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Good posture is about more than standing up straight so you can look your best. It is an important part of your long-term health. Making sure that you hold your body the right way, whether you are moving or still, can prevent pain, injuries, and other health problems. The key to good posture is the position of your spine. Your spine has three natural curves - at your neck, mid back, and low back. Correct posture should maintain these curves, but not increase them. Your head should be above your shoulders, and the top of your shoulder should be over the hips.  How can I improve my posture in general?
How can I improve my posture when sitting?
How can I improve my posture when standing?
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If you have spent any time searching for ways to improve your posture online, you have almost certainly come across a number of posture braces that claim to be able to help solve your bad posture. In today’s culture, people are always looking for the newest and easiest way to fix our problems. But do these devices really work?  When it comes to posture braces, most products claim to improve posture by pulling your shoulders back. Although forward rounding shoulders are indeed a sign of bad posture, they are not the only contributing factor. Poor posture usually consists of a combination of factors including forward head position, rounded shoulders and pelvic alignment. A posture brace usually only affects the shoulders, only one component of bad posture.
While a posture brace may help bring your shoulders back, it doesn’t strengthen the muscles in the back of the neck or upper back. So while it may help while it is on, when you take it off your shoulders will likely go right back to their earlier position. Although the brace may help stretch out the muscles of your chest, it doesn’t help with arguably the most important factor in posture correction, which is strengthening your "anti-gravity" or postural muscles that will help you maintain better posture in the longer term. The majority of postural problems, or malalignments that we see are due to muscular imbalances. That is, certain muscle groups are tight or overworked, where other muscles are overstretched and weak. So that means we need both stretching and strengthening exercises to improve, not just one or the other. Preferably, we do exercises specifically targeting the muscle groups that fall into the tight or weak categories in our own body, not just generic advice we find on the internet. So the initial question of should I wear a posture brace? It can help alleviate posture related pain while you have to be in a position to complete a task or your work, such as sitting at a desk for long periods. But a brace will never correct your posture by itself, as it can't help you strengthen the muscles that need it. In fact, wearing any brace too much can have the opposite effect and weaken your muscles, which you really don't want! Any posture improvement program shoulod begin with a professional posture analysis to expose where your own particular issues are, which then leads to a targeted stretching and strengthening program to alleviate your muscle imbalances. A posture brace by itself just can't do this. We constantly tell people to set reminders to get up and move, or take a posture break from their desk to avoid the aches, pains and other negatives that come from sitting in one place for too long. But how do you actually do that? Setting up a reminder on your work computer is essential to keep you on track with this, as it's all too easy to forget, as most of us know. Simple instructions on how to do this are below. Note we generally recommend getting up from your desk, even for a short time, every 30 minutes.  For Windows 11 on PC (2 simple options)
1. Microsoft To Do app This comes pre-installed on Windows, to set up reminders on your PC quickly. The app is free and simple to use. Step 1: Open Microsoft To Do app on your PC. If you can’t find it, download it from the Microsoft Store. Step 2: Sign in with your Microsoft account. Step 3: In the My Day tab, click the ‘Add a task’ button. Type in your task details (posture break) and press enter to save it. Step 4: Next, click on your task and select the Remind me option from the menu that appears on your right. Step 5: You can choose from the suggested options or set a date and time. And that’s about it. Microsoft To Do will remind you about the task at the specified date and time. You can also set a recurring reminder for your task by clicking on the Repeat option. 2. Using the Calendar app Another option for setting up reminders on Windows 11 is to use the built-in Calendar app. This can come in handy if you have already synced your Google account with the Calendar app and want to view all your tasks and reminders in a single place. Step 1: Open the Calendar app on your PC and click on the New event button. Step 2: Enter your task details. Step 3: Use the drop-down menu beside the Reminder to define when the app should remind you. If you want to set up a recurring reminder, click on the Repeat button at the top and specify how frequently the app needs to remind you. Step 4: Lastly, click on Save. After that, the reminder will appear on your calendar app. It’s worth noting that the reminder notification will also appear on your other devices where you’ve signed in with your calendar account. For Mac systems Step 1: In the Reminders app on your Mac, select a reminder list in the sidebar. Step 2: Click the Add button in the top-right corner (or use the Touch Bar). Step 3: Enter a title for the reminder (posture break). Step 4: Do any of the following... Add notes: Type a note below the reminder text. Press Option-Return to start a new line in the note. Be reminded on a date and time: Click Add Date, choose a suggested date or click Custom to use the calendar to pick a date. After you enter a date, optionally click Add Time, then choose a suggested time. If you don’t enter a time, the reminder is an all-day reminder. Be reminded when you arrive at or leave a location: Click Add Location, then choose a suggested location or start typing the name of a location and choose from the suggestions. Tag a reminder: Click the Tag button, then choose an existing tag or click New Tag to create and apply a new tag. Flag a reminder: Click the Flag button. To quickly add multiple reminders to the same list, press Return after you enter each reminder. That should help you set reminders for your posture breaks at work. Remember there really is no substitute for movement! "Your best posture is your next posture..." A study done in 2018 by Erik Peper, a professor at San Francisco State University, suggests that when we’re feeling threatened, our natural reaction to fear is to hunch our shoulders down and curl into a defensive crouch. While this posture protects us from any physical threat or danger, it does the opposite when we’re confronted with emotional or social threats like a difficult conversation with your teenager, or being asked to explain why you’re late in handing in your monthly report, again. Not only does this hunched posture not protect you from the threat, research shows it can actually make your negative thoughts and the symptoms of your anxiety worse. A 2017 article in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found fewer negative thoughts and lower anxiety in participants with erect posture. A 2012 study found that just two or three minutes of slouched walking increased depression and negativity. while two minutes of skipping caused an increase in energy and positive thinking.  Good Posture Changes How You Think
If you’re trying to fill out forms for a job application or taking a test, the last thing you’re thinking about is your posture. But if you can remember to sit up straight and take a few deep breaths, chances are you’re going to feel more focused and will do a better job in filling in those blanks. In a study done in 2018 by researchers at San Francisco State University, 125 college students were tested to see how well they could do simple maths problems while they were hunched over. They were then tested again while sitting up straight. 56% of those students reported that it was easier to do the maths while sitting upright. They determined that an upright posture gives better access to positive, empowering thoughts and memories. So, when you sit up straight, you’re able to think more clearly, no matter how difficult the task at hand. It Changes How You Feel About Yourself Sitting or standing up straight even for a couple of minutes can help you focus on your strengths, restore your self-confidence and help you speak up for yourself, even in challenging circumstances. In a study done by Pablo Brinol for the European Journal of Social Psychology, 127 students from Ohio State University were asked to list their best and worst qualities while sitting erect, then again while in a slumped posture. Participants sitting upright tended to see themselves in a more favorable light, while those who were hunched were less able to list their strengths. In her famous Ted Talk, Amy Cuddy shares an experiment that studied people asked to go through a simulated job interview. Before the interviews, some participants assumed a high power posture for two minutes while others were asked to take a low power pose for the same two minutes. Those who assumed a confident position were evaluated much more favorably, and were more likely to be hired by the judges than their slouching peers. So there you have it. Any time your boss calls you into his or her office, when you realize you’ve forgotten your notes for the presentation or you’re faced with any kind of “action anxiety,” lift your shoulders, straighten your back, breathe, and take positive action. "Stand up straight." That's timeless advice we've probably all heard at one time or another. It's worth heeding. Harvard Health Publishing tells us that good posture is important for your balance... by standing up straight, you centre your weight over your feet (base of support). This also helps you maintain correct form while exercising, which results in fewer injuries and greater gains. Working on balance can strengthen your abilities in tennis, golf, running, dancing, skiing — and just about any other sport or activity.  Not an athlete or sporty person? It still pays to have good balance. Just walking across the floor or around the block requires good balance. So does getting up from a chair, going up and down stairs, carrying things, and even turning to look behind you.
Poor posture isn't necessarily "just a bad habit", either. Physical reasons for poor posture include:
The good news is that you can improve your posture with a few simple exercises. Balance-specific workouts address posture and balance problems with exercises that build strength where it counts and stretch those tight muscles. Quick posture checks in the mirror before and during balance exercises can also help you get the most from your regular workout. And increasing your core strength and flexibility can help you improve your posture noticeably in just a few weeks. Perth Posture Centre has recently upgraded its posture analysis software in 2022. While PosturePro served us well for many years, it is now a little outdated and has been surpassed by a growing number of offerings that have come onto the market in this space. In keeping with our philosophy of bringing you the best posture analysis service possible and after extensive research, we now bring you PostureScreen. Powerful, professional and versatile. PostureScreen is the most popular and fastest growing posture analysis examination software currently on the market.  With a number of research articles published from 2016, right up to 2021 vouching for the validilty and reliability of PostureScreen, we are confident we can bring you world leading posture analysis in our clinics.
With PostureScreen, we can analyse 1, 2 or 4 pictures of your standing posture, depending on the level of detail required. We can also analyse your sitting posture and help evaluate your office or work from home environments. We can also do a movement analysis using a short video of you performing a squat if you desire. Following an assessment, we can provide you with a detailed report of your postural alignment, either emailed to you for easy reference, or in a printed format if your assessment was done in our clinic. After you’ve come for more than one assessment we can give you a side by side comparison of your before and after (corrective exercise program) posture to easily show your improvements, as well as a posture trend report. Of course, the idea is to improve your posture, your spinal alignment and your overall health, appearance and performance. So each PostureScreen analysis shows us exactly how we need to work with you specifically, based on your pictures. This leads to an individualised home exercise program for you to do, so you can have total confidence that the exercises you are doing are exactly what you need, right now. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT OVER 4.1 MILLION CLIENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ASSESSED WITH THIS MODERN SOFTWARE AROUND THE WORLD. We all know that good posture is an important part of being healthy, but it's something you often put off until later, like so many other aspects of our own self-care. You may not realise however, all of the ways in which having better body alignment can impact your life. Here are just a few changes that you can expect when you do get around to working on your posture...  1. You feel more energetic:
"Standing with optimal posture allows your diaphragm to work more efficiently, which can make breathing easier and less labored," says Alynn Dukart, certified strength and conditioning specialist and wellness physical therapist at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. A forward, rounded posture (say, from hunching over your laptop) restricts the expansion of your rib cage as you breathe, compresses your diaphragm, and can even decrease lung capacity, making breathing more difficult. Efficient breathing, on the other hand, regulates the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout your body and keeps you energised. 2. You're less likely to experience headaches: If you do suffer with headaches, your posture could be to blame. Tension headaches are most often caused by a tight neck, upper back, and jaw muscles, all of which are made worse by forward head and rounded shoulders posture. Over time, if the muscle tightness persists, trigger points and stiff upper cervical (neck) jointss can develop, causing radiating pain into your head. Being more mindful of your body alignment, combined with a regular, simple routine of stretching and strengthening your muscle groups, can reverse all of these effects. 3. There is less strain on your joints: Bad posture is bad news for your joints. Put simply, our bodies are deigned to be "stacked" or aligned in a certain way. When this isn't happening, our muscles and joints are subjected to stresses that they aren't designed for. "Tech neck", or forward head posture for example, places significant stress on your shoulder and neck joints and surrounding muscles, which can lead to pain and headaches. Research has repeatedly shown that for every inch of forward head posture, the weight of the head on the spine increses by 10 pounds. Another common thing we see is anterior pelvic tilt, which compresses your lumbar spine and can lead to back and hip pain. 4. You will feel less stressed: Yes, really! A study from the University of Auckland found that sitting up straight can be used as a coping mechanism against stress. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups and asked to complete a stress-inducing task. The first group completed the task in an upright position, while the second group did so while being in a slouched posture. After the task was over, participants who used good posture reported feeling "more enthusiastic, excited, and strong." Meanwhile, slouched participants reported feeling more "fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet, still, passive, dull, sleepy, and sluggish." Researchers suspect that sitting up straight can stimulate physiological arousal such as a increase in blood pressure, and trigger a coping response to stress. When your body isn't aligned properly, it appears to alter your hormones and nervous system function, which then alters your mood. The correlation between posture and physical health is well known. However, posture also has a link with your mental health. Various research studies around the world have noted the importance of posture in affecting one’s relationship to people and the world. One study (Carney et al, 2010) has postulated that “power poses” lead to increased testosterone and decreased cortisol levels, which is then associated with social dominance and decreased threat perception.  Another study between Columbia and Harvard Universities argues that stress is increased by bad posture. The study showed that people who adopted powerful postures, open shoulders, and straight spines had a 20% increase in testosterone levels and a 25% decrease in cortisol levels, resulting in a lower feeling of stress. Those who slouched had a 10% decrease in testosterone and a 15% increase in cortisol, resulting in a higher feeling of stress.
As the brain-body connection rightly continues to permeate the wellness industry, more studies show the correlation between poor posture and a poor state of mind. So, if you spend increased periods of time sitting with your shoulders slouched (like looking at a computer) it's important to take note of the side effects of this as well as how to counteract them. Strong evidence points to poor posture as an exacerbating factor in various states of negative mood. Indeed, we now know that a slumped or collapsed posture increases people's feelings of anxiety or depression, while a straightened spine helps them feel more alert. Furthermore, the shoulders back position lowers the levels of anxiety as well. This phenomenon is also responsible for an increase in energy. With less compression, your muscles are better able to perform vital functions without the extra work. The science behind this connection may be surprising but sitting or standing in better alignment really can make a difference. If you’ve ever tried yoga, you may have heard of “power poses”, which are upright positions that help boost energy and confidence. If you haven’t done yoga, you’ve probably noticed how you feel more positive mentally when in a more upright posture. Turning again to science, a San Francisco State University study examined how students recalled and thought about past experiences, both good and bad. The group was told to recall both negative and positive experiences twice – once while sitting up straight, the other while slouching over. The results showed that 86% of the students who were in a slumped position found it easier to recall negative emotions or experiences. On the contrary, 87% of the students found it much easier to recall positive experiences when sitting up straight. These same principles can be applied to your everyday life. Remember, being slumped over can cause issues you may not be consciously aware of. Additionally, slouching is seen as a position of defeat. Sitting or standing up straighter can help positive feelings and memories emerge instead of more unmotivated/hopeless feelings. Anxiety, depression, and stress can all become serious issues. Being more aware of your posture can help. Making small changes like consistently sitting taller with your back straight can make a difference. Consider how you may be sitting right now, is your back straight and your head upright? We often spend hours slouching without even realizing it. Changing this is a process that takes practice and discipline but in the end, it’s worth it. I’ll leave you with a quote from Psychology Today… “If you have depression that’s causing serious distress and interfering with your daily life, good posture is no substitute for professional treatment. But as an addition to treatment, reminding yourself to sit or stand up straight can help you feel more upbeat and energetic.” Poor posture contributes to problems in breathing patterns. We see this issue frequently in people who spend a lot of time sitting each day. Maintaining a posture where your shoulders are rounded and your head is forward causes the muscles around your chest to tighten. These tight chest muscles can limit the ability of your rib cage to expand, and this can cause you to take rapid, shallow breaths.  More specifically, people with a more curved upper back (thoracic kyphosis) and internally rotated shoulders have limited movement of their thorax. When breathing in, the rib cage can’t fully expand and the lungs cannot fully inflate.
An increased arch in your lower back (lumbar lordosis), where the pelvis is tilted forward, decreases the range of motion of the lower lumbar spine and shortens the latissimus and lower back extensor muscles. This limits the range of motion of the diaphragm, again restricting the inflation of your lungs. The abdominal muscles are overstretched in this posture as well, limiting their function of helping to breath out. Some people may also find difficulty breathing with an exaggerated curve in their neck (cervical lordosis) due to compression of their larynx. Belly breathing pulls down on your diaphragm, which is a dome shaped muscle between your chest and your stomach, to suck air into your lungs. Belly breathing fully inflates your lungs so that you get as much air as possible, whereas chest breathing only partially inflates your lungs. Stress-related illnesses, sleep problems, respiratory problems, immune system weakening, and high blood pressure are all symptoms of long term shallow breathing. Try it for yourself While sitting in a chair, let your shoulders slump and your head hang forwards. Now in this position try and take a deep breath. How does it feel? Hard to do a belly breath right? Poor alignment in that slumped position means your diaphragm can’t descend easily making it hard to activate the posterior half of your diaphragm that attaches to your lower ribs and spine. To get enough air in, your body has to recruit its “back up” breathing muscles around the neck and chest to help breathe in, expanding the rib cage to get air travelling down into the lungs. These neck and chest muscles are not very efficient and are not designed to be used for the 17,000 breaths we take on average per day. They get tired, fatigued and tight, which can lead to headaches, neck and jaw pain. Now try sitting tall, with your head up and shoulders back, then take a deep breath into your belly. It’s easier, right? The process of putting yourself in a more optimal position for your spine allows the correct respiratory muscles to activate, drawing air into the lower lobes of the lungs where the best bloody supply is. *Clinical research findings* Forward head posture causes expansion of the upper thorax and contraction of the lower thorax, and these morphological changes cause decreased respiratory function. (JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY SCIENCE 2019) Results indicate that forward head posture could reduce vital capacity, possibly because of weakness or disharmony of the accessory respiratory muscles. (JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY SCIENCE 2016) Alteration of head and neck positions can have an immediate negative impact on respiratory function. Clinicians should be prompted to assess respiratory function when assessing individuals with forward head posture and torticollis and reduce the tension on respiratory system to avoid negative consequences. (BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2018) Did you know that there is a correlation between your posture and level of alertness and ability to concentrate? With better posture, not only do you look better and feel better, but you have the ability to sit upright and be more engaged in conversations and learning experiences. You are more alert and aware of your surroundings, and are in a posture or position to make quicker and more precise movements. Just think, when you look around a classroom full of students, you can easily spot the students who are paying attention and learning, compared to those who are disinterested just by observing their sitting posture.  What postural presentation do the students (or worker) who are falling asleep have? They are slumped forward on their desk in a flexion dominant posture, or they are slouched low in their chairs with anterior pelvic translation.
What postural presentation does an alert student (or worker) maintain? Alert students are sitting high in their chairs. They are seated upright and engaged. Their level of engagement is much higher than the students who are half asleep with slumped posture. Because of the connection of posture and consciousness, research also demonstrates that with proper posture there is better cognitive performance (Muehlhan, 2014). Not only are students who have proper posture in class taking care of their spine, joints and muscles, they also have a higher level of engaged learning and cognitive performance. The same is true for modern day office workers. While sitting at their desks performing work, by shifting their posture to be more upright, they will be that much more conscious of the work they are doing and engage at a higher level of productivity. Their concentration is improved, as is their lung capacity and circulation. It's a win-win. |