragm, which limits deep breaths. Poor posture encourages shallow breathing, rather than slower, deeper breathing from the belly.
Balance
The key is balance. Our muscles work in pairs or groups. If we overuse or misuse a set of muscles, they can get out of balance with their partners. Also, by sitting too long, we can lengthen or shorten muscles over time, so they don’t work as they were designed.
Back Alignment
Balance is especially important for the spine, which is like a stack of bagels. That stack has to balance a bowling ball. (Your head weighs as much as a bowling ball). Without the surrounding muscle, the spine would flop over like a stack of blocks. Also, a spare tire out front can pull the spine out of natural alignment.
Rubber Necking
Don’t use your neck muscle to keep your head in position, use a balanced position to keep your head in place with your eyes forward, not down. Put your hand on your neck to test if you are using your neck muscle to keep your head in place. The neck muscle you can feel should not be tense.
Knee Alignment
Knee joints also rely on muscle to keep them aligned. If you look at your thighs, muscles come on each side of the knee. If one muscle gets tighter, this can pull your knee out of alignment, causing pain and damage to cartilage.
Stand Tall
For good standing posture, stand like a thread suspends you by the ears, with a natural curve to your spine, shoulders even (not rounded but relaxed), and head balanced on your spine. Watch for phone-neck. If you look at your phone too much, you can tuck your chin too low, pull your head forward, and strain your neck. Avoid standing at attention with your chest out and hips tilted forward. Keep a natural pose. Think tall. Putting your head in the tallest position helps align your spine.
Stay on the Balls
When standing, the line from your ear to your shoulder to your hip to the balls of your feet should be straight. Don’t rest your weight on your heels, rest on the balls of your feet. This helps keep your head from leaning forward.
Have a Seat
To practice good sitting posture, sit upright on the edge of a chair without using the backrest. To balance yourself, put one foot farther back. Balance is the key. Use your position to balance your head, not your muscles. It is common to rest your head too far forward, which stresses your neck muscles. Another problem with many chairs is the lack of lower back support. These chairs tend to round the back and shoulders and push the head too far forward.
Relaxed Sitting
When you are watching TV, it is not practical to sit on the edge of your seat. The best seating is a chair whose back leans 25 degrees to the back so you can relax without rounding your back. Armrests can help support your arms without raising the shoulders. If the chair doesn’t have armrests, you can wedge in some pillows at the correct height. This keeps your shoulders in position and without rounding. Remember to consciously relax to avoid keeping your muscles tight.
Don’t Grow Roots
Our body needs movement to survive. If we sit perfectly still or even stand perfectly still, we start to hurt after a few minutes. Muscles, and especially connective tissues, need movement to get nourishment. Use your phone voice assistant to set an alarm for 40 minutes, so you don’t sit too long.
Lead with your Head
To stand up from a chair, lead with the head. Move to the edge of a chair, then lift your head as if by the ears. Your body will follow.
Stride in Style
The ideal state for our two-legged body is walking. We were built for walking, which is kind of falling forward. Keep your shoulders relaxed, don’t hike them up, and don’t use them for breathing, use your belly (diaphragm). Swing your arms naturally. Keep your head balanced on your neck.
Light on Your Feet
Correct walking should have a feeling of lightness, not plodding. The trick is to keep your head high. Try leaning your hips forward slightly when walking. This gives the sensation of powered walking as the lean forward uses gravity to propel you.
Stability
When you are standing, the big muscles at the base of your back should not be tense. The big muscles are for moving, not holding. Inner stabilizer muscles hold in one place, like guy-wires. In our back, many small muscles connect each vertebrae in the back to each other and the ribs. This deep layer is covered by a second layer with longer muscles that run up and down. Finally, that is covered by a third layer of the large muscles we can feel on our back. If the big muscles have to do the work of the longer, thinner, deeper muscles, they become tired. They are not designed for holding a position. The deep stabilizer muscles have fibers that can tense for a long time.
Suck it in
Similarly, there are muscles underneath the ab muscles we can feel and see (or used to). These muscles are essential for stabilizing the spine. One easy exercise to strengthen this deep muscle is to sit in a chair and exhale, sucking in your belly as far back as you can. Hold for 10 seconds.
Easy Strength
Some of the best exercises to strengthen stabilizer muscle are planks (pushup position on your forearms) and pushups. Another exercise is to lay on your back with your knees bent and then lift your hips to straighten your body from knee to neck.
We Like Strong Butts
One foundational muscle that is easy to exercise and is often weak is the butt. A simple exercise to strengthen this is to kneel on all fours like a horse. Then raise one leg up and back without bending the knee. Do this repeatedly for both legs. A stronger butt helps you sit and stand straight.
Whole Body Reset
To reset your stabilizer and give them a rest, lay flat on the floor (or exercise mat) and put a book under your head. Use 2 or 3 books to raise your head about 2” to 3”. Keep your knees bent. You can use a pillow to prop them up if needed. Lay still on your back on the floor for 10 minutes. Do this 5 times a day to reset your stabilizers.
Stretch Yourself
The hardest part of good posture is breaking bad habits. Years of bad posture may have weakened the correct standing muscles, so it takes time to correct. Work to fix it slowly. Daily practice and mindfulness of posture are critical to good posture habits. Often it helps to develop a daily stretching program to keep muscles limber.
Mirror Practice
Practice proper posture and have someone videotape you or use a mirror. When you are in the correct position and relaxed, only the muscles designed for that purpose are active. This can eliminate pain and tension as muscles are used for what they are best at.
Ask for Help
It may also be worthwhile to get the help of a physio or a chiropractor. Let them know you are looking to improve your posture, and they will be able to evaluate and help improve your stance.
