For people posture is the key to reducing and eliminating back pain. Posture is the way that we hold ourselves when we are standing, sitting, and even laying down. Abnormal or “bad” posture puts strain and tension on muscles, tendons, and ligaments in an unnatural and harmful way. These changes in tension also increase pressure that our joints have to bear often time causing changes like arthritis.
Are you making any of the following common postural mistakes?
Anterior Pelvic Tilt
Our pelvis is the foundation of our spine and any changes here creates change throughout the spine. The lumbar spine has a natural curve towards the front, this is called lordosis, and often times people have too much lordosis. This increase in curve pulls on the ligament along the front of the spine and presses and pinches the joints and nerves in the back of the spine.
Muscle imbalances, such as weak abdominal (belly) muscles and tight low back muscles allow the pelvis to drop in the front. Being pregnant, carrying extra body weight (especially around the mid-section), or wearing high heels can all cause anterior pelvic tilt.
The longer you allow this postural change to occur the longer it will take to correct and you may even develop arthritis. Many treatments are available and most will include the following exercises; strengthen the abdominal muscles, hamstrings and gluteal muscles, and stretch the lumbar muscles and hip flexor muscles.
To see if you have anterior pelvic tilt, stand with your back against a wall, making sure your buttocks and shoulders are touching the wall. If there is more than a two-inch gap between your lower back and the wall, you may have hyperlordosis.
SlouchingEveryone slouches from time to time. We slough when we sit in a chair, sit on a couch, drive our car, work at our desk, we even slouch when we walk. When we round our shoulders forward and let our heads hand low we are slouching. This increases the curve of our spine in the upper back. This often causes pain between the shoulder blades.
Forward Head
Forward head posture is when your head is positioned in front of your shoulders when it should be positioned directly above your shoulders. Sitting at a computer and using other hand held electronics increases your likely hood of developing this posture.
Work on pulling your chin backwards. This will bring your head back onto your shoulders.
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