If you take a moment to observe people on the train, or bus, or walking down the street, so many of them have really poor posture. There is a bunch of reasons why so many people have poor posture in our society today. Here are a just few of them…
- Excessive use of electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, kindles, TVs, video games and computer games. There is a term that is used commonly now – the “text neck”. You’ve probably got it right now! It’s the forward drawn head position that is adopted when looking at any kind of screen, when it’s lower than eye level.
- Heavy backpacks, one sided shoulder bags, poorly designed school bags. If you are carrying something heavy on your back or shoulders, the natural tendency of the body is to counterbalance the weight and lean the other way. So, if you have a heavy backpack on, then your body will compensate and lean forward. If you are wearing a heavy shoulder bag, then your body will automatically lean to the opposite side. If this is something that you do every day, over time, the muscles of your body will adopt that posture as “natural”.
- Sedentary lifestyles and what that means for your muscle tone. The best way to think about muscle tone is “use it or lose it”. If you lead an active lifestyle and take part in different exercises which activate and engage your muscles, then your muscle tone will develop and maintain. For people who don’t do any exercise and don’t keep active, their muscle tone will be low. Our muscle tone is very important for our posture. The better the tone in your muscles, the less they tire and the longer the muscles can maintain your posture and alignment.
- Your level of self-confidence and self-esteem will often affect the way you hold yourself. People who are more confident have a much higher tendency of standing well. Funnily enough, your mood will impact your posture too. When someone is in good spirits and happy, they will hold themselves differently to when they are tired and unhappy. Being in a good frame of mind is also important for your posture.
- Prolonged sitting, whether that be a desk or in the car, or on the couch. The human frame was not designed to sit. We are mechanically designed to walk and run, in fact we walk and run with extreme efficiency. When we are sitting our muscles and ligaments are not being used the right way. The wrong muscles become shortened and weak. There has been an increasing trend to use standing desks at work. We’d encourage you to alternate your position at work between standing and sitting.