How to Prevent Bad Back Pain with Good Posture?

You might remember your mother asking you to stop slouching and making you sit up straight. At that time, it felt annoying, but in the end she was right to correct you. To prevent or reduce lumbar issues, maintaining a proper posture is considered as one of the most important factors. It is also a simple technique that can help you to get rid of neck and back pain.

To keep your spine stable and strong, maintaining a healthy posture is quite vital. Additional pressure and strain is put on the ligaments and muscles when you slump or slouch. These muscles and ligaments help to maintain balance of your body. This is a major reason for causing muscle strains, back pain, fatigue, weakened abdominal muscles, headaches and other similar problems.

Displacement or movement of inter-vertebral discs which is one of the most common reasons of chronic back pain in chiropractic patients is also caused by bad posture. This may result in weakening of different muscle groups which help in maintaining correct posture, making it quite hard to sit or stand in a proper way.

A number of health benefits are there with good posture. It helps to maintain muscle strength and improves the airflow in your body. A good posture is considered much healthier for your musculoskeletal system as it prevents strain. It makes you look a lot better as sitting or standing in an upright position makes a person appear more confident and assertive to others. When you stand in a proper straight up position, you may look thinner, taller and even younger than before. Therefore it is possible that your good posture might get you that extra attention!

How to Define Good Posture?

For many years people have thought that standing or sitting upright with your head and shoulders thrown back and spine kept in a straight position is an ideal position. This is not true, no matter what your elders have taught you about it. What people need to understand here is that staying in this posture is harmful just like slouching. The natural curves of the spine should be maintained by a proper posture. There are three natural curves in a human spine:

• A forward curve at the lower back known as lumbar curve
• A backwards curve at the upper back known as thoracic curve
• A forward curve at the neck known as cervical curve

Instead of pulling on the back by slouching and exaggerating the curves, a proper posture will help your back to fit into the right position naturally. It does not lead to strain because curves are not straightened.

How to Maintain a Good Posture?

A proper posture is when you hold your chest high and keep your shoulders back and relaxed. By keeping your feet in a parallel position, try to pull in your buttocks and abdomen area. One more way of getting a right posture is by keeping your face, shoulders and hips aligned together. Doing exercise and stretches on a regular basis would help you to loosen your body. You can also visit a physiotherapy centre to get the right tips from an expert Physio. Willoughby is the place where you can find many renowned and experienced physiotherapists.

Anna Jane Physio North Sydney has more than 18 years of experiance as a physiotherapist. She has served as team physio to the Australian Freestyle Ski Team.