Health &Wellness The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body
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HOW TO IMPROVE POSTURE QUICKLY & EASILY!
pain and carpal tunnel syndrome. All of those times your mother told you to “Stand up straight,” or “Stop slouching,” she was trying to help you not only feel more confident, she also wanted you to be healthier as a result. Even though you cannot stop the hands of time or quit performing repetitive tasks, there are simple ways you can improve your posture quickly and easily. WORK ON ALIGNMENT Great posture is all about training the body to remain in positions that put the least amount of strain on the muscles and joints. Consider how you spend the majority of your time during the course of a day. Are you sitting in a chair at work? Lifting, bending, squatting, or stretching? Do you do certain tasks over and over? How is your posture each time you do these things? While sitting, this means that all three curves of the back should be present with your weight evenly distributed on both hips. Correct lifting positions involve keeping your back straight and bending at the knees and hips. While standing, you should be able to draw a straight line from your head to your feet that touches your spine and runs through your hips. Wearing proper footwear fitted with custom orthotics designed for your work environment can help you maintain your posture while you perform basic tasks over the course of the day.
Watching a confident person walk into a room, what is the first thing you notice? Their hair? Their outfit? Or something we like to call, “The way they carry themselves.” That undeniable, but undefinable “carriage” is what often defines our first impression not only of a person’s health, but their intelligence and mental clarity as well. POSTURE & AGING It is no surprise that our bodies change as we get older. Beginning at about age 30, our bodies lose lean muscle mass and bone density making it harder to maintain a healthy weight. Changes in the cartilage and cushioned discs between the spine actually force us to begin “shrinking” as we age. In fact, it is common to lose one-half inch of height every decade after your peak height due to these changes. As a result, our posture naturally changes as we age to accommodate all of these factors. Postural changes, in turn, affect joint pain, balance and gait resulting in the characteristic poor posture so common in older people. That’s not to say that improving posture is exclusively an older person’s job. Poor posture can contribute to a host of health problems in every adult such as digestive problems, high blood pressure, chronic pain, and balance problems. Posture also affects the way you perform repetitive activities. Sitting slouched over a keyboard at work or stooped over while performing a repetitive task in a manufacturing plant can contribute to chronic back
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