Posture and Health

These days there are a lot of stresses placed on the body in ways that we may not think about throughout the course of our busy lives. Posture is a characteristic way of bearings one’s body and weight distribution. As we sit in a chair, drive a car, or stand for hours on end, there is a specific way that our body should be situated in space to allow better health and proper support.

How many people are making conscious choices about their posture each day? The truth is, our body needs correct posture to ensure that our weight is supported by our skeletal system and not our muscles. Good posture ensures that our bones are acting as support for our ever shifting weight and our muscles are allowed to take a break, recover, and be more proficient when it comes time for them to do their specific jobs.

Bad posture can create undue stress on your muscles and overall health. Slouching in a chair, although it may feel more comfortable to you, is actually engaging muscles that should otherwise not be firing to keep you seated. Sitting in an upright position and utilizing your bones to do the work of supporting your weight will give those muscles a break. Constant use of muscles will create fatigue and soreness.

The same can be said about driving a car. You are already using a wide variety of muscles just to do the driving. Steering the car with your arms outstretched, working the clutch, and even checking your blind spot are all ways in which you are utilizing muscles while you drive. With many people sitting in a car for hours a day, they may be unknowingly fatiguing their body in the act of driving alone. With all the movement that is already going on, imagine if the muscles in your back and core also have to continuously work to balance and support your weight. That will constitute a full body workout that may leave you sore and tired before you ever make it to your destination.

Summer is in full effect and people are out and about around town. Have you ever stood at an outdoor concert for hours on end to enjoy a local musician? How did you feel a couple of hours into the show? Were you standing properly, maintaining the supportive curve of your spine with both feet planted firmly shoulder width apart with equal weight distribution? Odds are that these were not thoughts that were passing through your mind. You may find yourself getting sore, tired, and shifting your weight around to make the situation more bearable.

With proper posture and consciously training the body to take a supportive stance, you can alleviate a lot of the stress. Letting that stress go unchecked can lead to something that your local chiropractor will describe as a subluxation.

A subluxation is a term used in the field of chiropractic that describes a situation where a bone, or multiple bones, of your spine will move out of position to compensate for instability or unequal weight distribution. When a bone moves out of place, it puts pressure on the vital nerves that exit between the bones and reduces their ability to function. This nerve function is absolutely vital in the communication of your brain and body. Without nervous system function, you could not live.

So what happens when your nervous system cannot transmit all of these vital messages? The answer is that they get lost and are unable to get to their intended target. This can cause a whole laundry list of problems that can hamper your ability to be happy and healthy.

Your local chiropractor can counteract these problems by analyzing and carefully adjusting your spinal bones back into place. The resulting benefit is a nervous system that is fully functioning. Messages will no longer be blocked from reaching their intended target, and full body function will be restored.

So, if proper posture is not something that comes to mind as you sit, stand, drive, or pursue any other stressful activity, a trip to your local chiropractor is in order to ensure your body is kept in proper working order.