If you want to improve your posture, understanding what good posture is, can be a good place to start.
Good posture refers to when your body is aligned, with your chin parallel to the floor and shoulders at even hights. This includes maintaining the natural curves in your spine and ensuring good balance. Understanding what bad posture can also be helpful to achieve better posture. Many people believe that there are single factors that cause poor posture. However, there is no evidence to support these claims.
Bad or compensated posture is created by a combination of factors that impact the body’s balance and alignment.
Here are some of the main factors that impact posture:
1. Being overweight.
This makes it difficult for them to stand up straight because of the weight on their legs and hips.
2. Stress.
Many people are not aware of the fact that stress can also cause poor posture. Stress causes muscle tightness and can affect the positioning of your body, impacting posture.
3. Injury.
Some injuries can also cause poor posture. As you can imagine having an injury such as leg, foot or back injury will impact the way you carry yourself, throwing your body and posture out of alignment.
4. Vision Problems.
Many people are unaware of the impact that poor vision can have on alignment and posture. If you are having to strain your eyes and neck to see things this can have a huge impact on your body’s alignment and balance, ultimately impacting your posture.
Here are some of the common signs that you need to improve your posture.
• Forward head carriage
• Bent knees.
• Rounded shoulders
• Back and neck pain
One of the best ways to improve your posture is to start with good posture habits at the start of the day. Making a conscious effort to keep your head up and chin parallel to the floor, rolling your shoulders up, back, and down to help activate even shoulders. Exercises to strengthen the core including abdominal and lower back muscles can help to hold the spine and pelvis in alignment and prevent any injury. Have strong stabilizer muscles is very important in maintaining a neutral spine and neutral posture.
Osteopathy takes an holistic approach to health care and focuses on the body as a whole to aim to restore balance and alignment throughout all aspects of the body.
Seeing an Osteo can help improve your posture and balance.
Book a session with our friendly team at Complete Care Osteo in Lilydale. We look forward to seeing you in the clinic soon 😊
Ph (03) 7036 6525
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