At some point in our life we all suffer from back pain. This can be for so many reasons such as sports, an accident or fall, and many other factors. The fact is that most of the time upper and lower back pain occurs during our day to day life, by repetitive activities at home or work. Even sitting at a computer or carrying a bag from your car into your home may produce tension and muscle tightness that will in time cause you to have a bad back ache. There is one vital solution to preventing further back pain and that is to improve your posture.
Apart from improving your posture, a healthy weight and general fitness levels are important factors, but by just improving your posture and being aware of it can help you in so many ways.
A good posture is the way you hold your body while sitting, standing, laying down, walking, lifting, bending, reaching, or pulling. If you keep a good posture during all these activities your spine will stay correctly aligned, and puts as little strain as possible on supporting muscles and ligaments during these activities.
A good posture is key for:
- Reducing lower back pain
- Help relieve headaches
- Help increase your energy levels
- Releases tension in your neck and shoulders
- Decreases your risk of abnormal wear and tear of your joints
- Increase your lung capacity
- Help improve digestion and circulation
- Improve your core strength
- Increases your self-confidence
To maintain a good posture, you will need to maintain good strength and muscle flexibility, good joint motion in the spine as well as postural muscles that are balanced on both sides of the spine.
It is very important to recognise your postural habits as much as you can and correct them when necessary.
What is the best way to improve posture?
- Manage your weight, carrying excess weight can lead to poor biomechanics
- Ensure you are wearing correctly fitted shoes for your day to day activities and for sports
- Carry out targeted exercises to strengthen muscles and improve flexibility
- Ensure you are sitting correctly at a computer station with the screen at the correct height. Your eyes should meet the middle of the screen
- Stand in the correct pose with equal weight bearing through both legs
- When lifting heaving objects, bend at the knees rather than bending your back and engage your core muscles
The good news is that posture can be corrected. Once you are aware of your own posture and knowing what is the right posture, this will help you consciously correct yourself throughout the day. After time and much practice, the correct posture for standing, lying down, sitting etc will replace your old habits of bad posture, and then this will give you a better and healthier body position.
How can physiotherapy help?
At Home Physio Group our highly skilled and professional physiotherapists will assess your posture in your own environment, at home, at work or in a care home. They will be able to help you correct your posture by giving you a personalised programme of postural exercises that is built around your needs and your environment. It will include exercises to strengthen your core muscles and help assist you with proper postures during certain activities, which in turn will help reduce your risk of any future injury.
Please call Home Physio Group to talk to one of the team about your posture and how we can help you or you can fill in the enquiry form on our website.