Why we have bad posture and how to fix it
Posted on | May 10, 2008 | 2 Comments
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Sorry to tell you, but your mother was right. Posture is important!
Who knew…
Whether you want it or not, good posture is good and bad posture is bad. Most of us know it. Then why do most of us have awful posture and suffer from pains and aches as a consequence?
Bad posture usually doesn’t happen overnight. It has a tendency to creep up on people making it too difficult to notice until it is too late.
Say hello to Mr. Muscle Memory – our ability to remember movement. Through injury or improper life style habits (seating for prolonged period of time, inactivity) body remembers the “wrong” movements that put extra tension on muscles and extra stress on joints.
The only way to undo the damage is to re-educate the body!
We must erase the improper muscle memory and replace it with appropriate movement responses. This neurological re-programing is possible though simple exercises completed in a specific sequence.
By doing your postural exercise sequence you will now be able to ‘teach’ your body proper movement that will reduce stress, tension, and pain.
Postural Exercises, however, are not the only method of bringing the body back to balance.
Sometimes all you need is plenty of movement! That’s right!
If you were to be dropped off on a island and would have to rely on your skills to survive – your body would get back to proper posture very quickly! This would be accomplished because you have plenty of functional and natural movements in your daily life and lack of bad activities (10 hour day sitting in front of a computer, followed by a 4 hour of sitting in a TV watching session).
Things that are bad for the posture and make it worse:
- Inactivity. Very general but true. We don’t move enough…
- Sitting too much. (Computer work, TV, video games, internet)
- Driving
Things that are good for the posture:
- Minimize activities from the ‘Bad’ category(i.e. sitting)
- Walking. Helps your body to get back to proper alignment and helps you live longer. Walk at least 30 minutes a day.
- Do your postural program at least 5 days a week.
- Functional Exercise. Stay away from a gym. Play with your kids. Dance. Workout with russian kettlebells. Do yard work. Move!
- Yoga and Pilates. Note: If your posture is off and you have chronic pains and aches some Yoga and Pilates exercises will make things worse. Movements that will hurt you depend on your posture
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Tags: bad posture > fix posture > how to fix bad posture > how to fix posture > improve posture > posture
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October 1st, 2008 @ 5:08 am
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November 2nd, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
[...] Why We Have Bad Posture And How To Fix It [...]