Bad Posture

Bad posture can set you up for a number of problems later in life such as chronic back pain, knee pain, neck pain, a permanently hunched over appearance, lower self-confidence, difficulty breathing, low cardiovascular fitness, and low energy levels.

As you can see, doing whatever you can to adopt good posture is going to be really beneficial for not only how you look but also how your body feels. Regular exercise is also definitely important for all of these issues, but how you hold your body will also play a key role.

Here is a list of things you can do regularly to self-check whether or not you have bad posture.

Head Position

The first thing you should do is check your head position. Ideally you should be holding the head slightly forward, but not too much forward as if you’re sticking it out or too far back that you’re straining the neck muscles.

This will help keep the entire spine in a good position and reduce the amount of tension related headaches you experience. Often when we are highly stressed, especially when sitting in front of a computer, we will stick our heads out slightly to peer into the screen. Avoid doing that at all costs. It’s just going to promote bad posture in the long term and will be hard to fix.

Shoulder Alignment

Next, check your shoulder alignment. If the shoulders are also hunched forward, you want to think of pulling them back. For proper posture, they should be right in line with your collar bone - potentially ever so slightly forward if you aren’t that flexible in the shoulder girdle.

Never should be they rounded however, so that’s the primary thing you must avoid at all costs. If you feel that you have week shoulder muscles and that’s why they are in a rounded position, then start doing more row back exercises since this will strengthen the muscles surrounding that shoulder girdle and hopefully solve the problem.

Neck Tension

Another indicator that you’re not using good posture is poor neck position. Usually with this it’s an issue of tension - when you’re very tense your neck will shorten and tighten up. This is actually quite dangerous because if you were to experience a sudden movement you could seriously risk injury.

To help prevent neck tension from developing, ever so often shrug your shoulders up to your ears, hold, and then release, while doing a few head rolls immediately after.

Hip Position

Finally, also take the time to monitor your hip position. If you want to prevent lower back pain it will be important that your hips are in alignment with the rest of your body and not tilted forwards.

When this happens it is quite a strong signal that you are using bad posture and that it will likely only be time before you start to see negative effects.

So, keep these self-checks in mind. Monitor yourself throughout the day so that in time your bad posture will be completely resolved and you’ll be looking much better.

Bad Posture
A Guide To Correct Bad Posture