Sit Up Straight — The Importance of Good Posture

If you’re like many of our patients at iMed Regenerative Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, you grew up with someone telling you to sit up straight or to stop slouching. Sitting up straight is great, but unfortunately, that’s all many people ever learned about posture.

Good posture encompasses more than simply sitting up straight. It’s about how you hold your body and the position of your muscles and bones as you move around on your job, as you engage in typical daily activities, and as you stay active in athletics.

Poor posture is a significant contributor to knee pain, as well as back and neck pain. If you spend much time on your computer, smartphone, or tablet you’re probably familiar with the neck strain that develops after too long with your head bent down looking at a screen.

Ergonomics is all about holding your electronics and arranging your computer in a way that avoids bad posture.

Here are some of the top reasons why good posture is important for your overall health and well-being.

Maintain healthy muscles and bones

Your bones and joints are naturally arranged in a specific alignment that supports movement and balances and stabilizes your body. Proper alignment allows your musculoskeletal system to function with the least amount of stress.

Every time you take a step, run, or jump, pressure travels from your feet, up your legs and to your hips and upper body. Along the way, proper alignment ensures that the load is evenly distributed, preventing excessive stress on one body part.

The joints that sustain extensive pressure or repetitive movement, like your knees, can only bear the ongoing stress of joint loading (the force on the joint when you’re active) when the joint structures are properly aligned.

Poor posture means that at least one part of your body is out of alignment. And when one part isn’t toeing the line, the rest of your musculoskeletal structures take on more pressure and stress than they can manage. The increased stress puts you at risk of developing:

  • Strained muscles
  • Stiff or knotted muscles
  • Sprained ligaments
  • Pinched nerves
  • Joint damage
  • Overuse injuries
  • Stress fractures
  • Limited range of motion
  • Muscle fatigue and cramps

The primary reason why good posture is important is because it helps prevent injuries and chronic pain.

Support your body’s balance

Your body has the remarkable ability to maintain its balance and coordination through a wide range of movements.

Whether you reach over too far to pick up something or you put extensive demands on your body in the form of the twists, turns, and rapid movement demanded by football, dancing, tennis, and other activities, you rely on good posture to adjust for abnormal positions and keep you functioning.

You also depend on good posture to maintain the correct form while exercising and engaging in sports.

Keep your blood moving and air flowing

If you followed the instructions over years of being told to sit up straight, you eventually turned good posture into a habit that you don’t have to think about. If you sit up straight most of the time, you quickly realize how uncomfortable it feels to slouch. But the problem extends beyond your musculoskeletal system.

Slouching diminishes blood flow, affecting your overall health and performance. When you sit with rounded shoulders and your head bent, the muscles in your chest tighten, limiting the movement of your rib cage and diaphragm. As a result, your breathing becomes abnormally shallow and deprives your body of oxygen.

At iMed Regeneration Center, we evaluate your posture and teach you tips and exercises to improve your posture. We also offer chiropractic care and physical rehabilitation for patients with severe posture problems or injuries resulting from poor posture.

For a posture assessment and to relieve pain caused by poor posture, call our iMed Regeneration Center team or schedule an appointment using our online tool.

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