We all know that good posture not only looks good, but also allows the body to move with great efficiency free of pain and compensation. Modern living and technology advancement has made many changes to our lifestyle that makes things much easier, unfortunately, it has also come at a cost to our health and in particular our posture. The introduction of computers and jobs requiring us to sit for long periods and more recently IPAD’s and smart phones that people stare at all day in a flexed and hunched position has seen a rapid rise in postural related injuries. We cannot change this evolution to our lifestyle, but we can begin using exercise as a way to counter the damage created from these daily habits. The exercises to use can vary a lot from person to person as we are all unique in our own way and our postures might differ slightly, but generally there is a common theme to all exercises that promote good posture. And that is – they encourage EXTENSION. In this article, I give you some ideas of what to use and an example of a strength workout you could use to improve your posture and prevent the onset of injury and pain.
5 Common Daily Habits That Can Ruin Your Spinal Health
While we have all heard about someone who hurt their back due to lifting something too heavy, like a deadlift in the gym, or moving furniture in the home and like to blame that last movement as the reason for the injury. This is very rarely the underlying cause. For how do you explain the person who blows the discs in their lower back out from lifting a pencil off the floor, or tying their shoelaces? Most back pain episodes are the result of everyday activities, postures, sports movements, anything involving repetition and small to moderate forces. The little habits we think nothing of that create muscle imbalance, postural deviations, weakness, and ultimately compensatory movement are the root cause of pain. In this article, I will explain in great detail what some of these daily habits we think nothing of are, and how they contribute to ruin our movement and spinal health.
How to Reverse Kyphosis & the Dowagers Hump Using Corrective Exercises
This is our follow up article to part one “What causes kyphosis and the dowagers hump” where we looked closely at the various reasons behind people developing this postural dysfunction. If you have not read that article yet, go back and read it now completing any of the exercises I am about to show you. It is extremely important to identify and change the source of the problem for your exercise program to have any chance of working. And to be perfectly honest once you have done that you are half way to the finish line. The exercises we are going to show in this article will finish the job and restore any lost stability and strength you have suffered, so you never return to the poor posture you once had. Okay let’s get started.
What Causes Kyphosis & the Development of a Dowagers Hump?
Most of us are very familiar with the person who has a hunched over posture that has what appears to be a hump on their upper back, known as a dowagers hump. This posture inevitably leads to chronic neck pain, shoulder problems, and even lower back pain and can be very difficult to reverse once it is developed. In the past we would normally only see this in the elderly but what we are starting to see these days is the onset of this problem in people much younger. It is even starting to get a different name, such as “text neck” or “I-phone hump”. The amount of people stuck in the looking down at their phone position is speeding up the rate of postural decline, and you can just imagine what things will be like in another 20 years if we do not begin to change our habits now. However, it is not just modern technology at fault as there are several other factors that contribute to creating this problem. In this article we explain in great detail how to identify these potential problems to correct your posture before it is too late.