Improving Your Posture to Keep Your Spine Healthy

Here’s the Deal:

If you ever deny Googling, “Ways to improve posture”, “My neck hurts”, “Relieving Tight shoulders”, I’m going to call your bluff and look at your Google history. This has become one of the most commonly searched terms on Google in 2020-2021….I totally made that up, but you would’ve believed it, huh. You only believed it because you hear about it so much from people around you that you thought, “Ehhh, sounds reasonable”.

But it has. 

What is posture exactly? Simply put, it’s just the position of your body is space. Whether you’re sitting still, or up and moving, the positioning of your body is its posture. It’s pretty astonishing to think about the amount of joints are within your body, and how much information about where they’re located at is sent to the brain for us to move in coordination. Something within that communication gets disturbed, and it can change your body’s posture….and not just the sitting posture, but how we move, essentially. The combinations of angles our body’s experience through the kinetic chain are all “different” postures. 

The ”tricky” thing about posture is that it typically isn’t the reason for your pain, necessarily, but the resulting biomechanical effects can be. Especially with more dynamic postures and positions we put or body’s through. Sometimes even with added weight if you resistance train. 

Speaking of resistance training, it is a fantastic weight to build strength and resilience into the tissues involved so they can withstand those demands with more ease. 

I think the classic “tech neck”/”desk” posture so many of us are in for hours a day can be enhanced by building strength in the back and neck muscles so they have the endurance needed.

Often times we find there can be compensations that occur within the upper back and neck to make that position as easy and efficient as possible. Typically we see larger muscles start to “take over” and can be overworked overtime, especially if they don’t have the strength to manage. 

Yes, you’re body found a way to make that even “easier”……..

Let’s put knots in those muscles, so instead of using the entire muscle (requires more energy) we’ll just put a few very tight spots in the muscles so the rest can ease off. You know, for the love of energy!

On the contrary, the muscles that are in a shortened position and knot bein….(that was a pun intended)…and not being used they slowly lose their neural drive and ability to function properly. This adds even more strain on the compensators mentioned earlier. 

Do you feel like this is something that affects you?

You’re certainly not only and it is something that can be improved by starting to implement more movement throughout the day and some target exercises and stretches to the proper areas.  

Our job is to help you, and we take a lot of pride into providing the highest quality care possible. To us, that means addressing all components of your pain and work to develop the tools for long term change. We want you to feel empowered to overcome this with the proper resources. 

Most of these changes and additions to the daily activity can be done from the comfort of your own home. We are here to teach YOU how to take control of your pain. We’re simply here guide you through and provide hands on care to improve range of motion and decrease any pain initially. 

This is Why You Should Care:

Improving posture ultimately means improving your body’s ability to produce, stabilize, and maintain a position. There are many aspects at play that need to be taken into consideration. As mentioned earlier, many of these postures are performed under load, or weights. 

New research is indicating that having a balanced posture can help you use muscles more efficiently and prevent muscular fatigue or overuse. 

What’s that old adage, "motion is lotion" (for your body) they say. 

If you sit in one position too long, there are small nerves in your body that will detect the mounting pressure and send messages to your brain indicating that you're uncomfortable.

Researchers believe that those signals are our body's way of telling us to change positions before we begin to experience pain. So listen to your body! 

When you feel like it’s about that time to put the body in motion, don’t ignore it. Do it.

Standing desks have been shown to reduce the recurrence of back pain by over 30% when compared to sitting at a desk.

Next Steps: 

Now, it is up to you to make changes and step into action.

What exactly can you do? Right now there’s a few. 

1)  You can take what you’ve just read and press exit at the top of the page. 

2)  You can take what you’ve read, and possibly notice this being something that has bothered you before, and click the “Schedule Now” button and get an assessment. 

3)  You can email or text “POSTURE” to 402.915.4901 or drsealey@promovechiropractic.com

4)  You can go to YouTube and look up “Stretches for neck pain” or “relieving neck tightness” and possibly find a viable solution. Or at least it won’t be something that will  hurt you further. (most likely). Oh yeah I guess this is a good time to mention that this is for educational purposes and should not be used or viewed as medical advice or diagnosis J

5)  Or, you can go back to your life and be glad you took time to read this blog. Adios. 

We’re always here to help and would love to help guide you to a long-term solution for your pain. 

Dalton Sealey DC, CSCS

ProMove Chiropractic & Performance

402.915.4901

drsealey@promovechiropractic.com

Science Sources:

Back Health and Posture. Cleveland Clinic. 2020.

Breaking Up Sitting with Standing Improves Discomfort. Occup Environ Med. 2014.