When it comes to health and fitness, you find topics concerning diet and exercise, which are undoubtedly essential and important to your health and wellness. While these subjects are essential to discuss and know, one topic that deserves a little more attention is the impact and importance that good posture has on your health and overall well-being.
As someone who has scoliosis, posture has been highlighted in my upbringing, and truth be told I’ve never had good posture. Recently, I’ve noticed that improving my posture is something I really need to work on and be more mindful of. I started this personal journey during my final year of college, taking both beginner and intermediate yoga. Our instructor, one of the best I’ve ever had, would harp on the long-term importance of a mobile body and healthy spine, I quickly agreed with her. I noticed many positive changes in my overall health as I made progress on my posture journey.
Since bettering my posture, slowly but surely, I can say my energy levels are higher, my back and neck pain has lessened, my balance and mobility have improved and so has my confidence. These are not the only benefits of possessing good posture. Good posture can also improve your digestive health, and breathing, create core strength, decrease the wear and tear on your joints as you age, and, as a bonus, makes you look taller and skinnier. With this many benefits to just straightening your spine, it’s a no-brainer to better your posture. And now is the perfect time to do so.
With “tech neck” becoming a real and common thing, achieving or maintaining good posture is increasingly important to most people’s general health. With the role technology plays in our day-to-day lives, it’s easy to get into the habit of slouching. Be it scrolling on your phone, using your computer or laptop to complete work, or watching TV to unwind, our posture as a collective is starting to shift into a constant slouch which causes chronic back and shoulder pain, poor breathing and balance, restricted movement, and even mental health decline. Luckily, this is fixable.
(some easy ways to achieve and maintain good posture i.e. yoga, trainer, movement, and stretching)If you’re looking to improve your posture, there are a handful of easy and useful ways to start! Working out and daily movement is a great way to build muscles and body awareness. If you’re looking for a workout that focuses on strength and stretching, I recommend yoga. The combination of strength training, body awareness, and stretching in this practice makes it perfect for those looking to improve their posture.
Another way to improve your posture is by wearing a posture trainer. These can be great to feel where your posture should be, and passively get your body used to the position of sitting upright. Taylor Swift wore a posture-correcting sports bra to train for her Era’s tour, which you can find here. While a posture corrector will not give you perfect posture forever, it is a great way to start your journey or to use while partaking in strenuous workouts that keep your mind off your spine being straight or not. Posture correctors can be great for many people and many different reasons.
The best method I’ve found to get a better posture is the Upright sensor. I’ve talked about this product before in a “current favorite’s” post, but I genuinely cannot rave about this product enough. Opposed to a posture trainer, which holds your shoulders back for you, the Upright sensor forces you to do all the work of maintaining a good shoulder position, as well as an upright upper neck. This builds both awareness and strength in the muscles used to maintain your posture and is only a bit more. It also has an app that tracks how long you maintain your posture throughout the day, gives you daily goals that correspond with your progress, and offers workout videos for specific areas if you need to give a specific area more attention. This product is one I use most days, and I can see and feel the difference.
No matter how you choose to go about it, a healthy spine and posture correction are both an important part of health and fitness. Straighten your spine a little more, and stand tall, baby-doll.