What causes poor posture?
Habitual poor posture puts a tremendous amount of strain and stress on your spine and stabilizing muscles.This can provoke pain by not only stressing the muscles, ligaments, joints and discs, but also impinging nerves and constricting blood flow. If you work at a job that requires you to sit, stand or move in a repetitive stance or motion for long periods of time, you are risk of muscular imbalances and joint immobility over time.
Another factor that plays a role in pain due to poor posture includes individuals who are physically deconditioned, meaning that they have lost fitness or muscle tone, especially through lack of exercise. Any activity that requires you to be in a flexed or “bent over” position for prolonged periods of time will inevitably result in pain unless you are proactive in countering that position through stretches and exercise. Repetitive poor posture can result in pain in a variety of locations including headaches, TMJ dysfunction, neck pain, upper back pain, mid-back pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, hip pain, sciatic nerve pain and numbness and tingling in extremities.
Some signs that your posture is the cause of you pain include:
- Pain that comes and goes throughout the day
- Pain that decreased after changing positions
- New pain that began with a new job, new bed or other furniture
The good news about pain that is due to poor posture or improper movement is that it is easily correctible. It just takes some work and dedication on your behalf to strengthen weakened postural muscles and avoidance of the activities and movements that are causing the pain.
Tips to preventing pain from poor posture:
- Be aware of your posture while sitting, standing or performing repetitive movements.
- Bend at your hips during heavy lifting.
- Move often if you’re sedentary for long periods of time. For example, if you have a desk job, get up and move or stretch every 30 minutes.
- Be aware of proper ergonomics such as having your computer screen at eye level and having your keyboard positioned so that your arms and shoulders are in a relaxed position.
- Exercise daily to keep your body strong and to reverse the effects of poor posture.
Our Redmond Oregon Chiropractor is an expert at addressing pain by correcting muscle imbalances, mobilizing joints that have been stuck for long periods of time and prescribing individualized exercises to reverse the effects of poor posture and keep you pain-free. Also, our Redmond Oregon massage therapy services can assist in relieving those tight, tense muscles that result from postural strain.
Schedule an appointment with Dr. Mike Sorensen, Redmond, Oregon chiropractor to learn more about how Chiropractic can help treat the specific underlying cause of your pain. Dr. Sorensen has extensive experience treating and preventing musculoskeletal pain, and his main goal is to provide fast and effective relief. Call for an appointment at our Redmond, OR chiropractic office.