Your body posture can influence your overall wellness. Understanding what constitutes poor posture and how to improve it may help you make changes to how you walk, sit and stand. If you notice that you have been slouching and slumping, you can learn how practicing yoga can correct your posture.
Prevention/Solution
Good posture not only contributes to an attractive physical appearance, it promotes a strong and healthy body. Poor posture occurs when your body is out of alignment, causing your joints, muscles and ligaments to become strained. Poor posture also may cause fatigue and muscular strain, resulting in back pain. It can also affect how your internal organs function, especially the abdominals. Individuals who experience chronic back pain can often relate their discomfort to years of poor postural habits. "To correct posture with yoga, the first emphasis should be on poses that help to realign the spine and promote healthy postural habits," says Elise Browning Miller, coauthor of "Life Is a Stretch: Easy Yoga, Anytime, Anywhere."
Identification
Proper posture requires a strong back, muscles and joints. Your back has three slight curves that occur naturally. The first is a curve in the neck, or cervical curve. The second is a reverse curve in the upper back, or thoracic curve. The third is a curve in the low back, or lumbar curve. Each should be equally balanced in their alignment. Your muscles must be strengthened and supple. If your abdominal, hip and leg muscles are weak and inflexible, the muscles cannot support the appropriate curves and alignment of your back. Joints including the hip, knee and ankle must balance your back's curves to maintain proper posture.
Significance
Daily movements and sitting habits contribute to slumping. If you think you spend significant time with your head and arms positioned forward, you will increase the curve in the thoracic spine. Sitting slumped causes the weight of your body to pull on the ligaments of your spine. The muscles in the back lengthen and they do not engage. This results in weak muscles and prevents them from holding the body upright. The soft tissues of the front of the body, including the front spine ligaments, the small muscles between the ribs, called intercostals, and the muscles in the abdomen become short. Many people experience shortened abdominal muscles when they overemphasize ab-strengthening exercises such as crunches without strengthening the back muscles.
Features
Awareness is an essential part of correcting your posture. Become familiar with the three curves in the back area. Learn to maintain these curves throughout the poses, including sitting, standing and inverted postures such as handstand, or adho mukha vrksasana. This pose provides insight into the alignment of your body and it strengthens the shoulders, arms and wrist, while improving your balance. Take care with this pose if you suffer from headaches, heart conditions or hypertension, or if you are menstruating. Another pose that will help you become aware of your posture is mountain pose, or tadasana. Mountain pose improves your posture through firming the muscles in the buttocks and abdomen, while strengthening the thighs, knees and ankles. This pose is not recommended if you are suffering from low-blood pressure, insomnia or headaches.
Function
Incorporate yoga poses into your practice sessions that aim to shorten and strengthen the supporting muscles in the middle of the back. Practice locust pose, or salabhasana, which works the muscles in the spine, buttocks and the backs of the arms and legs. It is not recommended if you have a serious back injury or suffer from headaches. This pose positions the shoulder blades in their normal position relative to the mid-back muscles, which is down from the ears and flat, next to the back of the ribs. If you notice you have a swayed back, try postures that lengthen and stretch tight hip flexors, such as warrior pose I, or virabhadrasana I. You should practice this pose two to three times a week This pose strengthens the shoulders, arms and muscles of the back while stretching the lungs, groin, chest, neck and shoulders. Warrior pose I may not be suitable if you have hypertension, heart, shoulder and neck problems.
