Most of us grew up hearing someone tell us to sit up straight or stop slouching. Whether you walk tall and proud or sit hunched over at your desk, your posture is about more than appearances. How you carry yourself, sit and even sleep can mean the difference between feeling great or struggling with chronic back, neck or hip pain.
“Poor posture is a habit that many people struggle with, and it can really impact how you feel from day to day,” says Harold D’Anunciacao, physical therapist at Atlantic Health. “Hunching and slumping is learned or developed as we get older. However, it’s never too late to build up better habits and improve your posture.”
What is posture?
In a nutshell, posture is how we hold our body when we are resting or moving. Our posture changes in different situations such as when we are walking, sitting at the dinner table, working at a computer, standing in line at the store or wearing a backpack. Our posture also impacts how we exercise, sleep, watch TV or use our phones. D’Anunciacao explains that maintaining good postural habits can help reduce or eliminate aches and pains caused by weak or strained muscles.
Good posture
Good posture can look different for everyone and varies depending on whether you are sitting, standing or moving. However, D’Anunciacao says that a healthy posture is generally about keeping your head, shoulders and spine in alignment with each other. That means keeping your head above your shoulders and your shoulders down, back and in line with your hips. If you are sitting, try to keep your feet flat on the floor about shoulder width apart. A healthy standing posture is keeping your feet hip-distance apart.
Poor posture
Poor postural habits can lead to pain in different places in our bodies. Neck, shoulder, back and hip pain, as well as headaches, are all very common in people with poor posture. Hunching or other poor posture habits can also lead to pain caused by myofascial trigger points, muscle imbalance, tight muscles, weakness and anatomical changes. In severe cases, particularly in the elderly or in someone with chronic illness, stooped or hunched posture can lead to balance concerns and breathing issues.
“Studies show that a person working at a computer in a poor posture can develop painful contracted knots, known as myofascial trigger points, in their neck and upper back in less than an hour,” says D’Anunciacao. “A trigger point or muscle imbalance can cause a person pain that lasts for days or even weeks.”
How to improve your posture
Having good posture is mostly about developing good postural habits that are part of an ongoing maintenance plan for good health.
“Physical therapy can help instruct a person in good postural habits and correct body mechanics, as well as teach them exercises to help stretch and strengthen the muscles used to help maintain a good posture,” says D’Anunciacao. “If a person is in pain from poor postural habits, a physical therapist can use manual therapies like dry needling or soft tissue mobilization for a short period of time.”
These therapies can help ease your pain while you become more flexible, build your strength and improve your postural habits. This is the first step to developing better posture. Then, you’ll need to maintain your new a habits by checking on your posture throughout the day, in addition to strengthening your core and the muscles needed to keep your shoulders down and back. While posture correcting devices are popular, D’Anunciacao says that they are mostly helpful in reminding us to check in on our posture versus providing any kind of long term correction.
“It’s important to remember that posture is a habit that needs to be maintained, as we see with exercise and healthy eating,” says D’Anunciacao. “Good habits lead to good health. Gravity works on us all the time. We have to pay attention to the cues to adjust, straighten up and change our body position.”
Stretches to help you stand tall
For each of the stretches outlined here, keep your movements slow and controlled. Remember to move only within a pain-free range of motion.
Seated Thoracic Lumbar Extension with Pectoralis Stretch: Begin by sitting upright with your hands behind your head. Slowly arch your back and let your elbows fall out to the sides. You should feel a stretch in your chest. Hold briefly, then return to an upright position and repeat.
Chest and Bicep Stretch – Arms Behind Back: Stand in an upright position. Clasp your hands behind your back and straighten your arms. Hold when you feel a stretch in your chest and the front of your arms. Make sure to keep your back straight during the exercise.
Seated Cervical Rotation Active Range of Motion (AROM): Begin in a sitting position. Turn your head to look over one shoulder, then return to the starting position and repeat to the other side. Keep your back straight and do not bend your head forward, backward or sideways.
Seated Cervical Sidebending Active Range of Motion (AROM): Sit upright. Tilt your head sideways, pulling your ear toward one shoulder, then return to the starting position and repeat toward the other side. Make sure to keep your back straight and do not let your head rotate or bend forward or backward.
Seated Scapular Retraction: Begin in a sitting position. Gently squeeze your shoulder blades together, relax and then repeat. Make sure to maintain good posture during the exercise.
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