Biomechanics: Posture

Image:verywellhealth.com

Your posture is defined by the alignment of your body parts and the relationship of your body parts to each other and to its base of support. Unfortunately, a lot of individuals suffer from bad posture and all of the negative ramifications that go along with that. This can occur from a multitude of things such as abdnormal development, acute degeneration, decreased awareness of body positions, or poor habitual postures. An ideal posture is defined by the position in which the center of gravity is centered over the base of support. Good posture is imperative as it works to decrease risk of injury or progressive deformity. Sitting or standing or working constantly with bad posture does cumulative damage to our body that we will not see until that damage is already done. Good posture also provides muscular and skeletal balance, allows your muscles and abdominal organs to function, and requires minimal energy to be expended to maintain this balanced alignment. However, realizing that you need better posture is half of the battle, you must now learn how to implement better posture and body mechanics in your daily life. 

Bad posture interventions:

One place that a lot of people experience bad posture is at work. Many individuals sit at a desk for nearly 6-7 hours a day placing a lot of stress on their lower back. One intervention that has seen scucess in the office is an unsupported sitting posture, this encourages active sitting and an open angle between the pelvis and thigh, but this intervention is not for everybody. This position is good for taking the load off of the spine which is a main cause for back pain. This position also encourages the person to uncross their legs which leads to an unbalanced posture which is a major stressor on the body.

Another intervention used for bad posture is to get up and move. Sitting down for hours at a time strains your back and puts a load on your neck and back. An intervention a client could use in their daily life is about every 30 minutes to get up, stretch, get some water, and walk about to get your blood flowing for about 2 minutes and allow your neck and back some reprieve from the constant stress that comes from sitting.