The Science Behind Postures

Hey you, yes you, sit up straight. Mind your back and shoulders while walking. Stand straight while talking to your seniors. Does this all sound you like a military school warnings or some lame excuses of being targeted.

Do an audit of your body right now? Is your back straight? Are your arms and legs in right posture? Does your neck and spine pains at the end of the day? At the moment when you are reading this article how is your back, is your back upright or are you completely sunk in the chair?

All these questions are important to be worked upon as in the modern workplace, many workers spend more than 50% of their days in a sedentary position. Understanding the human body built up, our body is meant to be in regular moving positions but our work style is keeping us majorly in seating position, destroying our good body posture.

Sit right

Sit all the way back to the chair, with your lower back making contact with the chair backrest all the times. Make sure both your feet touch the ground and the angle between lower and upper body should be between 90-100 degree. Pull your shoulders and neck back to head in an upright position all the times. The position might hurt you in the beginning because the position is new to the body and your body is not habitual to it.

Stand right

How we stand affects many parts of the body including legs, hips, thighs, shoulders and neck. You should keep your feet parallel, turning your feet inwards or outwards puts a lot of strain on the hips, try and keep your shoulder width apart to decrease load on feet, if the load is stressing out the ankle, try to divert load on toes. If not in some active position, try to keep your hands hanging side to your legs.

Walk right

When it comes to walking, we spend endlessly on the walking gears, but we forget that walking posture also affects health of legs, thighs, hips, back, head and neck. For a proper walking posture start from correct standing posture as described earlier, then role through the step from heel to toe and push off the toes for the next step. As you walk your weight should be at the center of the foot also make sure that if running or walking faster, your elbow is close to the body and makes an angle of 900 with the body.

Sleep right

Right posture not only affects your sleep but also your posture. The major concern with lying down is that it is not pressing the stomach, as a result preventing acid reflux. Ideal position is to lie on your back with the help of pillow reducing the acid to revert to esophagus.

Avoid sleeping on your stomach with your face majorly covered by pillow, it not only promotes acid reflux but also leads to wrinkles on face covered by pillow.\

About one third of back pain occurs due to occupational reasons. Anyone who spends more than 50% of their timing sitting at their job has a threefold increase in the incidence of disc herniation. Key to this problem is individual should be taught to assure posture that maintain lumbar spine in neutral position. Use a rolled up towel or a lumbar support pillow while sitting if you can’t achieve neutral position on your own. Sit with the knee higher than your hips. The best way of doing this is to sit with the feet on footstool. If no footstool is available, cross the legs. Never sit with the legs out straight. Also at the time of getting up from sitting, it is important not to arch the back. Move to the front of the chair and then stand up.

Benefits of Good Posture

Facilitates breathing

Good posture enables a person to breathe properly. There is a huge difference in breathing in an upright position and in a slugging position. More concentration and more thinking ability: Better the breathing more the oxygen to the body. More the oxygen to the body means more brain food. Brain requires 20% of the total body oxygen in order to work with concentration which results in increased thinking ability.

Improved Image

A person with a good body posture adds on to his aura. Have you ever noticed any person sitting with a slugging posture radiating a negative or dull atmosphere without uttering a word?

Improved Confidence

People say we don’t care what the beholder perceives about them, but you care how you feel while talking with someone. Sitting or standing in a good posture instills the confidence in you and upheld yourself high.

Health Complications

Keeping the posture right helps in avoiding a lot of stress on the back and avoids major pains and major injuries as well.

About the Author
Dr. Ujjwal Ramteke
Orthopaedic Surgeon