If you’re like me, having a desk job has its perks but it also has many downsides. Spending up to (and sometimes even over) 8 hours in a chair can be weakening your muscles and throwing your posture off. Without diligence inside and outside of work you can be putting your health at risk.
With May being Posture Awareness Month, let’s discuss why your posture is so important to your health!
The folks at posturemonth.org explain that posture is not just “keeping your shoulders back,” it’s the core strength your body provides to move and balance yourself. They also state that there is no such thing as a perfect posture but “better” or “worse” ones.
Good posture is something to constantly aim for because gravity and our lifestyles have a way of making our postures worse. Posturemonth.org explains that “the human body is designed to walk and run, not to sit in a folded, cramped position for hours… When people are looking at their phones or are at a desk for hours on end, they tend to scrunch their body down.” And it has been suggested that this “physical restriction of lungs and abdominal organs caused by loss of height caused a much higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and respiratory mortality. In other words, allowing posture to worsen can shorten your life.” It also affects your quality of life when it causes back pain as well.
Now that’s we’ve discussed why posture is so important, in our next entry we’ll discuss how to ACE your posture!