Many of us believe that our posture is very good, but the truth is that our brain has adapted to feeling balanced and straight even when we’re not.
Posture refers to a person’s body in space and the alignment of different body parts in relation to one another.
Constant bad posture can lead to musculoskeletal misalignment causing pain, and to correct this, we need to have postural awareness.
‘Postural awareness is the subjective conscious awareness of our body posture. Understanding one’s posture patterns is crucial due to its many benefits to maintain an optimal state of health.’
Posture can be divided into either dynamic or static posture.
Dynamic posture refers to how we hold ourselves when walking, running or lifting things. Muscles and other structures must keep working to adapt to changing circumstances.
Static posture is how we hold ourselves when we are not moving like when sitting or standing. Our bodies are held in a static position by various muscle groups working together to counteract gravity.
A relationship has been observed between spinal pain and posture, so improving one’s posture helps to decrease any musculoskeletal pain, plus a good posture helps to improve oxygenation and reduce pressure on intervertebral discs, leading to many other health benefits.
The spine has three natural curves – neck, upper back and lower back – and a good posture means maintaining these curves. In an ideal posture, a line should be passed through the lobe of the ear, the shoulder joint, the hip, the knee and the ankle.
Increased spinal pressure, neck and back pain, decreased flexibility, making breathing and digestion more laboured and affecting our joint movement are just a few of the health issues that could arise.
As many of us are now working in front of our computers at our homemade workstations, our postures have deteriorated rapidly. It is therefore important to focus on correcting these imbalances with the following tips:
Andries Lodder, Biokinetics
