It’s a disease of modern culture; it’s something almost all of us suffer from: poor posture. Lately I’ve been starting to realize what a big deal it is when we spend the vast majority of our time in positions that our body isn’t built for, namely, slouched over:
(See how her head is jutting forward? Not good. And many of us spend hours in even more slouched positions.)
So what’s the big deal about being hunched over all the time?
Some of the consequences of poor posture include back pain, tension headaches, digestive problems, breathing problems (since you’re compressing your diaphragm), altering the curvature of your spine, increased chance of cardiovascular issues, and varicose veins. Yikes!
Unfortunately, university life seems almost designed to distort our posture. We have to carry backpacks full of books and a computer around all day, then we have to sit at computers to study and do homework, then we have to sit in lectures where it is oh-so-easy to slouch forward.
And that’s not even to mention what our postures tend to be like when we’re on our phones, an unavoidable task for most of us:
(Medical professionals have begun referring to this syndrome as “text neck.”)
As if that wasn’t enough, I have recently been trying to fix this by making a concerting effort to sit and stand correctly, and is it ever hard! My upper back was actually aching in pain from sitting up straight for extended periods of time. I googled around and discovered that this is likely due to the fact that the muscles in my upper back are simply unused to being used to hold me up straight and will go away with time once the muscles get stronger.
I can’t do much of anything about my backpack aside from ensuring there’s not more than I need in it and using a backpack that has a waist and chest straps to take some of the weight off my shoulders, and even then it’s still a burden on my shoulders. So, in the absence of being able to do much of anything about that problem, I’ve been trying to focus on sitting and standing properly. I’m doing my best to push through the achiness in my upper back muscles, knowing that by sitting up straight I’m actually helping them become stronger in the long run.
You might also want to try some yoga poses and exercises that you can do to strengthen the muscles you need to have correct posture. By consistently practicing those, you’ll make your body more accustomed to holding itself in correct posture.
Hopefully with some awareness and attention we’ll all be able to straighten ourselves out – literally!