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The importance of good posture is something that cannot be overemphasized. Good posture offers lots of great values to you if you have one.
Maintaining good posture is vital to your overall health. Without many knowing, good posture is as essential as a healthy diet, sleeping comfortably and exercising. It ensures that your body is in good condition to perform daily tasks with more vigor and energy while avoiding fatigue. It is an essential pillar of your general physical health.
I have spent the last few months researching the importance and mechanics of good posture, and how to get a good posture.
Today I will share everything I have learned. I don’t think you will find a more detailed or clearer guide to posture on the web, so friends, sit straight and read on.
What is Good Posture?
Posture is basically the position in which we keep our body standing, sitting and even lying. A good posture ensures that our whole body is symmetrical in alignment and that the muscular tension is correct. And maintaining good posture should be quite easy.
Furthermore, posture refers to the alignment and positioning of the body with respect to the ever-present force of gravity. Whether we are standing, sitting or lying down, gravity exerts a force on our joints, ligaments, and muscles. Good posture involves spreading the force of gravity within our body so that there is no overstress on any structure.
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Your posture affects the way you walk, run, jump, lift weights and perform other skills. Due to the importance of good posture such as ease of movement, a good balance between muscle strength and flexibility, good spine positioning and proper functioning of internal organs, you will feel good.
In addition, good posture means maintaining the two natural curves on the back. The first curve is the concave curve from the base of the head to the shoulders. The second curve is the concave curve from the top of the back to the base of the spine. It’s like the 2 C shape in the back.
When you are in the correct posture, it should feel almost effortless to maintain the position. When you stand up, the weight of your body should be distributed evenly over the soles of the feet (not on the heels or in the front).
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What Constitutes A Good Posture?
Because of the importance of good posture, maintaining it should not be seen as a massive mental task or a constant nuisance. In fact, the design of the body is to unconsciously maintain a normal posture through certain muscles. Although you should be aware of your posture to some extent, here are some tips to help you.
- Sitting properly: Make sure your feet are on the floor or on a footrest instead of hanging in the air. Keep your knees at or below your hips. Also, keep your shoulders relaxed with your forearms in a parallel position to the ground and your backrest should support your entire back.
- Stand up correctly: Make sure your weight is supported by the soles of the feet, with the feet 4 to 5 inches apart. Tuck in your stomach and keep your hands hanging naturally from the sides of the body. Maintain a straight and tall structure.
- Preferable lying position: An important secret to sleeping well is to have a good comfortable mattress. If you prefer a hard one, it is good enough. Also, if you feel comfortable with a softer one, then it is fine too. Continuously support your head with a pillow that is raised in relation to the rest of your body to facilitate blood circulation. Also, avoid lying on your stomach.
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Importance of Good Posture
1. Improves circulation and digestion
When you are standing or sitting with your body in proper alignment, all your organs can function properly. This includes your stomach, therefore, one importance of good posture is it can improve digestion.
With respect to the digestive system, good posture allows the internal organs of the abdomen to assume their natural position without excessive compression. Excessive compression can interfere with the normal flow and functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. Inadequate posture has been postulated as a contributing factor to various digestive problems such as acid reflux to constipation and even hernias.
2. Help your muscles and joints
Good posture helps us keep bones and joints in proper alignment so that our muscles are used properly. This decreases abnormal wear on joint surfaces, which could lead to degenerative arthritis and joint pain. It also reduces stress on the ligaments that hold the vertebral joints together, thus minimizing the likelihood of injury. Good posture allows muscles to work more efficiently, which allows the body to use less energy and, therefore, prevents muscle fatigue. It also helps prevent muscle fatigue, excessive use disorders and even back and muscle pain.
3. Eliminates back and neck pain
When you have good posture, your bones and spine can balance and support your body weight easily and effectively. When you have poor posture, your muscles, tendons, and ligaments must constantly work overtime to support this same weight. This additional and ineffective effort can cause back and neck pain. It can also cause tension headaches. Focusing on improving your posture can be a great help in addressing these problems.
4. Improves breathing
Another importance of good posture is that it improves breathing. To function effectively, your lungs need space to expand in your chest. Whenever you slump over, your rib cage collapses a bit, leaving less room for your lungs to open, resulting in ineffective breathing.
5. It improves memory and learning
Recent research has shown that there may be a link between good posture and memory retention when learning new things. It is theorized that good posture improves your breathing. Thus it allows you to take more oxygen, and when you take more oxygen, your cognition improves.
6. It gives you a taller and slimmer look
Certain positions of bad posture bring out your belly, giving you a “beer belly” profile. And the sag makes you look smaller than you actually are. Standing straight will correct these problems and improve your appearance.
7. It makes you look confident and powerful
Research shows that tall and fit men are not only considered more attractive by the opposite sex but also earn more during their lives than smaller and overweight men. While there isn’t much you can do about the height God has given you, you can make the most of what you have by standing with the right posture.
Lastly, an open and straight position is simply perceived as more authoritative and dominant.
You see this even with animals. When chimpanzees or dogs are subdued, they bow their heads and become small. Dominant animals, on the other hand, stand upright and take up more space. An upright posture is a “power pose” that transmits trust and status to other humans.
8. It makes you feel confident and powerful
Apart from the fact that good posture makes you look confident, its other importance is that it actually makes you feel confident. This is one reason why the military has focused for more than a century on posture training for its soldiers. They saw that staying upright improves the morale of the troops. Now modern researchers have begun to demonstrate this intuitive observation.
Studies have emerged that highlight the power of the mind/body connection and, in particular, how physical posture and body language affect how we feel mentally and emotionally. What researchers are discovering is that not only will good posture make you look powerful to others but it also makes you feel powerful to yourself.
The reason is simply the presence of testosterone. In her book, Presence, social psychologist Amy Cuddy highlights studies that show how “power postures,” including standing with a good upright posture, increase testosterone and decrease cortisol in the body. On average, assuming a power pose causes a 16% increase in testosterone and an 11% decrease in cortisol in minutes. This will make people feel less anxious and safer. She and her research team discovered that after assuming a powerful pose or simply standing with a good upright posture, individuals were better able to assert themselves, be proactive and comfortable taking risks.
If you suffer from passivity and lack of motivation, start focusing on your posture. It is not a quick fix, of course, and it will not immediately make you a confident and assertive. But it can help, and it is so easy to do that there is no reason not to try.
9. Improves concentration and mental performance
A Colorado College study found that male students with the best sitting posture scored significantly higher on the test than students who slouch.
The increase in concentration and mental performance is probably caused by the increase in testosterone and the decrease in cortisol levels we have just mentioned. As Dr. Tomi Ann Roberts, lead author of the study, concluded: “An upright posture makes people feel dominant and successful, which improves their ability to relax and focus on problems.”
Therefore, one importance of having a good posture is that it can help improve your concentration levels.
10. It improves the mood
Yet another importance of good posture is that it improves one’s mood. Standing and sitting with good posture can not only make you feel more confident and more powerful, but it can also increase your happiness. One study found that when people take up slumpy and slouchy postures while being asked to remember memories, they were more likely to remember sad and depressing episodes. People in an upright position, on the other hand, were more likely to remember happy and positive memories.
11. Healthy spine
One other importance of good posture is that it helps you have a healthy spine. Correct posture is very important to keep the many complex structures of the back and spine healthy. Support is especially important for people who spend many hours sitting in an office chair or standing throughout the day.
If good posture and adequate back support are not maintained, tension can be added to the muscles and pressure on the spine. Over time, the stress of poor posture can change the anatomical characteristics of the spine. This will lead to the possibility of narrowing of the blood vessels and nerves.
Having proper postural alignment will allow you to work more efficiently. There will be less fatigue and tension in the ligaments and muscles of your body. Being aware of good posture is the first step in breaking old habits of bad posture and reducing stress and pressure in the spine.
How to Achieve Good Posture
Having read the importance of good posture, it is necessary to know how to achieve it. Your overall goal with posture is to have a neutral spine. I will show you what to focus on to get that neutral spine when you are standing or sitting.
To achieve correct posture while standing, the ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles should line up in one straight line. A big problem that people have with achieving a neutral spine is getting the shoulders to line up where they should be.
It is of great importance to achieve good posture while standing. Here are some tips:
- Weight should be distributed evenly on both feet while standing. If someone can push you down and easily make you lose your balance, then your body weight is not evenly distributed between your feet.
- Viewing from the side, your ear, shoulder tip, hips, and ankles should line up vertically with each other.
- The chin should be parallel to the floor.
- When viewing yourself from the front, your left and right shoulders should also be aligned, just like your left and right hips.
For more information on how to obtain a good posture while standing, you can read our article on how to keep a straight posture.
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Sitting incorrectly is the most damaging to your posture. Instead of using your skeleton to support your weight, you let your chairs do all the work. Unfortunately, this tends to make you slump and slouch. Combining this with the way you hunch over your computer to get closer to the screen, and you will have a very bad posture.
Therefore, it is of great importance to maintain good posture while sitting. Although this is more difficult than standing. The first thing you can do to reduce the time you sit. Take a break every 30 to 45 minutes to get up and move your body. Go for a walk and do some stretching or even jockey training in the office. If your office allows it, use a standing desk, keeping in mind that standing all day is probably as bad as sitting all day.
To achieve good posture while sitting, you must make sure that:
- The ears are above the tips of the shoulders.
- The shoulders are back. Do not slump forward. They should be nice and relaxed.
- Flat feet on the floor with knees, hips, and elbows bent 90 degrees.
- Take frequent breaks to get up and move.
Conclusion
Having a good posture is of great importance. It improves your concentration levels, gives you a look and feel of confidence, helps in keeping your spine healthy among other things.
Read our article on how to keep a straight posture and maintain a good posture. It is sure to help you achieve the best posture you can.
