Common behaviour towards posture isn’t too dissimilar to common behaviour towards pensions. Towards both, individuals often fail to invest suitably in them while they are young, they fail to compound the benefits and don’t take corrective action early or invest sufficiently, and they suffer later in life as a result.
Under-investing in a pension when young can lead to you having to work until past statutory retirement age and/ or having insufficient funds to live the life you’d like to. Under-investing in your posture can lead to years of constant and potentially debilitating pain.
My final comparison between the two is that what is right for one person it’s right for someone else, which is one of the reasons people don’t act sooner… they don’t know how to.
Posture – and specifically correct posture – refers to the natural alignment of the body in relation to the activity currently being performed or action undertaken.
Since the days of my Dad telling me to sit up straight at the dinner table, the only time I’d really thought about posture was in the gym when performing squats or deadlifts. That all changed when COVID-19 lockdown started in the UK in March 2020. I rapidly went from sitting in a ‘proper’ – and importantly adjustable – office chair, always with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, to sitting on a dining room chair and lacking some of the other core components, e.g., mouse. After a few weeks of this, the pain was starting to set in, so I decided to start investigating, learning more about posture, and testing different approaches. The outcome of those months of investigation and testing is this blog post.
Whilst most of this blog will focus on posture and techniques to improve it, I do want to talk briefly about the mental components of posture, and how using your ‘top two inches’ can help. As with a lot of things in our lives, our bad posture is born out of bad habits. For more information on habits and habit formation I recommend reading the following posts: Forming Habits & Routines and How to Break Bad Habits & Routines. If you can change your habits, set up your working environment to make having a good posture the ‘automatic’ position you’ll improve your posture, long after reading this post and having stopped consciously thinking about it.
Having got that important point covered, the rest of this post will focus on:
Explaining ‘what good looks like’ when it comes to posture
Outline the problems brought about by bad posture
Cover the most common physical manifestations of having bad posture
Best exercises to undertake to help you improve your posture
Answer the question ‘can technology help improve posture’?
It’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started…
What Does Good Look Like?
As I’ve already mentioned, posture is all about ‘natural alignment’ of the body for the task at hand, but what does that actually mean? When people refer to good posture, they are talking about having a ‘neutral spine’ when relaxed. A neutral spine is found when the spine is curved – a small hollow – in the lower back (lumbar curve) and the base of the neck (cervical curve) and a small roundness in the middle of the back (thoracic curve). The curves of a healthy spine will be between 20 to 40 degrees. The key word above is ‘relaxed’, when you mention posture to most people the first thing they do is stand up un-naturally straight, as if they were to salute to a general in the army, doing this removes the natural curves of the spine and is not good posture. This position is referred to as ‘neutral spine’ as it produces the least amount of stress on the body.
Another common mistake people think about when they hear about posture is to wrongly associate it with only one type of activity, typically standing or sitting. As per the definition above, the key to a good posture is being in the correct position in every task you have to do. This post would be very boring if I simply listed all the activities you might find yourself in and outline the best posture for them, so instead, so I will just focus the most common, standing & sitting:
Good Standing Posture. To help you understand what good standing posture looks like, stand up straight with your back against the wall. Ensure your head, shoulders, back and butt are lightly touching the wall. Ensure your heels are around 6 inches away from the wall. In this position your ears are directly above your shoulders, which in turn are lined up with your hips, and your hips with your ankles.
Good Sitting Posture. For the purposes of this, I will assume you are sat looking at a computer monitor. When seated in your chair you want to ensure the following:
There is a straight line between each ear and your shoulder. Ensuring this will mean that your shoulders are back and you eye-line is looking straight ahead
Your elbows are bent at a 90-degree angle. This will mean your elbows are resting on a chair arm support and the forearm and wrist are straight towards your mouse & keyboard
Your hips are bent at 90-degrees. Ensuring this will mean that you are sat back fully in your chair and your back is straight.
Your knees are bent at a 90-degree angle and that the soles of your shoes are flat on the floor, meaning your legs are not crossed
Problems of Poor Posture
Now we know what ‘good’ looks like, let’s spend a bit more time on what ‘bad’ looks like. You have a ‘bad’ posture if you are not lined up in the way detailed above. What this means is that you are not aligned and are placing excessive strain on one or more parts of your body, which is what causes the pain, and will increase the likelihood of injury and lead to permanent damage.
I want to really focus on this final point, whilst bad posture will ‘only’ increase the likelihood of injury it WILL lead to permanent damage, but often it does so little by little over a long period of time, so you don’t realise until it’s too late.
How bad is spending extended periods of time in a bad posture? Whilst you might hear some call sitting the new smoking, it isn’t, but sitting for an excessive amount each day, a period of time extending 8hrs a day, can increase the risk of premature death or development of chronic diseases by 10 – 20%.
If left uncorrected, having a poor posture causes daily pains and aches, muscular imbalances, negative self-image, poor lifting form and even low self-esteem and confidence.
These long-lasting negative changes, often manifest themselves in three common ways:
Loss of length & strength of muscles – This doesn’t mean you lose your ‘big guns’ but the smaller supporting muscles will waste away from a lack of use through, worsening your posture.
Performance of slow & fast twitch muscle fibres – Slow twitch (also called static) muscle fibres tend to be found in the deeper layers of the muscle. They do a great job of sensing which way the body is positioned and making adjustments to keep you stable. Whilst fast twitch (also called phasic) muscle fibres are mostly used for movement. Poor posture causes muscle fatigue because it relies too much on phasic muscles and not enough on static.
Nervous system feedback – The human body’s muscles are constantly relaying information about the current body position to the brain via the nervous system. When you have persistent poor posture your slow twitch muscles are no longer fully engaged, therefore the brain does not receive the full picture. As a result, it contracts phasic muscles, causing additional muscle fatigue and pain.
You also really should not under-estimate the mental side of posture. Standing tall, head up and full bodily alignment makes you not only look more confident and strong to others, it actually makes you feel less shy and reserved and more self-confident.
Being slouched over for multiple hours a day can even push our rib cage down onto our internal organs, leading to digestive problems.
Most Common Physicals Signs of Bad Posture
The actual aches and pains you as an individual will get as a result of bad posture will be individual to you, based on the causes as well as factors such as genetics, physical activities, your job and even where you live.
However, there are 4 problems which almost everyone will agree are the hallmarks of bad posture:
‘Chicken Neck’ – Chicken neck as it is affectionately called, occurs when the neck instead of sitting straight and continuing a line from your spine leans in and falls forward. Fundamentally, your head protrudes forward from your shoulders. Common causes of chicken neck are sitting at a laptop, cooking and washing up.
‘Hunch Back’ – Whilst most people’s mind will think of the birth deformity of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (medical term of his condition being severe kyphosis), a lesser form is far more common. The hunch back look appears – also known as postural kyphosis – through excessive curvature of the upper back. The most common cause of this today is once again the laptop, but also the mobile phone.
Rounded Shoulders – Whilst commonly associated with teenage boys who have started going to the gym and only focus on the chest press, rounded shoulders are the result of overly tight chest muscles. Tight chest muscles pull your shoulders down and forward, closing your chest and rounding the shoulders.
The Slouch – Typically seen when people are in a seated position, when the buttocks are half-way down the chair instead of close to where the seat and the backrest of the chair meet.
Exercises to Help
Fortunately, there are ways we can overcome – or at least delay – the chronic pain caused by poor posture and improve your posture.
I first found out about this ‘back health’ training video on Chris Williamson’s excellent podcast ‘Modern Wisdom’ however it was not until I started research for this article did I resurface it. It is now part of my weekly routine, 2 – 3 times a week, it has done wonders for my back and therefore my posture. The video is called ‘Foundation Training Original 12 Minutes’ and is delivered by Dr Eric Goodman – watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BOTvaRaDjI. Goodman ends the video by saying “Do that every day, no back pain … ever,” for me, so far so good!
After I have finished the 12-minute Foundation Training, I then do this one additional exercise, which has been called the ‘best single exercise to improve posture’. Simply stand up with your back to a wall, so your head, shoulders, and bum are lightly touching the wall. Look straight ahead while keeping your arms at your sides. Then, raise them up in a circle as far as you can and put your palms together at the top, all while still standing straight and looking forward. Make sure your palms are touching when you have your arms straight up. Now hold that pose for a couple of seconds. Then, while you’re maintaining that posture, lower your arms back down to their sides and stay like that for a few seconds more.
Yoga in general is a fantastic way to help improve your posture, as is a regular stretching programme, for more information on the latter check out this post: 10 Stretches You Should be Doing. A few of yoga poses I’ve found to be particularly useful for alleviating pain as a result of bad posture are: (1) Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana) – with a band if required and (2) Upward Salute (Urdhva Hastotanasana) (3) Cobra Pose (also called Bhujangasana) (4) Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
The exercises I’ve mentioned so far are good for general posture improvement as they touch upon several different muscles and even muscle groups, now for some more targeted exercises:
To help with your ‘chicken neck’, try performing a chin tuck. Start with your shoulders pushed back and down, chest out, then looking straight ahead, place two fingers underneath your chin, slightly tuck the chin and move your head back. Hold in this position for 5 seconds and then release, repeat 10 times
To help with your rounded shoulders, try this excellent chest stretch. Find an open doorframe and place your bent arms against either side of the door, ensure your elbows are in line with your shoulders. Standing in a staggered stance, push your check forward and feel the stretch. Hold in this position for 15 seconds, repeat 5 to 10 times.
To help elevate your hunched back, try prone back extensions to strength your upper back postural muscles. To do this exercise start laying face down on an exercise mat, arms extended out in front of you in a Y position. Whilst keeping your arms extended and your head in line with your spine, slowly lift your torso off the ground. Hold in this position for 7 – 10 seconds and then return to your prone position, complete 8 reps for 3 sets.
Can Technology Help?
Is there an area of modern life that is untouched by technology? Probably not, but does it always work? I use the word ‘technology’ very broadly, and I’m going to cover 7 different items you can try, from simplest to most complex / expensive.
Posture corrector – This is definitely the lowest end of the technology – and cost -spectrum. I have never used one of these but can see how they act as a ‘reminder’ to have your shoulders back, your check up and head looking straight ahead. Not the best thing if going on a date though…
Use a massage ball – You can use a massage to help relieve lots of types of muscular tightness. Specifically related to improving posture, hold the massage ball in both hands and roll the ball around your chest muscles, apply pressure to ease tension in any tight areas. Massage each of your pectoral muscles 3 times for ~30 seconds. For more on using massage balls check out this article.
Use of a foam roller – Similar to the massage ball, foam rollers are used by athletes to improve muscle elasticity. For improving posture, try lying on the floor and placing the roller in your mid-back. Now, cross your arms over your chest, and whilst keeping your buttocks on the floor, extend your back over the roller and hold at points of tension for 10–15 seconds.
Back stretcher – Designed to be placed under your back as you lie on the ground, with 3 settings it claims to “Improve your flexibility and provide preventative care.”
Nayoya back & neck pain relief acupressure mat & pillow set – Unlike the massage ball and form roller these acupressure mats are not something I’ve personally used, but I have heard good things about them. This therefore puts it on my ‘give it a shot’ list at some point.
Posture correct – The much higher-tech version of the posture corrector, and another posture technology tool which I haven’t tried myself. The main reason I have tried this is the steep cost. If anyone has tried it, do let me know.
Use a standing desk – In terms of COVID-19 the demand for standing desks has gone through the roof. The number of variations has exploded massively, but broadly there are 3 main types: (1) electric standing desk (2) crank operated standing desk (3) standing desk converter. Top of the range electric standing desks are onwards of £1,500 with converters starting at about £120, so something for all budgets. Even if you don’t want to move to a standing desk, do ensure you are sitting at a proper desk chair and regularly – ideally every hour – get up and walk around, don’t be sitting at your desk all day.
Conclusion
The key reason having bad posture is so bad for you is because you are likely to be spending so much time in it. If you were only sitting in a bad position for 10 minutes a few times a week, the negative effects would be minimal, but because so much of modern life is spent in a sitting position, having bad posture can be deadly…literally.
Researching this post has opened my eyes fully to something I was loosely aware of but was not paying enough attention to at all. I’m sure many are in the position I was before researching this piece, remember being told to consider posture as a child, see yearly work reminders about posture and positioning and maybe even heard a few horror stories of others, but I hope reading this has affirmed – or reaffirmed – the importance of acting now to prevent years of pain in the future.
Between doing Foundation Training, investing in a new home desk chair and modifying my daily exercise regime to focus more on stretches to improve my posture I have seen significant results in a fairly short period. However, given it took me years of sitting poorly to decide I needed to act, it will take a lifetime of sticking with my new habits to ensure there is real change.
Whatever intervention you decide to take as a result of reading this post, make sure you consider this key question – am I consciously improving my posture? If your environment is encouraging bad posture, then consciousness isn’t enough because you’ll quickly get absorbed in work and fall back into bad habits. As another reminder, for more information on habits and habit formation I recommend reading the following posts: Forming Habits & Routines and How to Break Bad Habits & Routines.
I appreciate that this has been a rather somber piece, so I want to end on a happier – and easier to implement – note. If you are doing the below 5 things the chances of you having deliberating pain as a result of poor standing or sitting posture are significantly recused:
Be generally fit and healthy – do regular exercise (at least 4 times a week, one session a week being strength training)
Wear proper shoes
Be mindful of your posture
If sat at a desk for your job, take regular breaks to walk around – how about walking meetings?
