Do you find that sitting with good posture actually causes you discomfort? You’re not alone, especially as a busy executive mum juggling the demands of work and family. The journey towards a better posture is a marathon, not a sprint—small, consistent steps are key. However sometimes the pain or discomfort that arises from the effort of maintaining a good posture can be quite discouraging. In this blog, lets discuss the simple solutions that can help propel you forwards in this journey, making a good posture achievable and easy to maintain.
Here are some simple solutions to help work towards a sustainable posture improvement:
Posture Correctors:
These are a commonly recommended solution to avoid poor postures. They can help to maintain a good posture by building body awareness without constant conscious effort—perfect for busy mums. Start by wearing your posture corrector for 20 minutes a day working your way to an hour and then onto a few hours in the day. You need to give time to your muscles, spine and surrounding structures to adjust to the ‘new’ posture slowly and gradually till it becomes a learned behaviour. HERE is the posture corrector that I use and recommend.
Correcting muscle imbalances:
It is very important to work on strengthening the muscles that help you to maintain a good posture such as spinal extensors and core muscles and sort out the muscular imbalances in the area. So, on one hand you are giving feedback and retraining the brain to sit upright and on the other hand you are training the muscles that support a good posture. This holistic approach will help you to fix your poor posture and also help get the maximum benefit out of your posture corrector.
Sleep Posture Matters Too:
Don’t forget your nighttime habits! Maintaining proper spinal alignment while sleeping can significantly impact your daytime posture too. This is applicable whether you sleep on your back or your side or your tummy.
Chin Nods for Cervical Alignment: While sitting, incorporate gentle chin nods to keep your cervical spine in a neutral position. To do a chin nod look at a point ahead of you and then bring your gaze down by 5 to 10 degrees. This chin nod can be done throughout the day as a postural correction (as shown in the picture below):
This simple movement can make a big difference in reducing neck and upper back strain. This is also applicable when using a laptop or phone where you can try to keep the top of the screen 5 to 10 degrees below your horizontal gaze.
Easy tip for maintaining the lumbar alignment: If your office chair does not come with an in-built lumbar support that can be adjusted to match the curve in your lower back, use a lumbar support. This will support the spine and specially the lumbar curve, thus easing the stress on the spinal muscles trying to maintain a good posture and thus prevent slouching and lower and mid back pain.
Other small changes such as using hands free or head sets instead of holding the phone between the head and shoulder area, avoiding using heavy bags and setting up constant reminders to check your posture on your phone or using sticky notes can be helpful too.
Managing neck and back pain that arises from maintaining a good posture involves understanding the connection between the brain and the spine and at the level of the spinal muscles itself. Watch this video on "Why Does My Back Hurt When I Try To Correct My Posture/ Sit Upright?"
You can also try some pain relief techniques such as using cold and hot Packs, regular desk based stretches, avoiding prolonged static postures by taking regular breaks from sitting and avoiding mental stress with simple techniques to avoid stress related muscle spasm and pain.
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