A wrong posture causes your spine, shoulders and knees to be put under a lot of strain. It causes too much pressure somewhere in your body, this pressure is absorbed by another part of your body and that is where the pain arises. Imagine; you always walk with drooping shoulders, this is bad for your shoulders and therefore your back catches it so that you get back pain again. In the long run, poor posture can also lead to wear and tear on the vertebrae and decrease in your lung capacity.
It’s a vicious cycle that you have to break. With the right posture, you not only improve blood circulation and breathing, but it also gives more energy.
Incorrect posture aggravates complaints such as: headache, migraines, hernias, RSI complaints, back pain, radiation in arms / legs and panic attacks.
Awareness
You need to become aware of how you sit, stand and walk. Ask a friend/colleague to take a picture of you when you’re at the computer. Does it look like photo 1? Then yes, unfortunately you have a wrong posture.
Look at photo 2: Keep your chin up, make your neck long, shoulders down, gentle pull your shoulders back and down with your chest up and relax your knees. It is important that your head does not ‘lean’ forward but stands in a straight line above your body. You should not feel tension in your neck.
Shoulders
By pressing your shoulders down and back, you keep the shoulders loose. This keeps you supple and does not create a ‘fixed’ neck and shoulders. In the beginning, you will not keep this up for long as it takes training.
Respiration
Breathe in and out a few times through your lower belly. This ensures relaxation of the muscles and provides good basic core stability.
Core strength
Doing back and abdominal exercises at least 3 times a week helps to keep your body in balance. Your abdominal muscles are the center of your body. The kind of abdominal exercise really does matter.
Do not do sit-ups or crunches, this type of exercise strengthens poor posture and shortens the muscles of the abdomen. In general, the best exercises for posture are deadbug, birddog, plank and side-plank.
Alternation of positions
There is not just one good posture for the whole day, the body loves change and movement. So switch between your chair and a ball, or stand for an hour. Take your phone call with you on a walk. Move!
