Active and Passive Posture

Why Is Posture Important?

Sitting or standing erect with proper alignment improves blood flow, helps keep your nerves and blood vessels healthy, and supports your muscles, ligaments, and tendons. People who make a conscious habit of using correct posture are less likely to experience related back and neck pain.

Active Versus Passive Posture

Active posture is when you are controlling your muscles aggressively to achieve a certain position. Correct posture is simply the position in which minimum stress is applied to each joint. Over an extended period, the body can ‘learn’ the posture and it can be assumed very easily without much conscious thought.

Passive posture is when the body innately assumes a position of ease. Over time our bodies adapt to our working environment. With the popularity of desktops, laptops, mobiles, and tablets many of us spend most of our time with our hands in front of us, arms and shoulders forward, and our heads up. In turn, our mid spine must bend forward, our necks bend backward, and our chests become concave. Our postural muscles that would normally help us stand erect are either permanently on stretch or contraction, perhaps up to 40 hours a week.

If you spend a lot of time with your shoulders forward, the chest doesn’t expand to its full capacity which means that your lungs don’t inflate fully and have less oxygen entering your body.

Poor Posture

Poor posture can be bad for your health. Slouching or slumping over can:

• Misalign your musculoskeletal system.
• Deteriorate your spine, making it more delicate and prone to injury.
• Cause neck, shoulder, and back pain.
• Decrease your flexibility.
• Affect how well your joints move.
• Affect your balance and increase the possibility of falling.
• Make it more difficult to digest your food.
• Make it harder to breathe.

Ways You Can Improve Your Posture

Be Aware Awareness of your posture during everyday activities, like watching television, washing dishes, or walking. Whenever you are standing, keep your shoulders back, pull your stomach in, keep your head level, place your feet shoulder-width apart, and put your weight on the balls of your feet.

If you spend a lot of time sitting at work, school, or at home implement these simple changes:

• Switch sitting positions every half hour.
• Take brief walks around your office or home once an hour.
• Stretch your muscles frequently to help relieve muscle tension.
• Do not cross your legs; keep your feet on the floor, with your ankles forward of your knees.
• Make sure that your feet touch the floor or use a footrest if necessary.
• Relax your shoulders; they must not be rounded or pulled backward.
• Keep your elbows close to your body and curved between 90 and 120 degrees.
• Make sure that your back is fully supported with a chair back or pillow support.
• Have a well-padded seat with your thighs and hips parallel to the floor.

Stay active. Any type of exercise can help improve your posture, but certain types of exercises can be especially helpful. They include yoga, tai chi, and other classes that focus on body awareness. It is also a good idea to do exercises that strengthen your core including muscles around your back, abdomen, and pelvis.

Maintain a healthy weight. Extra weight weakens your abdominal muscles, creates problems for your pelvis and spine, and contributes to low back pain. All these issues hurt your posture.

Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes. High heels can throw off your balance and force you to walk differently. This places more stress on your muscles and harms your posture.

Make sure all work surfaces are at a comfortable height for you, whether you’re sitting in front of a computer, making dinner, or eating a meal.

A series of Rolfing sessions is one of the best ways to improve posture over the long term. Tight tissues and muscles are accountable for locking your body into poor posture. Unlike massage therapy, Rolfing works over the entire body to support proper postural alignment from your crown to your toes.

To learn more about how Posture And how Rolfing Therapy will provide an effective correction visit: https://bobalonzi-advanced-rolfer.com/ and call for an evaluation appointment.