Stand Up For Yourself
Surprise! This blog is about posture and what good posture can do for your health. Good posture involves training your body to stand, walk, sit and lie in positions where the least strain is placed on supporting muscles and ligaments during movement or weight-bearing activities and while at rest.
Posture is often an overlooked concern. Your posture has a direct affect on your breathing, organ function, nerves, discs, joints, spine, and muscle integrity. How your posture looks today is the result of years of activity. And, most of us spend hours every day sitting at a desk, where it’s easy to slouch and let your posture slip. To stay limber, try to get up for a couple minutes every half hour and stretch, walk, or stand.
Once it is apparent what is problematic, you can make minor corrective changes in your daily routine to gradually improve your carriage. When standing, keep some distance between your feet so that they align with your shoulders and your shoulders align with your ears. Imagine a string traveling up the spine through the neck, shoulders, and head that is pulled taught above the body – essentially causing the ears, hips, and shoulders to form one vertical line. Support your lower back when you are sitting. Sleeping on your back on a good mattress helps your posture too. Your spinal cord gets support from the bed when the shoulders line up perfectly with the body.
The more conscious you can become about your posture, the more opportunity there is to make adjustments. Being aware of your personal posture imbalances is necessary to attempt self-correction. Eventually, better posture will become second nature and aid in injury prevention.
See if you can develop healthy habits to continue to be pain-free. If you find you’re hurting for more than a day or two, think of acupuncture as a viable option. The sooner you begin to address your problem, the sooner you will see positive results and the improvements can happen more quickly.
See more at:
http://lifehacker.com/5732064/how-can-i-improve-my-posture
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/better-posture-exercises
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/fight-osteoporosis-_n_797047.html#s208516title=Open_Up
