How Bad Posture Affects You
What happens to your body with bad posture?
Forward head posture
This creates strain on the neck, shortening the muscles in the back of the neck. Neck pain, radiating pain to the shoulders or arms, chronic headaches, and even low back pain can result.
Mid-back slouching
This can change the shape of your ribs and drive your head forward over time. The result can be pain in the mid-back and problems with your neck. Eventually, compression of your lungs, heart, and digestive system can occur, causing internal problems.
Low back
Low back pain is very common with poor posture. The back muscles have to contract excessively to keep you upright, causing you pain. Bad posture also causes abnormal wear and tear on the low back, increasing the risk of arthritis in the spine.
Hips and legs
With sitting for prolonged periods, the hip joints lose range of motion and the muscles in the front of the hips stiffen. These tightened muscles then pull on the low back, causing low back pain.
Walking
Your center of gravity changes with bad posture, causing your balance to decline. In addition, weakness to the hip muscles with prolonged sitting causes problems with walking. All these changes can have a serious impact on your mobility and ability to walk safely.
Without good posture, your overall health and total efficiency may be compromised. Because the long-term effects of poor posture can affect bodily systems (such as digestion, elimination, breathing, muscles, joints and ligaments), a person who has poor posture may often be tired or unable to work efficiently or move properly.
Even for younger people, how you carry yourself when working, relaxing or playing can have big effects. Did you know that just fifteen minutes reading or typing when using the wrong positions exhausts the muscles of your neck, shoulders and upper back?
The good news is that with the right physical therapy treatments, a lot can be done to help you regain proper posture and quickly relieve back and neck pain. Call us today to learn how we can help you live a pain-free life!
“Lumbar spinal stenosis, or the narrowing of the open spaces in your spine, can be treated just as successfully with physical therapy as with surgery – and with 15 percent fewer complications.” – Annals of Internal Medicine, April 2015
