How many times have you been told in your life to stand up straight, drop your shoulders, or if you don\u2019t stand up straight, you\u2019ll pay for it later? From the time we\u2019re small, we\u2019re often told the \u201cright\u201d way to stand and sit. But what if I told you that everything you\u2019ve heard about having good posture isn\u2019t necessarily true? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, what is good posture, anyway? Most people would describe this as having your back straight with your spine in perfect alignment, the shoulders back, and the head neutral. There are even postural analysis charts and testing to determine if someone is in perfect alignment. But here\u2019s the thing…perfect posture doesn\u2019t really exist. My posture is probably going to be slightly different than yours and different from your neighbors, your coworkers, or your spouse. Our bodies are unique, our lifestyles are unique, and our posture and alignment is going to be just as unique. This is why it\u2019s often uncomfortable, or even painful to hold \u201cperfect posture\u201d if we\u2019re not used to it. That\u2019s because you\u2019re putting your body into an abnormal position. Instead of thinking of perfect posture as some sort of perfect line you\u2019re supposed to keep your body in, think of it more in terms of positioning the body in a way that allows body parts, like muscles, ligaments, etc. to function to their full capacity, and without creating some sort of painful muscles, sore body, or injury. The optimal position of your body depends on your body\u2019s needs and what it has become accustomed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our bodies adapt according to our lifestyle. If, for most of your life, you\u2019ve maintained the posture that\u2019s commonly considered \u2018correct\u2019, then that\u2019s how your body will naturally hold as you go about your life. If, however, you\u2019ve lived much of your life bending forward, your posture may look \u2018bad\u2019, but you have no ill effects of it; no pain, no loss of function, etc. Perfect alignment is almost impossible to achieve at all times for most people, and for many, it may actually cause problems to constantly force yourself into that position. Again, our bodies and our lifestyles are so unique to one another. My spine\u2019s normal may be different than your spine\u2019s normal. This isn\u2019t to say that muscle aches and pain is normal, or that you shouldn\u2019t strive to make sure you are doing the most you can for your spine health, but it just doesn\u2019t make sense to compare apples to oranges. Finding what your body\u2019s ultimate posture is, is key to your spine health. It\u2019s important to note that movement is key in maintaining your body\u2019s spine health because sitting in the same position for long periods of time can be stressful on the spine, no matter how \u2018good\u2019 your holding posture is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This doesn\u2019t mean we should sit in awkward positions and throw the entire idea of alignments out the window. But the important thing isn\u2019t necessarily how you stand or sit throughout the day, but rather the strength of the muscles that support the spine. The stronger those muscles, the \u2018safer\u2019 the spine remains even in seemingly abnormal positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll hear many professionals make the claim that your poor posture is causing your back pain, neck pain, or whatever else you complain of; but for many, the natural posture our body feels most comfortable in may very well be preventing our pain from worsening or appearing at all. Anytime we discuss posture, it\u2019s important to determine if your posture is causing your pain, or if your pain is causing your posture. Is your back hurting because you round forward, or are you rounding forward in an instinctual way of protecting your back? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, don\u2019t buy into the hype of perfect posture, and the thousands of types of money-making devices and tools that promise to give you that perfect pose. If you\u2019re not hurting from the way you sit and stand now, it may very well not be necessary to mess with it. If you are experiencing pain, it\u2019s best to talk with a professional about what\u2019s really happening wand what really needs to be done about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How many times have you been told in your life to stand up straight, drop your shoulders, or if you don\u2019t stand up straight, you\u2019ll pay for it later? From the time we\u2019re small, we\u2019re often told the \u201cright\u201d way to stand and sit. But what if I told you that everything you\u2019ve heard about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,50,18,27,16,17,23,15,21,43,13,44,41,51,56,39,45,57,33,14,12,10,24,59,32,20,11,40,31,22,26,19,55,9,52,47,34,42,58,25,36,37,28,30,38,49,48,46,53,54,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rechargeyourselfmassage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}