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Why You Should Pay Attention to the Way You Stand

When you’re a kid you hear it all the time: sit up straight, don’t slouch, stand straight. Your formative years are all about your posture. Nobody, however, ever tells you why, other than “it looks sloppy.” The truth is, your posture has a great deal to do with your physical health. Too many people ignore their posture as they get older.
Almost as bad as ignoring your posture is thinking it’s restricted to the way you sit. The way you stand is every bit as important to your health as the way you sit. Learn why you need to pay attention to the way you stand, because standing and posture is as important as sitting and posture for your overall health.

What Is Posture?

Posture, put simply, is how you hold your body upright. It’s the way you resist gravity when standing, sitting or even laying. While good posture can improve your mobility, flexibility, strength and even health, bad posture can place undue strain on your body that can leave it open to aches and pains, and even to disease and ailments.

Sitting and Posture

We all know that sitting in the right position, not hunched over a keyboard, with your back straight, is important to avoid things like headaches, back and neck strain, muscle pains and more. But sitting and posture aren’t the only important relationships between holding yourself and health out there.

Standing and Posture

The way you stand is just as important. Standing and posture are every bit as related to health as sitting is, and in some ways even more. The way you stand can affect your bones, joints, ligaments, spinal discs, muscular system and more.
Good posture can reduce, eliminate and prevent back pain, neck pain, fatigue, muscle strain, stress on ligaments and joints that can lead to arthritis, and even the risk of illnesses like depression, diabetes and even cancer. How is this, you ask? It’s all in your back, baby.

Your Spine and Your Health

Your spine is the epicenter of your health and fitness. It’s the area of your body through which every single impulse to and from your brain flows. Bad posture can put your spine out of alignment and the bones and discs can place undue stress on the nerves. This means your brain is not as able to effectively communicate with your body. This leads to a weakened immune system, and abnormal brain function.
When your spine is out of alignment, this is called a subluxation. It’s not the only cause of illness, but it’s certainly a contributing factor. To avoid this, when you stand, keep your weight on the balls of your feet, with your knees just slightly bent. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, with your arms hanging naturally. Pull your stomach in, stand straight, and keep your shoulders back and your chin high.
Not only will this look better, and give you better health, it will improve your confidence as well, and make you feel better about yourself!
If you’d like more information about proper spinal posture, or what you can do about subluxations, contact theWoodbridge chiropractors at ACT Wellness for an evaluation and examination today!

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