Maintaining good posture is equally important while engaging in physical activity such as walking or running as it is in everyday life. At times, we may feel tired during a long walk or run, and it’s tempting to let gravity take over and allow our bodies to slouch forward. However, this posture causes undue strain on our spine by rounding our shoulders and causing our head to droop forward. It becomes even worse when we try to see where we’re going by lifting our head upwards, putting additional stress on the cervical spine and neck muscles.
What steps should be taken regarding this matter?
When you start to feel fatigued during extended runs, it can be beneficial to take intermittent walking breaks. This allows you to pause and restore your posture – it’s also an opportune moment to perform some light stretching such as neck side bends and rolling your shoulders backwards.
Strengthening as a precautionary step can be beneficial. You can perform some simple exercises to strengthen your postural muscles, which can aid in avoiding pain or injury. The exercises require no specific equipment and can be performed a few times per week, yielding significant results.
At Fit For Life Physical Therapy, the initial set of workouts are executed while lying on your belly. Depending on your choice, you can practice them with one arm individually or both arms together. The exercises are dubbed as Y, T, I, and W, as they involve forming these letters with both arms.
To execute the exercise, raise your arm against gravity until you reach a comfortable height before lowering it back to the initial position. Initially, try to complete all exercises with 2 sets of 10 repetitions. As the muscles targeted are comparatively small, there is no need to make use of any added weight at the outset. Working against gravity alone is sufficient to cause some fatigue. Due to the fact that these muscles are responsible for your posture throughout the day, it is more crucial to increase the number of repetitions and/or sets rather than adding weight; endurance should be your primary goal.
Throughout the week, you can also engage in chin tucks. To properly execute this exercise, imagine lifting your chin off a shelf and use your neck muscles to pull it backwards. This action should resemble trying to create a “double chin.” Ensure that you keep your head level and your eyes focused straight ahead without tilting upwards or downwards. Pull back as far as possible before returning to neutral starting position, avoiding jutting your chin forward.
Performing shoulder blade squeezes and doing backward shoulder rolls can aid in keeping your posture correct by serving as a reminder to keep your shoulders back. Proper alignment entails keeping your ear aligned with both your shoulder and hip. During shoulder blade squeezes, concentrate on bringing your shoulder blades together as if you are attempting to hold a pencil between them.
Once you have improved your ability to perform chin tucks and shoulder blade squeezes, you can combine these exercises and hold the position while seated in a chair.
Stretching your chest muscles is another effective technique to enhance your posture. After completing an extensive running session or enduring extensive computer work, you can use the corner stretch to loosen up your chest muscles. Lean into a corner within your comfort range, take deep breaths, and maintain the position for 15 seconds. Repeat this exercise 3-5 times for optimal results.
Be conscious of your posture while carrying out daily tasks. Take note of how you sit while driving, your posture while using the computer and also when you work out and lift weights. Neglecting posture awareness can contribute to discomfort in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. Correcting your posture can alleviate these symptoms.
Knowing how to position your shoulder blades correctly can be advantageous during weight training. One way to visualize the appropriate alignment is to imagine tucking your shoulder blades into your back pockets. Achieving this posture involves maintaining an upright posture, performing a gentle squeeze between your shoulder blades (as though you are holding a pencil), and engaging your muscles to draw your shoulder blades downward, resulting in optimal alignment throughout your workout.
It’s a fact that all of these exercises are beneficial for everybody! The added benefit is that an improvement in your posture can make you look younger as well as more physically fit. Who could possibly refuse that?
IMPACT OF CORRECT POSTURE ON SPORTS PERFORMANCE
Posture Punches Up Your Power
Athletes exhibit constant movement in their sport, transitioning between positions at varying speeds and toggling between quick stints of activity or sustained efforts. Proper posture is crucial for athletes to execute sport-specific moves accurately, as it enables efficient movement and saves energy for the entire game, competition, or performance. An athlete with incorrect posture may have to compensate with excessive movement, resulting in depleted energy reserves that could be crucial later in play.
An athlete’s posture may be impacted by their daily routines such as driving, eating, sitting for prolonged periods, playing computer games, and sleeping. Such poor posture developed during daily activities may lead to movement inefficiencies over time, eventually affecting the athlete’s physical performance in their chosen sport.
Good and Bad Elements of Posture
Having good posture entails more than just your stance or sitting position. It triggers a synchronization between your muscles and bones that safeguards your body against harm regardless of whether you’re in motion or stationary. As a result, athletes should adopt good posture or technique not only when seated or lying down, but also when engaged in activities such as running, jumping, diving, tumbling, and tackling.
To maintain correct form, which is commonly known as postural sway, your body needs to constantly adapt to your surroundings. If you have an excessive lumbar curve (lower back) or thoracic curve (neck), it indicates poor posture, which may have resulted from prolonged, habitual, or repeated movements over several years.
Bad posture can impact your ability to endure physical activity, stabilize your core, and breathe properly. If neglected, it may lead to hyperextended knees, disrupted shoulder joint movements, a constrained thoracic spine, and other issues that impede efficient movement and result in discomfort.
Long Term Overall Health Impact of Poor Posture
It is becoming more crucial for us to maintain good posture as we spend more time sitting at a desk in front of electronic devices or walking while looking at our phones. The common habit of slouching our shoulders and tilting our neck downwards to view a monitor, electronic screen, or game can lead to negative impacts on our health and well-being over time, in addition to looking unattractive.
Insufficient blood flow – Maintaining a slouched posture and crossing one’s legs for an extended period may result in increased pressure that can restrict the movement of different fluids in the body. When this pressure exceeds the usual resting level, it can cause circulatory problems in various parts of the body, such as the formation of spider veins in the legs.
POOR POSTURE AND STRESS – Bad posture can lead to an excessive release of cortisol in the body, causing higher levels of stress. This heightened level of stress hormone can create an adverse cycle that compounds with other detrimental physical effects of poor posture.
If poor posture is left unchecked, it can cause smaller muscle groups to bear excessive strain that they’re not designed for, resulting in soreness, pain, tightness, and even strains.
REDUCED PULMONARY CAPACITY – Stooping can limit the full expansion of your lungs, causing them to function suboptimally, thus hindering the proper intake and release of air from the body. Consequently, this results in depleted oxygen levels within other body tissues, causing various symptoms that weaken your endurance and vitality.
Train & Exercise for Good Posture
Sports coaches often claim that an abbreviated five-minute warm-up is insufficient to offset eight hours of prolonged sitting, which can have an impact on an athlete’s performance in both sports and everyday life. It is recommended to train in order to improve posture and balance, focusing on postures utilized in both daily and athletic activities. To maintain optimal back and hip health, it is important to assess the ergonomics of your workspace or desk. Avoid staying in one position, such as sitting or lying down, for extended periods of time. Instead, strive to move frequently and effectively throughout the day.
