POSTURE
What is the point of standing up straight?
Posture is the primary way in which we interact with the world. The better our posture, the better we do. In fact one of my favorite sayings is “Sick Posture = Sick Spine” and a sick spine causes more interference on your nerves. One of the things that I have seen is that the better we do about taking care of our posture, taking care of our spine, from a young age, the better we do overall. Some of our patients come in after many years of bad posture and the amount of damage can be very scary. Of course, some people have bad posture because of all the damage that they have done to their spines.
So if are talking about how to have good posture, my favorite instruction is to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Push your shoulders up into your ears. Roll your arms and hands out, drop your shoulders and relax your arms without moving your shoulders.
Why have good posture? Partly, it makes it easier to get things done. If you are an athlete and you have to move in a particular direction very quickly, it is easier if you have the best posture. Partly, it is easier to do most things. You do not waste as much energy if you stand straighter. And I do not know about you, but I do not have so much energy that I want to waste it on bad posture.
Why have good posture? Partly, it makes it easier to get things done. If you are an athlete and you have to move in a particular direction very quickly, it is easier if you have the best posture. Partly, it is easier to do most things. You do not waste as much energy if you stand straighter. And I do not know about you, but I do not have so much energy that I want to waste it on bad posture.
This is especially important when we talk about jobs and hobbies. If you have a job where you are sitting in front of a desk for many hours every day, you want to make sure you do it in a way that does not HURT you. I know that there are some of our patients who go in to work and they sit in almost the exact same spot for almost 8 hours straight. They might get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink, maybe.