We’ve all heard as children “Make sure you stand/sit upright because when you are old you are going to look like Quasimodo”. We all know from young age how important good posture is and although we know it we seem to ignore it. Posture is the term defying how our body is standing sitting or lying down. But why is posture so important and we should really make more effort in keeping our body align? The spine is the support structure of our body. Keeping our spine healthy, flexible and durable would ensure better overall health and endurance.
Bad posture can be a lone of the main causes of injuries while exercising. Good posture is essential for maintaining balance and as we all know good balance is of huge importance when it comes to exercising. Almost every form of exercise or sport as tennis, running, skiing, golfing, dancing requires good balance. Even if you are not particularly fond of exercise even simple tasks as walking or standing up for a long time require good balance.
When a curvature of our spine is established many of our muscles supporting the spine start losing their flexibility as they are not appropriately used. There is a group of extensive number of muscles that are positioned of both sides of our spine and are primarily responsible for supporting it and allowing its flexibility. Vise versa if the muscles fail to support our spine correctly a curvature of the spine may occur. There are extreme cases of spine deformities which result in conditions like scoliosis. In this cases a surgical intervention is needed where a brace is put on both sides of the spine to hold it upright.
There are multiple reasons why we should aim to keep our back straight and we will list some of them to stress its importance.
Benefits of good posture
Good stamina – poor posture puts pressure on all internal organs. When there is unnatural position of the body the organs are not align as they would usually be. This results in poorer function and their performance is not as optimal as it should be. This stress on our internal organs directly affects our stamina. We get tired much easier, we are able to endure less and we feel much weaker which gives opportunities to different conditions to appear.
Better breathing – breathing is one of the most important processes in the body. Our lungs expand every time we take a breath. The air fills our lungs and oxygenates the blood which then delivers oxygen to all our tissues and cells. Oxygen is a necessary molecule in the production of energy. Without it we will not be able to produce energy and this is why ensuring optimal breathing is necessary for us to feel good. We know how important good delivery of oxygen is needed during exercise as we spend grata mound of energy while doing sports. Optimal breathing can be compromised by bad posture as the space we normally would have for our lungs to expand can be decreased due to the abnormal position of our spine. This is one big reason for us to think why posture is of such an importance.
In harmony with gravity – Gravity is the natural force that keeps us walking and not flying. Although we don’t see or really feel it gravity exerts its effects on our body. When we have bad posture our muscles, joints and soft tissues take the effects of gravity in different propositions. Thus we end up with some muscles/ Joints overworked and others atrophying because they are not as used as others. By maintaining good posture we are able to maintain good relationship with gravity and allow every muscle and joint to do their job correctly.
Better digestion – Nowadays poor digestion is every second person’s problem. If we have problems digesting properly we are sure to feel tired and unwell most of the time. This is because we are unable to absorb all the nutrients in the food adequately. This can be especially distressing within people who lead busy life or exercise a lot as they are not getting enough energy to sustain them. Bad posture can be one of the reasons why there may be poor digestion. The stress that the digestive system receives from inadequate posture can lead to conditions like bloating, indigestion and heart burn.
Improving our posture can lead to benefits that we wouldn’t think that are possible just with correcting it. Easy steps but steps in the right direction are sure to bring more joy and better health in our life.
