Is Your Posture Causing Back Pain?
What is poor posture?
Poor posture is any non-neutral body position. Improper postures can cause and create strain and stress on your muscles, joints, tissues, the discs and your spine. This in turn causes the opposing muscles to become weak and overstretched. Repeating this poor posture overtime can increase your risk of back pain.
Common Types of Poor Posture:
Tech/Text Neck is the hunched over position many people are in while looking at cell phones, computers, and tablets.
Kyphosis occurs when your shoulders are rounded forward creating curvature of the upper spine. Patients affected with osteoporosis, arthritis, scoliosis and slipped discs often experience kyphosis.
Flatback entails the loss of curvature in the lower spine. This can possibly be a result from arthritis, compression of a vertebrae in the spine, or a degenerative disc disease.
Swayback is when the pelvis is tipped forward, commonly occurring along with kyphosis.
Poking Chin occurs when a desk chair is sitting too low and having your desk or computer screen too high.
What is good posture?
Good posture is when your spine follows the natural “S” curve it has. When standing correctly your ears, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles should all be aligned.
How to achieve correct posture when sitting:
- Feet on the floor, keep your ankles in front of your knees
- Relax your shoulders – should not be rounded or pulled backwards
- Keep your elbows close to your body
- Make sure your back is supported
- Make sure your thighs and hips are supported on a well padded surface, your thighs and hips should be parallel to the floor
How to achieve correct posture when standing:
- Stand up straight and tall
- Keep shoulders back
- Pull stomach in
- Weight distributed evenly and mostly on the balls of your feet
- Head should be kept level
- Arms hanging naturally at your sides
- Feet about shoulder-width apart
How it can be treated:
If you believe your posture is too far gone to correct, call Midwest Pain Solutions to schedule a no-cost consultation with Dr. Jackson Draeger. Our chiropractic adjustments and high-intensity laser therapy can relieve your pain!
