1. Less headaches and migraines. Headaches are most commonly associated with forward head posture, putting undue weight on the muscles that help carry the weight of your head. This chronic strain results in headaches. Improved posture can help pull the head back to its natural position where it’s weight is supported by the whole body.
2. Less back, neck, and shoulder pain. All too often, either working on the computer, bent over our craft, driving, or even relaxing on the couch, forces our body into hunched over, head forward, shoulders rounded forward, or pelvis tilted positions. This tightens certain muscle groups while it fails to activate others, resulting in some areas of weakness and other areas of excess tightness. This phenomenon is experienced as pain. If left uncorrected for too long, it can lead to permanent changes in the vertebrae and joints, experiences as stiffness, arthritis, and chronic pain.
3. Reduced risk of injury. Further to the point above, when certain muscle groups are not appropriately activated to perform certain activities due to chronic misuse or underuse, there is a much high risk of injury to the joints and articulations of the body and spinal vertebrae.
4. Improved performance: correct posture helps natural activation the appropriate muscle groups designed specifically for each movement. When we work with our body’s innate design, our body performs at it’s best.
5. Improved breath capacity and oxygenation: improved posture opens up the lungs and allows more flow of air into the body, allowing for better gas exchange— that is more energizing and healing oxygen in and more toxic and sluggish carbon dioxide out.
6. Less mental and physiological stress: This improved flow of air into the lungs naturally calms the breath, which is one of the best ways to tap into your autonomic nervous system, which controls your fight or flight stress response. The relaxed muscles and released breathing send feedback back into your brain signaling that, although there may be a challenging situation, your body is calm and ready and able to cope.
7. Improved self confidence: shoulders down and back, back straight and upright, arms and neck relaxed— and you have an immediate strong and calm power pose.
8. Release of body’s natural healing flow: your nervous and lymphatic systems harness you body’s healing energies. Hunched over posture, tightened muscles, and spinal vertebral misalignment hinder that flow and cause stagnation, sluggishness, and suboptimal natural healing capacity. Working on improving posture can relax the muscles and realign the spine to let the body’s innate capacities to heal and energies flow freely and fully.
How will your Chiropractor help?
Poor posture starts as a small bad habit, but over time can lead to chronic muscle and ligament tension, pulling on joints and causing joint changes, and tugging on the vertebrae that hold and support the spine, leading to malalignment, and even potentially chronic bone changes and arthritis. Your chiropractor will do a full assessment of your posture, identify any areas of tension or abnormal laxity, and perform therapeutic adjustments to bring the spine back into alignment. Your chiropractor will also help instruct you on improving ergonomics to make your habitual postures in line with how your body was intended to function, provide you with exercises and posture remediation tools to practice at home between treatment appointments. Your chiropractor is your posture and wellness expert.