IMPORTANCE OF GOOD POSTURE

Dr Richa Kulkarni discusses how posture can affect your overall health.

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Do you believe your posture enhances efficiency? Yes, it does.

Poor posture decreases efficiency in work and maximises stress to the body, whereas good posture increases workplace efficiency and reduces the stress on the body. Good posture keeps your muscles active while you are working. So, just a little change to your posture while sitting or standing can be beneficial for your overall health.

Posture

Posture is the intentionally or habitually assumed position we take up while sitting, walking, standing and sleeping. Certain muscles of our body regulate our posture every day without our realisation. The muscle clusters such as hamstrings and back muscles are responsible for keeping the body posture upright, against the gravitational pull. On the other hand, ligaments are responsible for holding the skeletal structure of the body against the gravity, while the posture muscles promote movement and actions such as sitting or walking. If the body keeps taking up the same incorrect position every day, the posture muscles get stressed and start growing in the direction of the pressure. This eventually results into bad posture.

Posture is basically divided in two parts - static (at rest, e.g., while sitting or standing) and dynamic (in motion, e.g., while walking or running).

Causes of postural problems

Prehistoric human's apelike anatomy used to bear all the body weight on both hands and legs. With evolution, the lower limbs were required to bear the entire body weight as the upper limbs developed to perform complex tasks. This transition has also dramatically changed the back (core) bio-dynamics (movement of secondary curves). But now days, due to the changing lifestyle, human beings are again going back to an apelike posture which is increasing the incidences of postural problems.

Pros and Cons

Sitting on a chair has a lot of advantages like: