What Is Posture Correction Therapy And Can It Relieve Pain ?

What Is Good Posture ?

To answer this question simply, a good posture is basically sitting straight and standing straight without slouching or hunching over. It's what all Sydney physiotherapists have to say about what Physio is.

A good posture means that you have less strain on your muscles and ligaments while you are standing, sitting down or lying down. It is important to have good posture as it not only increases one's self-confidence and self-esteem but also improves long-term health. It can also reduce the pain one is experiencing.

What Is Posture Correction Therapy ?

Posture correction therapy is the physio practice of physical stance re-alignment or adjustment of one's disposition in how the stand or sit. It can be hard to obtain a good posture if you have a poor one, however, it is not impossible. 

The first step to improve should be having a posture type assessment by a professional physiotherapist. After the assessment, the physiotherapist can figure out the best treatment or therapy. Your therapy can involve hands-on treatment, posture correction exercises and obtaining home products. 

In addition to this, there are other products that can help you with your posture. For instance, a posture corrector belts and braces work by correcting the position of the shoulders and keeping the back straight. However, keep in mind that it is best to consult your doctor or sports physiotherapist before purchasing these products

What Are Posture Correction Exercises ?

Certain exercises, especially the ones that focus on the core area, help you to correct and improve your posture. These posture correction exercises extend, flex and rotate the muscles and make them stronger. 

Here is a posture correction exercise, the cat-cow, that is found very effective:

In this exercise, we come on to our hands and knees, with an equal balance on both halves of our body. 

As we inhale, we lift our head up, drop our abdomen down to the ground and extend our spine. As we exhale, we arch our spine upwards and move our head close to our chest. 

We continue this exercise for one minute.

In addition to this exercise, there are many other exercises that can improve the posture and these posture correction exercises are one of the most effective ways of improving the posture

How Can Posture correction Physio Help Straighten Posture ?

Physiotherapy helps us to improve our posture by correcting the way we stand, sit and walk, improving our muscle strength, extending our nerves, improving our balance and our flexibility. Your physiotherapist is the best person that can advise you on exercises or therapy depending on your posture type and other variables.

Studies show that having a good posture must be a habit. It may be difficult to gain this habit, but you can train yourself on how to stand or sit correctly. In order to obtain or maintain your good posture:

• Balance your weight on both of your feet
• Tuck your stomach in
• Slightly bend your knees
• Let your arms hang next to your body while you stand
• Keep a distance, preferably a shoulder-width, between your feet
• Sit up with your back straight and leaned
• Keep your shoulders back while you are sitting
• Do not cross your knees or ankles while you are sitting
• Keep your shoulders relaxed while standing and sitting
• Do not sit in the same position for a long time
• Finding the right mattress is also important as your position while you are lying down also affects your posture
• Do not sleep on your stomach

Who Do I See For Bad Posture Correction ?

If you have not been able to be able to correct your own posture through posture correction exercises, you really need to see a posture correction therapist in order to restore your posture. If you ignore this problem, a bad posture as you age will only get worse and cause you serious pain and suffering in the long run. There is one good Sydney physiotherapist who can deal with this issue. They are also one of the best Liverpool physiotherapists  as well as well as a physiotherapist for back pain
 

How Exercise Can Fix A Bad Posture

Exercises for Correcting Poor Posture

As you go through your daily activities, do you often find yourself slouching ? Do you sit for long periods of time? Do you get lazy with your posture? Poor posture is becoming more of a problem each day for many. 

However, there is a way poor posture can be corrected. First, you need to know how to prevent your posture from getting worse by finding out why it is bad in the first place. Then, by working on your posture with a few exercises each day, poor posture can be improved rather quickly.

What Causes Poor Posture?

Many people attribute bad posture to the age of digital technology. A large number of people work on their computers for a large part of their day, which can be detrimental to posture. The same goes for spending too much time on your phone or other devices; it does not help to stare down at your phone screen for too long. Neck pain is a typical symptom of poor posture or what some people call tech neck.

Negative Effects of Poor Posture

Poor posture can lead to more health issues than you might think. One large effect is back, shoulder, or neck pain. This pain occurs when you sit in a position that puts excess pressure on certain areas. Fixing posture by doing certain exercises to target these areas can help solve this problem.

According to numerous studies and other research, slouching can also worsen depression, cause problems with digestion, and even contribute to cardiovascular health issues! All the more reason to fix that posture!

How Do I Fix My Posture?

Poor posture can be solved by doing a few exercises a day that help stabilize the right muscles and keep you standing tall. These exercises include........

~Forward fold/toe touch

~Cat-cow stretch

~Chest opener

~Plank

Forward Fold/Toe Touch

The toe touch looks easy at first, but there is more to it than it seems. To do this exercise, fold over at the hips and simply try to touch your toes. If you can't reach them at first, don't worry - your flexibility will improve with time.

This exercise allows you to lengthen your spine, stretch your hamstrings, and relax your head and neck all at the same time. Bend your knees if you need to, and make sure to relax your neck to release tension. Remember, this should be relaxing, not stressful!

Cat-Cow Stretch

The cat-cow stretch is excellent for stretching your shoulders and back. You need to start on your hands and knees so that your hips are directly over your knees and your shoulders are over your hands. First, you will hollow out your back, drop your belly, and lift your butt and shoulders. Try to look up or forward (You should be in the cow position here.) Then, move to the cat position; stick your back high in the air so that it is higher than your shoulders and butt. Look downward toward the ground. Move back and forth between the positions at the speed you want to move. This is a good way to stretch out that back!

Chest Opener

To open up the chest, put your hands behind your back and interlace them. Try to roll your shoulders back, open up your chest, and look somewhat upward. Hold the stretch until you feel like you have stretched out and released some tension.

This exercise will help you keep your shoulders back, which will help correct your posture. It will also open up your chest, which helps your posture and makes you appear more confident.

Planking Exercices

A plank is a well-known and well-liked exercise to strengthen the core. The core not only includes your abs but also helps your back. To get into the plank position, you can start on your knees. Your hands should be directly beneath your shoulders, and you can extend your legs behind you to support yourself with just your toes and your hands. You can also plank on your elbows so you are closer to the ground if you need; this is especially helpful for people with hand or wrist problems. Try to hold the plank position for as long as possible. It is a challenge, but it helps to elongate the spine to improve posture as well as strengthen that core!

Conclusion

Good posture is essential to good overall health. Fortunately, good posture is easy to achieve with a few simple exercises!

Neck Pain Arising From Poor Posture

How To Relieve Neck Pain From Poor Posture

Do you suffer from neck pain? Does it seem to get worse after a long workday in the office? Here's an interesting fact: the average head weighs around 10 to 11 pounds (4.5 to 5kg for the metric users out there). 

Go find whatever things you can stack up to that weight. Now try to hold it with your hand and forearm upright. It gets tiresome after a minute or so, doesn't it? 

Well, props to the real hero here: your neck. It is important to bear in mind that the neck supports the entire weight of the head during most of our active hours and, while it may seem an effortless deal, the stress caused to it by poor posture can lead to pain. Unlike sports injuries which require sports physio, tech neck can be a huge contributor to a sore neck and requires specific muscle strengthening exercise to fix it

How to identify poor posture neck pain?

Neck pain can have several causes, such as the pain derived from whiplash syndrome or autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia. But if you're experiencing neck pain and you consider yourself a fairly healthy person with no record of severe injury, ask yourself the following:

Do you have long work hours that involve sitting down in a desk, looking at a screen or having your neck in a fixed, angled position? 

Do you forget to stand up and stretch your neck and shoulders every couple of hours? Do you have difficulty or greater pain doing the former? 

Do you feel the back of your neck flat? Do you see your shoulders rounding to the front when standing up straight? 

If the answer to these questions is yes, you might be experiencing poor posture neck pain.

What your poor posture neck pain symptoms could be telling you about your health

Poor posture, especially the one sustained through years of incorrect sitting and lack of exercise, can cause greater problems than neck pain alone. Among these we can find:

•  Loss of cervical lordosis, commonly known as flat neck syndrome or "text neck", derived from years of tilting our neck to the front and downwards, can deform and eventually erase the natural curve of the neck, which should look like a C with its curve to the back of the neck.
•  As the neck has to make more effort to hold the head up in an angle than when standing upright, the shoulder muscle group comes in to assist, adjusting themselves forward. This can lead to round shoulders and scapular winging, one of the prime causes of shoulder impingement.
•  As poor posture takes over the neck and shoulders, neck pain can cause us to find a more comfortable position to hold our upper body weight while sitting, leading us to hunch over and develop even worse posture. This can cause a permanent, unnatural curvature in our backs, called scoliosis.
• After the neck has lost its original shape to poor posture, the vertebrae can be displaced further leading to compression of the spinal canal. If untreated, this can cause severe pain and paralysis.

 

How To Relieve Neck Pain 

 

The good news is that most of these complications can be prevented by corrective posture therapy.

What is corrective posture therapy?

The damage caused by years of bad posture be mended by undertaking corrective posture therapy, which is applied by physical therapists and prescribed by physicians and traumatologists. 

This therapy consists of a series of exercises designed to revert vertebral deformities, giving a healthy muscle tone to the neck, back, and shoulders and realigning the upright posture. 

Corrective posture therapy is usually paired with medication and external aides such as posture corrector shapewear and/or applying warm or ice-cold compresses to relax the cervical muscles and nerves and alleviate the pain to some degree until the posture is improved.

However, sometimes corrective posture therapy is not enough to remedy the cause of the pain; surgical treatment might be needed in the cases where the cervical vertebrae are too compressed and restoring inter vertebral space or intervention of a hernia is needed.