Posture
Is my posture bad? Is it the reason I have pain? Should I buy this thing from the internet to correct my posture?
Person: "What do you do?"
Us: "We are chiropractors."
Person: "Oh, you are a chiropractor?!" (as they squirm in their chair or stand tall, to show that they have good posture)
It's pretty comical how often this exact scenario actually happens.
I can assure you that neither one of us actually noticed your posture or are judging it. It's not that we don't care about you and your body it's just that posture has very little to do with your pain when we address your complaints.
This just goes to show you how the traditional therapist has engrained in our brains to believe that posture is so important. If it was so true and it had such a good success rate then why do we continue to sit as we do?!
The truth of the matter is that it doesn't have so much to do with our actual posture but has more to do with how long we are staying in a single posture.
Humans were designed to be very dynamic, constantly moving to get from one destination to the next. Since the introduction of technology and desks into our society, we have become an increasingly sedentary society.
Yada, yada, we’ve all heard it before…
But its true! We always joke around that if it weren't for chairs or shoes we would be out of a job as chiropractors. (The shoes are a topic for another discussion)
We understand though that its an evitable fact that some of you have to sit for long periods at a time to get work done.
So we want to provide you with thoughts and resources to fight off our desk-bound lives.
Your best posture is your next one
Change up how your seated every 30 min to an hour
Use a pillow to kneel at your desk, only kneel with one knee, switch knees, stand, or support your self with your elbows
Set a timer at least every two hours to get up for a drink or a quick lap around the office
Have a mobility flow you run through at your desk
We have a printable PDF you can hang up at your desk and time-lapse demo of it.
We all see those ads for "posture correcting" gadgets. They all look very enticing and seem like a quick fix. I'm here to say don't waste your money. In the grand scheme of things, they are just gadgets.
Using those gadgets that force you into a posture is like putting on a cast on your spine. Everyone knows that after you take a cast off the muscles under neither are weak. So why do that to your spine.
It's all about conditioning. Making sure that your muscles are conditioned to hold you upright for long periods. So if you are looking for a fix try good old fashion exercise. It's a proven method to build muscle endurance and strength.