What does “good” Posture even mean?

We here at Adrenalease spend a lot of time thinking about posture, but what is posture & why is it important? Wikipedia refers to good posture as “three natural curves {that} are present in a healthy spine”.

… we here at Adrenalease are experts in posture and find it difficult to understand.

We remember going through school being told to “sit up straight” and “keep your feet flat on the floor”. We didn’t know why we did it, but we did. Well it turns out Wikipedia is starting us down the correct path, there are 3 curves that are supposed to be present in the bones of a healthy spine, the bones from the top of your neck to the bottom of your tailbone. When those spinal curves are optimized all your muscles work equally, that keeps your head balanced on top of it so you don’t fall over. It keeps certain muscles from getting tired and tight from working too hard and other muscles from becoming weak from not being used all day.

But what is that optimal curve? Do I have it? If so how do I keep it, if not how do I get it?

How is your Posture?

The world-renowned Mayo Clinic offers a great self-assessment to see if you have “good curves”. All you have to do is stand with feet a few inches away from the wall then lean back so the back of your head, your shoulder blades, and your butt all touch the wall. If you can get all 3 of those points to touch the wall AND you can just barely slide your hand between the lower part of your back (the part above your butt) and the wall you are good. If not, you made need a bit of help to improve your posture.

Why should you want to have good posture? Simple, good posture is good for your overall health. We’re sure you don’t need us to tell you that good posture can help in reducing neck and back pain, but your posture also affects many other parts of your body. Poor posture can restrict your ability to breath freely by restricting the movement of your ribs leaving you feeling constantly tired. It can also cause some of the muscles in your neck to become constantly tight and stiff leading to headaches and jaw pain. It can cause the muscles around your shoulders to become imbalanced (some working too hard, some not working enough) leading to pain when reaching over your head.

We Challenge You!

In our next few blog posts we are going to talk about how you can improve or maintain your posture. In the meantime post a picture of your self-assessment on Instagram with the hashtag #WeGotYourBack, tag 3 friends, and follow us on Instagram for a chance to win an Adrenalease Posture Correction shirt.

Talk soon, and always remember We Got Your Back!