Are You Suffering from Pain In Your Back, Posture Helps!

At some time in most of our lives we are going to suffer some form of back pain. Statistics say this is so. There are many reasons for this pain in your back, posture helps with this problem more than people realize. There are some things that we can do to help correct our posture. Let's find out what those things are.

Some problems caused by poor posture

Our mothers always told us to stand up straight. We did not realize how true that statement was until we suffer with some form of back and neck pain. With the correct posture, it could potentially reduce our back pain and also limit the amount of muscle spasms. We can also strengthen our postural muscles and help with decompressing the spine. We also end up constricting nerves and end up with problems with the muscles, discs and joints. So as you can see if you are suffering pain in the neck and back, our posture can help reduce that pain.

We need to identify what good posture is

When we have good posture, that means that we need to keep all of our body parts in alignment. We need to keep all of these parts supported and balanced. The right posture when we are standing we should be able to draw a straight line from the following. A line should be drawn from the earlobe, then through the shoulder, then the hip, to the knee and into the middle of the ankle.

We tend to find ourselves in many different positions throughtout the course of the day (like sitting, standing, bending, leaning over and then also lying down). It is important to learn how to attain and keep the correct posture when moving from one position to the next. We should move smoothly and fluidly when going from one position to another. When we understand and correct these bad habits, they will eventually become automatic and will begin to help relieve the back and neck pain.

How to identify bad posture

The first step to improving your posture is to know when you are in an incorrect position by examining our posture throughout the day. Times like when we are sitting, or carrying a box or even when we are just standing in a line. Make note of when we find that our posture is not correct. Another way to do this is to have someone else observe our posture and then to comment or make suggestions. Sometimes we can notice when we are having that awful pain in our back, note what our posture is like and see if we can correct that and see if it starts to help.

Examples of what bad posture and back support is:

The following are examples of some common behavior and some poor ergonomics that you need to correct:

• Being hunched forward
• slouching your shoulders
• lordosis (called swayback) too large of an inward curve in the lower back
• when we carry something heavy on one side of the body
• sleeping on a mattress that does not provide proper support for your back
• even using a pillow that does not provide proper support
• wearing high heeled shoes
• clothes that are too tight
• holding your head to high
• looking down to much
• holding or cradling a phone between your neck and shoulder

Examples of poor posture while sitting for long periods of time:

• Sitting on the edge of the chair and not using the back rest on the chair
• slumping forward
• not making use of the lumbar support on the chairs

A lot of times when working in an office we tend to strain our lower back while sitting. We need to make sure that we are fitted with the correct type of office chair. Getting the right chair to correct out posture will tend to correct the pain in our back, posture helps as we said earlier.

Make sure that from time to time we take a break from sitting in the chair. Our spine was made to have movement. So on occasion, get up and stretch a bit and move around a little. This will help to loosen up our back muscles that will get tight while sitting.

Pain in the back, posture helps. If we remember this and check our posture during the day to make sure we are not doing any of the above, we can eliminate our back and neck pain. It is something simple to do that can have tremendous results.  Back+health+exercise is a winning combination