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Posture is something that plays an important role in our daily lives. Your posture can really affect how you feel. Good posture can provide you with higher energy levels, more confidence, relief of neck tension, migraine relief, preventing back and shoulder problems, and support for existing chronic back pain.
There are different types of bad posture problems, including lordosis, kyphosis, flat back, swayback, and forward head and neck. If you have any of these different types of bad posture problems, read on to determine what is causing it and how to correct it.
What is Bad Posture?
Bad posture is often caused by tense, stretched, or weak muscles that exert different tensions in the body. It affects the way we sit, stand, and walk.
Bad posture can lead to different problems like aesthetic and functional problems. Bad posture can make you less confident because you are not able to stand or sit straight.
Over time, poor posture can cause various health problems related to the spine, shoulders, knees, and hips. You may experience back and leg pain, poor flexibility, weak muscles, tense nerves and a limited ability to burn fat.
If you have ever seen someone walk, sit or even stand awkwardly, then understand you know what bad posture means. Unknown to many, poor posture affects more than their appearance when standing or sitting. Your spine dictates your physical and mental well-being. When your spine is out of alignment, it can cause more serious problems than laziness and discomfort.
There are many reasons why people have bad posture. This may be due to old injuries. For others, these problems could be innate. In most cases, poor posture may be due to the position you take as part of your lifestyle or profession.
Here is an in-depth look at the different examples of bad posture.
Continue reading to know the different types of bad posture
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Effects of Poor Posture on the Skeletal and Muscular Systems
Different Types of Bad Posture
Kyphosis
Kyphosis is one of the different types of bad posture. Kyphosis is a common condition that results in the rounding of the front of the upper back region. Compared to natural curves that have a curvature of approximately 20 to 50 degrees, kyphosis has an excess curve greater than 50 degrees. Someone with a kyphosis posture has rounded shoulders, which gives an excessive curvature of the back and a hyperextended cervical spine.
This causes the spine to hunch over and makes you appear to have a hunch back or to be slouching. It also makes you have a depressed chest. Kyphosis can be seen at any age, but it is most often seen in older women after osteoporosis weakens the bones of the spine until they break and compress.
Kyphosis is also seen among the elderly, office workers who spend plenty of time on the computer daily, people suffering from obesity, women with large breasts, and very tall people. If you have kyphosis, you may experience back pain and stiffness.
This is one of the different types of bad posture and it puts a lot of pressure on your back and neck. This will lead to the weakening of the muscles in your upper back and abdomen. These muscles are designed to help you stand and sit in a straight posture. The weakening of these muscles is what causes pain and discomfort.
Flatback
The spine has a natural curve. It has two curves forming an “S”. When you have a flatback syndrome, the spine loses the lower curve and becomes flat. That is, instead of the natural curves of the spine, the alignment of the spine is flatter than usual for people with flatbacks.
This causes an imbalance in the spine and the pelvis retracts, forcing people with a flat posture to lean forward. If you have a flat back, you may find it difficult to sit straight or have constant pain in your back or legs. Muscle imbalances are often to blame for this posture. The flatback syndrome can develop due to degenerative disc disease, compression fractures, or ankylosing spondylitis.
Continue reading to know the different types of bad posture
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Long term effects of poor posture
Forward Head and Neck Posture
One of the different types of bad posture is forward head or neck posture. In this posture position, the neck and head are in a forward position where the head extends beyond the shoulders.
Forward neck is also called text neck. This is because the more we lean over our phones and our computers throughout the day, our neck leans forward.
You may feel tension, stiffness or pain in your neck, shoulders, and back. The body will follow where your head is going, so if your head is forward, your shoulders and back will also lean forward.
Your neck is designed to remain vertical to support the weight of your skull, which on average is approximately 10 to 12 pounds. For every inch your head leans forward, this adds another 10 pounds of stress to the neck, shoulders, back, and spine.
Swayback (Lordosis)
Everyone has a natural curve in the spine called lordosis. But when your posture exaggerates this vertebral curve, it can cause hyperlordosis or swayback with a greater pelvic tilt. This is one of the different types of bad posture. It is the reverse of Kyphosis.
When this condition occurs, the spine curves inward at the lower back and also in the area of the neck. It is marked by an excessive curve at the lower back. This usually causes back pain and discomfort, as well as the ability to move. This posture places a lot of pressure on the midsection and is a regular occurrence for people who spend a lot of time standing.
This posture unevenly allocates weight on your spine and other joints, thus, causing stress and strain which end up causing pain. When you suffer from lordosis or swayback, it may seem that you are trying to stick out your stomach and buttocks.
Also, it can cause your buttocks to shift further behind and your head leaning forward. This will disrupt your balance and force your lower back to work harder.
This posture condition can be caused by many different things, including osteoporosis, kyphosis, obesity, and pregnancy. The lordosis posture is common among truckers and pregnant women. Some other things that can contribute to this posture can be constantly wearing high heels. Sleeping on your stomach can also contribute to swayback posture. Therefore, reduce the wearing of high heels. Furthermore, you can start sleeping on your side or on your back.
The best way to correct this posture is to strengthen the abdominal muscles and stretches with chiropractic care.
Scoliosis
Another one of the different types of bad posture is scoliosis. Scoliosis is the lateral curvature or abnormal twisting of the spine. Someone with this posture may also have an uneven height of the hip or shoulder.
There are two main types of scoliosis. They are idiopathic and congenital scoliosis. People with congenital scoliosis have abnormalities in the rib cage section, such as concave depression or hump.
Idiopathic scoliosis often results from sitting on one hip with the leg aside for a long time until the spine adjusts to the position. It is also a normal posture for those in the production chain, as they must constantly turn or lean in one direction. Learning to sit in a chair with scoliosis can help rehabilitate this condition.
Continue reading to know the different types of bad posture
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Sitting positions for good posture
Which Posture is Best?
The best posture is the neutral posture where the spine, pelvis, and hips line up vertically. The impact of any movement is spirally balanced. Only a small percentage of the population has the ideal neutral posture.
Neutral posture means the correct use of the muscles so that the bones and joints are perfectly aligned. Correct alignment decreases the risk of abnormal wear on joint surfaces and stress on the ligaments.
Using the correct posture and keeping the spine aligned are the most important things you can do for your back. Good posture should keep your body aligned. Your ears should line up on your shoulder, which then lines up on your hips, and when standing, these points should line up on your ankles. If you have trouble maintaining good posture, we recommend that you wear a posture splint or participate in posture exercises.
A brace will help train your body so it feels right and posture exercises will strengthen your heart, back and shoulder muscles to help keep your body in the right position. When you have a good posture the effects of the different types of bad posture will not be seen on your body.
How Can I Make Sure I Have a Good Posture?
If you are not sure of your posture, you can look in a full-length mirror and ask a friend to help you observe if:
- Your head is straight, not forward or backward.
- Your shoulders are level and aligned with your ears.
- The space between your arms and your sides is the same.
- Your hips are level.
- Your stomach is flat.
- The lower back has a slight curve.
- Its kneecaps are straight and not turned.
- The ankles are straight.
- The chin is parallel to the floor and is not tilted up or down.
How to Improve the Different Types of Bad Posture
Most people can improve their bad posture. The mere awareness of their incorrect position may be sufficient for some people and they make a conscious effort to improve their posture. Over time, it becomes second nature to sit and stand properly.
Other people can improve their posture through exercise. Doing regular exercises that focus on a problem area can strengthen and train the body in the right position.
You can read our article on how to keep a straight posture and how to maintain good posture to help you in your bid to improve your posture.
If you have any of these different types of poor posture, I recommend that you make use of Posture Corrector For Men And Women (USA Patented Design). It has an adjustable Upper Back Brace For Clavicle Support and Providing Pain Relief From Neck, Back and Shoulder (Universal). Click on this link to purchase on Amazon.
Conclusion and Recommendation
There are several different types of bad posture as we have already discussed. It is necessary to have a healthy posture to maintain spine alignment. Any time there is a shift in the alignment of the spine, it will lead to one of the different types of bad posture.
Furthermore, the misalignment of the body has many causes and cases are often unique. If you are worried about your posture, I recommend that you go to a skeletal muscle specialist (such as a physical therapist) for an exam.
