Poor Posture and Pro Pointers

Posture – good, bad and ugly

As a chiropractor I get a lot of questions about posture.  Many times I have patients coming to see me specifically for help with their posture.  Unfortunately there is no quick fix.  In this post we will go over some of the reasons for poor posture and some trick, tips and tools you can use to help to correct or improve it.

Poor posture reasons

So most of us sit way way way too long – in front of computers, in the car or on the commute, at home in front of the TV  – and when we do it we don’t always have the greatest way of sitting either.  We tend to slouch, poke our heads forward and round our shoulders as well as lose the natural curvature of our lower backs.

Add to this looking down all the time at cell phones and tablets (and typing blog posts on your laptop on the couch in front of the TV) and we have a recipe for pretty awful posture.

You end up looking like how you sit or stand most of the time.  Here is how it looks – rounded shoulders, gut protruding and chin protruding… not pretty and not healthy for your spine.

Image result for poor posture

we end up with short muscles in certain spots, and locked joints…and it makes it difficult then to straighten up.

 

So what can you do about poor posture?

  • make sure that your desk at work is ergonomically as correct as possible
  • limit use of phone and tablet
  • do exercises to correct shortened muscles and strenghten weak ones (these need to be specific for you – if there were generic ones I would list them for you here)
  • get chiropractic adjustments so you have a chance of moving the stuck spinal joints
  • use devices for retraining at your desk or at home – a good example of this is a Posture Medic- I recommend these for my patients but there are others out there

Image result for posture medic device

Here is a quick video I made about this cool contraption and how I instruct patients how to use it.