As a population, Americans are no strangers to chronic pain, which affects about 25% of adults. This collective discomfort is fueled by a wide range of health conditions, but musculoskeletal ones lead the charge.
For example, nearly 40% of adults in the United States report back pain, to say nothing of the millions of Americans who deal with neck pain and hip pain. And all of these issues are directly influenced by your posture.
So, we’re going to pick up where your parents left off and suggest quite strongly that everyone can benefit from better posture. In this blog, the team of spine health experts here at Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas takes on posture and ways to improve yours.
A lot of musculoskeletal experts are pointing to excessive sitting as one of the worst practices for overall health. When you sit, you’re placing far more pressure on your spine, so it‘s important to be particularly mindful about your sitting posture.
Some great techniques for improving your posture while seated include:
Your spine loves a neutral position. To achieve that while sitting, push your butt back on the seat and then arch your back. Release this arch by about 15%, which should bring your spine into a neutral position.
For both your neck and back, it’s important to keep your head up. So, it’s a good idea to place your screens at eye level if you're at a desk and to get your phone out of your lap.
To keep your back and hips aligned, keep both feet on the floor, which means no crossing your legs.
Most people can start with great posture at their desks, but in no time at all, they start to slide down in their seats. And the same goes for anywhere you sit, especially the couch. So, keep correcting your posture while you sit and set an alarm for every hour if you need help reminding yourself.
Now, let’s move to good standing posture, which can be achieved with some of what we described above.
Your spine has natural curves in it, so you don’t want to aim for a ramrod straight or overly arched back. A neutral position is one in which the pressure is evenly spread out over your spine.
As with sitting, we want you to keep your head up when you’re standing, which relieves the pressure on your cervical spine — your neck.
Last — this also goes for sitting — keep your shoulders back. This is such an important contributor to good posture that we often recommend upper back strengthening exercises that will prevent your shoulders from hunching forward.
The above tips for good posture, combined with our pain management treatments, can go a long way toward relieving and managing your chronic pain.
For more ways in which you can manage your chronic pain, or even avoid it, we invite you to call or message today to set up a consultation at one of our offices in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, or Fort Worth, Texas.
