While growing, you must have been told on numerous occasions to either sit well or stand straight. Unfortunately, remote jobs seem to be taking over, so sitting for hours at a go seems to be the new norm.
But do you know your posture has a huge impact on your health? Usually, we tend to assume different body postures under various conditions. However, a good posture means standing or sitting uprightly in such a way that would maintain the spine curves.
Normally, you find spines in three places in the upper half of the body, including the neck, mid-back, and lower back.
The dynamic posture is the posture you take while walking, jumping, or moving, while the static posture comes into effect when we sleep, sit or even stand.
Unfortunately, people maintain different postures due to job demand, sedentary lifestyle, joint stiffness amidst other reasons. The implication of not maintaining a good posture is that it affects your breathing patterns and your flexibility.
Here comes the question- Why do you need to maintain a healthy and good posture? Here are the health benefits of maintaining a good posture.
1. Reduction of Lower Back Pain
Sitting and standing for a lengthy period is not medically encouraged. This results in the continuous piling of pressure on the ligaments and muscles, which in turn causes pain.
You should move around for about 10-20 minutes after a long time in a position. Also, stretching your body at intervals helps strengthen your muscles, thereby reducing lower back pain.
If you want to maintain good posture with the purpose of lowering back pain, then purchasing a good posture corrector is a great option.
2. Lesser Headaches
When you assume a bad posture, you put your neck muscle under tension resulting in tension headache.
Tension headache ranges from mild to serious tight-banded headache. Therefore, a good posture helps reduce the chances of this happening.
3. Improves Muscle Function
The body has about 640 muscles that are joined to the bones through the tendons. The muscles allow you to perform flexible actions like walking, running, etc. It is essential that your bones are properly aligned for the muscles to work well, and this depends on how you carry your body.
A good posture strengthens your muscles, allowing you to carry out your daily routines without issues.
4. Enhancement of Proper Body Circulation
Sitting or standing upright allows blood, oxygen, and nutrients to move around the body without hiccups. With improved circulation, the waste products would be removed easily from the body while the organs are constantly nourished with nutrients.
Anatomically, the neck has some muscles that interact with the portion of the brain that regulates blood pressure. Therefore, sitting all day or not maintaining a good posture may increase your blood pressure.
5. Enhances Digestion
The body is interlinked; therefore, posture affecting your body’s ability to digest food shouldn’t be surprising. When you assume a better posture, your body organs are well placed and aligned. Also, blood flow is optimal; therefore, food digestion would go on normally.
On the other hand, bad posture could be a propeller for gastrointestinal diseases like heartburn and many others.
6. Enhances Breathing and Lung Function
A bad posture is likely to negatively affect your breathing and lung capacity. For example, when you slouch often, your frontal muscles and tendons shorten, that reduces your capacity to take deep breaths. However, maintaining a good posture can enhance your breathing ability and lung function.
7. Boosts Your Mood
Another fascinating one of the health benefits of maintaining posture is that it can boost your mood. Having a good posture and help combat stress, reduce bad mood, and increase positive mood compared to a bad posture.
Some medical studies have shown that there is a clear link between posture and anxiety. One study by Harvard University stated that sitting up straight improved certain symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression.
Improving your posture can be very difficult, and learning to adjust your gait can take time. However, you can only reap these health benefits of maintaining a good posture, when try to improve your posture. Good health doesn’t just involve exercising and sleeping well; little things like maintaining a good posture could go a long way in improving your health.
So there really WAS something to all that childhood chiding from our mothers, after all! Who would’ve thought!? Thanks for all the great tips. I work in a hospital, so I am always on the movie, my posture at home leaves much to be desired! I gotta remedy that.
Great tips. My chiropractor is always talking to me about my posture so this is a great reminder why. I suffer from low back pain and definitely find when I sit up right, the pain is much less.
I am bad for maintaining a good posture, especially when working on the computer or reading. But, you are right, it is so important for health. Great post.