How Poor Posture Affects Your Entire Well-being
Most of us focus on getting in our cardio, weight training, meal prep, and sleep when we are trying to improve health and wellness. One aspect of health that is often neglected, however, is posture.
Forbes reveals that people today spend more time sitting down than ever before. One contributing factor is that physically active jobs now make up less than 20% of the total workforce. Excessive time sitting down causes adverse effects on the human body, mostly due to how it impacts one’s posture. The good news is that there are ways to counteract this. Read on to learn more about how poor posture can affect your body and what you can do to avoid these effects!
Effects of Bad Posture on our Body
Poor Circulation
Bad posture often stems from long bouts of standing and sitting, which you may experience in an average office job. Medical News Today details how standing or sitting for long periods can cause a slew of complications, many of which are due to the effects of poor circulation.
Having poor circulation means that some parts of your body are not getting the right amount of blood flow. If left untreated, poor circulation can cause a range of problems, such as fatigue, digestive issues, cognitive dysfunctions, joint and muscle cramping, numbness and tingling in your hands and feet.
Spine Damage
Nowadays, people can’t live without their phones, as most of our daily functions revolve around it. Unfortunately, our phones may also be causing complications with our posture. The Guardian reports how “text neck” or the position we assume when we use our phones puts a lot of weight on our cervical spine.
This is because the average human head weighs around five kilograms, or about 11 pounds, and. the way we tilt our heads towards our phones can place more pressure on our spines. This can cause head, neck, and arm pain, which can worsen over time.
How to Prevent These Effects
Walk Around
If staying stationary is one of the biggest contributors to bad posture, then it would only make sense that movement will counteract these effects. However, you can’t exactly spend your working hours constantly moving about. Thankfully, there’s a science behind movement, and a precise guide to how often you should get up and take a walk. Pain Free Working recommends following the “20-8-2” rule – sit for 20 minutes, stand for eight, and walk around for two. In an office setting, this means being conscious of how much of the day you’ve spent staying seated. Use a timer and a notebook to log your activity, and make simple changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or going for a walk during your lunch break.
Do Yoga
If you’re looking for a more active solution, then why not give yoga a try? An article on Bustle emphasizes the benefits of yoga for one’s posture, as it stretches your back and strengthens your core. It also makes you more aware of how your body is positioned. Indeed, taking up yoga will yield permanent benefits for your posture, and in the long run, your overall wellness and health.
If you found this helpful, you might want to check out our article on Why Lack of Sleep Affects More Than Just Your Energy Levels to help guide you further on your journey to a healthier lifestyle.
Tags: core, posture, spine health
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