Rounded shoulders, slouching while seated, leaning on one leg when standing, or extending your head too far forward are all common examples of poor posture, and each can have very dire side effects.
Poor posture can result in headaches, fatigue, stiffness and recurrent back and neck pain. In more serious cases the results can be nerve impingement, sciatica and even difficulties breathing.
Suffice to say, improving and maintaining good posture is a huge part of maintaining good overall health and wellbeing.
What Causes Poor Posture?
Our poor posture may be caused by sitting in office chairs, cradling our phone to our ear, carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, driving, standing for long periods, sleeping or carrying children. Perhaps you feel it may be hereditary or something you’ve always lived with and don’t know how to address it.
Regardless of the reason behind your poor posture, there are many well researched ways for addressing poor posture, and the benefits of doing so are extensive.
The Many Benefits of Good Posture
The benefits of good posture far exceed the physical side effects.
It’s true that good posture ensures our bodies and bones are in alignment, and the tension in our ligaments and muscles are distributed properly, but what about our psychological health?
How we look and feel may be directly related to our posture. When we are feeling strong and confident, we are undoubtedly standing tall, head up and feeling ready to take on the world. Alternatively, poor posture can have the opposite effect. Many of us go about our lives living with a hunched back, rounded shoulders, imbalanced hips and in pain, because we think this is normal.
This does not have to be your normal.
How Can You Improve Your Posture?
Good news! Improving your posture is as easy as strengthening and maintaining a healthy core.
Research has shown that exercise, stretching, resistance training and functional exercises all help to support, reinforce and maintain good posture. Not only will they improve the way you look and feel, they will make you more functional, while improving your strength, agility and flexibility.
By following a properly prescribed treatment program with consistent effort, you will quickly regain good posture, improve core strength, increase flexibility and reduce pain and injury.
The Optimum Movement Centre incorporates MedX equipment with functional exercises and specialised trainers to help you increase strength, flexibility, endurance and range of motion.