The Importance of Posture
Good posture is directly related to good health. It’s as simple as that. Better still, by maintaining good posture, one’s muscles, bones and ligaments function cohesively for a healthy and long life. With proper alignment, this also ensures that all the organs in the body work properly too.
Conversely, bad posture tends to have the opposite effects, with the current emphasis on ergonomics.
The most plausible reason for this attention is that since people who spend their time in an office have been known to end up with back pain and/or carpal tunnel syndrome. So, yet again, the importance of posture, which is one of the leading causes of back pain, cannot be understated.
But before we delve into this aspect of the importance of a good posture, let’s first define what a good posture is.
Posture is considered to be alignment and positioning of one’s body in respect to gravity. Good posture ensures that the force of gravity acts on all parts of our body evenly. This doesn’t happen when we have a bad posture and so can cause numerous problems.
And almost immediately one can see the benefits of maintaining a good posture, no matter whether it pertains to standing, sleeping, walking or sitting – especially when it has been documented that you can lose almost 10 pounds in weight (if you’re overweight) just by maintaining a good posture.
Yet there are other benefits that will make clear how important it is to maintain a good posture at all times.
Better posture almost immediately reduces the possibility of injury and thus, improves overall physical performance, balance and agility. Since the maintaining of the right posture is also a big point to be noted in exercise, recovery from the muscle soreness of physical exertion is much better when one is able to maintain good posture throughout the routine.
What makes the importance of posture even more apparent is the fact that good posture not only increases lung volume, it also strengthens our muscles and bones. Yet it’s not just the upper body that benefits but also our extremities as well.
The lower back, hips and knees are also affected by the uneven distribution of gravitational pressure and can sometime leads to arthritis, bone spurs and fractures – since it wears down the bones and cartilage in our feet and also increases wear and tear on our lower back and hips.
If you aren’t sure whether you are maintaining the right posture or feel the need to correct your posture, taking the advice of a fitness professional in the form of exercise can quickly adjust that.
But no matter what: maintaining the right posture is vital to a longer and healthier life.
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