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As you might not know, your posture is one of the contributing factors to your attractive look and even helps in outlining your personality. A person with good posture does not always mean just sitting up straight. In fact, it is perceived in various ways. Few people considered a straight back as a symbol of rigid, meanwhile others think an individual equipped with a straight back and head staying high shows a sign of determination and confidence.
Good posture is extremely important
You might be unaware of how important your posture is. But now, there exist several overriding considerations that must be taken into account since a study has suggested your posture can directly affect your overall health condition. In addition to presenting your initial impressions and conveying signals to others, your posture also performs a sign of good health. The words “good posture” tells your spine is staying strong and steady which enables to keep you balanced. More importantly, the slouching and other unhealthy habits can have negative impacts on posture including pulling ligaments [1] , muscle [2] [3] , and thereby causing back pain, fatigue or even stress. As a result, if you are having poor posture, seeking for helps on how to improve posture is greatly needed to enhance your striking shape as well as promote your overall health condition.
Read also: Home Remedies for Fatigue
Below are top 10 handy-tips on how to correct posture taking minimal efforts to change it properly. They are simple but effective to try.
1. Sleeping on your back
It is quite true that you infrequently control your posture while sleeping; however, the way you sleep directly affects your posture. As sleeping on the back, the spinal cord [4] has an appropriate assistant from the bed and the shoulders can go with the body perfectly meanwhile poor posture without any help can strain your back; thereby causing the body pain [5] . In addition, most people currently sleep on one side or on stomach, which is not good to be recommended because it can put your spine and nervous system in jeopardy. To find out ways on how to improve posture, here is the thing you need to know:
- Use a mattress that offers great support for the body when falling asleep.
- Use with pillows which are neither hard nor soft
Pillows also play a key role in helping you with posture improvement. Grabbing a pillow as sleeping is greatly beneficial to keep your neck in a proper position. Do remember to posit the pillow under your head and neck, instead of under your shoulders.
Read also: How to Get a Good Sleep
2. Taking a rest from sitting for long hours daily
Another way to improve posture while working is that you should take a regular break even though you are practicing good posture when sitting down. The consequences of sitting for long time [6] [7] [8] can be immerse sine this bad habit can make you feel tense and drained and lead to pain in the back as well as neck. Also, lowering the flow of blood, creating stress and remaining passive are resulted from the negative effects of sitting too long. One thing you had better keep in mind and never forget is that your body is not formed to sit in the entire day. After sitting for a long time, you should stand up and stretch, practice some small exercises, move your body by walking around or stand in your place within 5 minutes.
3. Taking up yoga
In addition to some exercises for posture, yoga is among best alternative helps on how to correct posture. If you are not in fond of doing yoga or do not have plenty of time to practice it on a regular basis, let’s re-arrange your working time to take up it in order to get correct posture. Yoga is among effective treatments for a variety of health as well as emotional issues. Going to yoga clubs daily or practicing at home is not going to impede your effort of fixing incorrect posture. Yoga can aid in boosting your balance, promoting the core of muscle, improving the spine as well as your flexibility.
Let’s share and practice right away some poses of yoga with your co-workers, your family members or any person who is having the similar posture condition as you if time is possible:
1. Standing up straight with toes touching toes and heels touching heels.
2. Lifting and landing toes and the balls of your feet along with swaying back
3. Changing gradually from swaying back to standing still
4. To firm your muscle, lifting the knees and pulling in the low belly
5. Pressing your shoulder into the back and spreading them across
6. Keep this position from 30 to 60 seconds and then deeply breathing
Read also: How To Build Muscle
4. Warding off crossing the legs while sitting
If you are an officer, do not miss this part since the habit of sitting with crossing legs can lead to nerve destruction and cause the condition of numbness in both legs for long time. In fact, using one leg to cross over the other can increase significantly pressure on a side of the body, which has been shown to trigger your poor posture. Additionally, this bad habit can lead to back pain in general.
The thing you should do now is to avoid crossing the legs as sitting. The best treatment is putting your feet flat and taking a rest on the ground since you are sitting in a good position. In case of feeling unfamiliar with or inconvenient when maintaining your feet flat, you can place your feet on something such as stools.
5. Going swimming
Apart from the above – listed tips on how to improve posture, several certain types of sport can provide you best alternative ever, particularly swimming. This sport has huge health benefits worldwide including boosting the back and becomes good for its lower position. Additionally, this kind of exercise can serve as one of the most effective cures for people who are struggling with neck [9] as well as back problems.
With your posture improvement, going out for swim is strongly recommended as it is used for opening your chest and boosting the lower back muscles. Moreover, it aids in pulling the back of the shoulders which is necessary for fixing poor posture.
6. Training the core muscle
Strengthening the core muscle is known as one of the best posture correctors that you should pay all the attention to. Training the core muscle which is associated with the spine and pelvis can greatly help you stay in shape, boosting the athletic movement as well as preventing the body from urinary incontinence [10] [11] . Try to focus on the following small exercises:
1. Lying on the back with bending your knee about 90 degrees and placing your feet flat on the floor
2. Pulling the belly-button towards the spine and keeping it for 10 seconds
3. Repeating 8 times per day
4. Keeping the right posture although you get tired
5. Breathing deeply and then normally when practicing the exercise since you are able to train yourself to keep this right position in some several activities.
7. Avoiding high heels
Although wearing shoes with high heels [12] [13] [14] are much fashionable, they are not extremely good for your posture. If you get used to putting on shoes with high heels for a long time, it will get a toll on your spine, feet, hips, and ankles that change your posture. In fact, according to a 2009 study printed in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, it indicated that wearing high heels had negative impact on posture, gait, the kinematics of the foot [15] [16] , knee, ankle, hip and spine. High heel can additionally cause chronic foot and leg as well as back pain.
You need to bear in mind holding the heels that are no taller than 2 inches. If possible, you should put on shoes. This act aids in gaining muscles in the feet in order to get you better posture.
Read also: Home Remedies For Backache
8. Lifting weight
No matter whether you are male or female, lifting weight is extremely helpful for fixing the incorrect posture. You can prevent your body from poor posture with weight-bearing exercises including stair climbing, weight lifting or just walking. Individuals who jog daily during their whole life are likely to possess better bone density than those who do not.
9. Breathing slowly
To help on how to improve posture, breathing slowly through the nose and thereby filling the belly is another effective way to improve posture. You can follow these steps:
- Holding for a few seconds
- Holding the tongue against the roof of the mouth before allowing the breath out
- Practicing this daily to reduce stress as well as improve posture
Read also: Home Remedies For Stress
10. Taking a picture
That sounds weird, but in fact, it has been shown to be effective for your posture. To do this, you can just print some photos of proper posture and place them anywhere you can watch easily. You can even set your times which then serve as a reminder of correcting the posture at every 30 minute. This habit will become automatic until you can notice some significant improvements.
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