We were all told to ‘stand up straight’ as kids. In fact, how many of us now hear those same words coming out of our own mouths to our own children. Let’s look at why this is all so important.
Our posture can have a profound effect on the way we view ourselves and our self-confidence1. You can try it. If you walk around for the next few minutes with ‘perfect posture’ I’m sure you will notice that your entire confidence increases. Try the opposite, slump and see what that does to your thinking.
Good posture can increase breathing efficiency and lung capacity by 30% 2. Once again lets try this one. While sitting in our ‘perfect posture’ let’s breathe in a nice full breath…. Beautiful. Now let’s try the opposite, slump down in a hunched position and breathe in…… feels different right?
But perhaps one of the biggest studies on posture had the most telling results. A 2005 study of about 1300 older people looked at the effects of that posture has on life expectancy. In the study, they had people lie flat on their backs and then measured the amount of small blocks that each person needed to have their head flat on the bed, measuring how far forward people were hunched. The results? Those individuals who were rounded were 44% more likely to die than those who had less forward posture 3. Scary stuff.
The great thing for all of us is that we are addressing your forward posture with every Chiropractic visit.
We can all actively and consciously keep our hold our spines up with our bodies rather than hanging our bodies off of our spines.
Lachie Taylor
1. O BRIN˜ OL et al Body posture effects on self-evaluation Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 39, 1053–1064 (2009 2.. Lin F et al; Effect of different sitting postures on lung capacity, expiratory flow, and lumbar lordosis Arch physical med rehabilitation 2006 Apr;87(4):504-9 3.Kado et al; Hyperkyphotic posture predicts mortality in older community-dwelling men and women Journal American Geriatric Soc. 2005 Oct;52(10):1662-7