It’s difficult to overstate just how important posture can be to our general health. Sitting or standing with correct alignment helps us to support our muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
It also reduces pain, improves blood flow, and is even associated with increased confidence.
In this article, The Home Gym presents a few methods you can implement to improve your natural stance and why these matter.
Methods for Improvement
There are plenty of ways that you can reduce daily damage done to your spine and work to develop better posture.
Exercise
You don’t need to be a weightlifter to improve your spinal health.
There are plenty of exercises you can carry out on a daily basis that require minimal strain and can help you to achieve results quickly – these include the bent over row, the lunge position row, and the inverted row.
Make sure to check online to find one that you’re comfortable with.
Office Furniture
Considering many of us spend over 40 hours a week working, it’s important to have the infrastructure in place that will protect our spinal health throughout our adult lives.
This might include ergonomic office chairs, adjustable desks, and a space at home where you can carry out lunchtime exercises.
Reduce Stress
There is a clear link between high stress and chronic back pain. It’s important, therefore, to take measures that you know will help you to release tension and find calm.
You can start at home by decluttering, re-organizing, and rethinking your lighting to include more natural light and brighter bulbs.
You can kill two birds with one stone by creating a digital storage system for your records.
Not only will you reduce clutter, but you will be able to easily find what you are looking for when you need it.
Use a scanner to turn paper documents into digital ones, and free online tools to convert and split these files to PDFs.
Use this free tool to extract specific pages from longer documents to save space or to create more focused digital folders for your system. Simply drop in the file, use the divider lines to select your pages, and extract.
Visit a Chiropractor
You’ll find plenty of benefits to visiting a chiropractor.
A professional can address your spine and its alignment, offering exercises and assessing your gait whilst also treating any pain and lowering your blood pressure.
Reap the Benefits of Better Posture
Good posture doesn’t just make you look better. It can help your body to function the way it should and help you to feel better overall.
Here are some ways addressing your posture can help you.
Better Breathing
The advantages of good posture are far-reaching and include increased lung capacity, easier breathing, and improved cardiovascular health, explains Byrdie.
A good start would be to practice breathing more through your nose.
Increased Height
We might not pay much attention to the way we stand, but a few small adjustments can greatly impact our posture.
When you stand tall, your spine is in a neutral position, your shoulders are back, and your chin is parallel to the floor. This can help you to evenly distribute your weight and minimize the strain on your muscles/joints.
Better still, this stance will also increase your height (you’d be surprised how your favorite celebrities carry themselves to add to or diminish the appearance of their heights).
Reduced Injury
By improving your posture, you’re also likely to reduce your chance of injury, spinal deterioration, and the pain that comes with spinal conditions.
Sacroiliitis, degenerative disc disease, and Ankylosing spondylitis (a form of arthritis) both have links to posture.
Fortunately, you can reduce your chances of suffering later in life by addressing the issue now.
Increased Energy
It may not be immediately clear how posture and energy levels are related, but studies show a connection between spinal health and energy levels.
Doctors believe this connection is because when the spine is healthy, the nervous system keeps a positive flow of energy between the brain and nerves.
If you can take steps to improve your stance, you may find yourself with more day-to-day vitality.
Take Steps Today for Better Spine Health Tomorrow
Our backs are the unsung heroes of our bodies.
When your back isn’t in good shape, you feel it in your entire body.
Perfect posture and consistent back care takes hard work, but the true benefits of this are far-reaching and can benefit you for the rest of your life.
Take action today with a few exercises, home office adjustments, or a taller stance, and you’ll be sure to thank yourself later.
