Why Is Good Posture So Important?

You've surely heard at some point in your life that good posture is important. Despite this, you might find yourself slouching often and sitting in ways that aren't great for your back.

The problem here is that you might not understand why having good posture matters. You need the incentive to change your behavior and this comes down to learning why you need to put in the extra effort.

Unfortunately, the consequences of having poor posture are incredibly frustrating. For example, improper posture causes long term pain, especially if this follows a surgical procedure.

Improving your posture is fairly easy to do, but you aren't going to start until you know why it matters. To encourage you to better your health, we'll explain the importance of good posture below!

Reducing Pain and Tension

Bettering your posture will help reduce pain and tension throughout your body, but particularly in your back.

When you have bad posture, it typically means that you spend a lot of time sitting. Perhaps you work a desk job or work from home. Either scenario will have you sitting down for several hours each day.

If you're consistently sitting with poor posture, then it's going to start hurting after a while. You'll feel aches in your back and you'll feel noticeably weaker if you try to lift anything.

The problem with bad posture is the pressure that it places on your spine. Too much pressure will compress your vertebrae and cause your back to tighten up.

This pain and tension can be felt in the lower back, but it can also cause your neck to hurt and headaches. When you start using proper posture, this pain and tension will fade and you'll begin to feel loose again. 

Sharpening Balance

Proper posture will also sharpen your balance.

With poor posture, the way that you stand will change in response to the shift in your spine. This means that you'll end up standing oddly and walking unevenly. 

The reason for this is because bad posture changes your center of gravity. It will no longer be centered over your body, which will make each step sway you off-center. 

You'll likely still be able to walk, but it will become easier to trip over your own feet and raised sections of the sidewalk.

If you start fixing your posture, then your balance will be restored. Your center of gravity will be in the middle of your body again, which will keep your balance intact. 

Increasing Mobility

You'll also experience increased mobility with a better posture.

If you've ever spent a long day sitting in a chair and got up feeling stiff and sore, then you know how it feels to have bad posture. Your joints and muscles will struggle to keep up as they've been compressed into a poor position.

This can make it difficult to stretch your body, twist around, move your neck, bend over, or even something as simple as walking. Any task becomes more challenging when you have bad posture because your body's movement is inhibited.

By simply having better posture, you'll become much more limber. Your movement won't feel restricted and you'll have no problem getting up and staying mobile.

It's important to stay mobile as being too sedentary can lead to serious complications like sitting disease. You should try to get up and move around once an hour to keep all of your muscles moving and ensure that your posture remains good.

Aiding Digestion

An unusual benefit of good posture is aiding with digestion.

You might not expect it, but poor posture can lead to digestion problems. 

For example, you can get heartburn after eating a meal if you slouch afterward. This is because your abdomen is pressured when you slouch, which sends stomach acid into your esophagus. 

The other aspect of this is that bad posture will slow your digestion process down. When you slouch, you limit the amount of blood being sent to your gut. With limited blood flow, your gut cannot function optimally and will start digesting slower.

Think about a time that you had a stomach ache. What did you do to make it better? Chances are, you went and laid down for a little while.

The reason why laying down helps is because it changes your posture. It improves your posture to the point of aiding digestion by improving blood flow to your gut.

This speaks to the point that better posture means easier digestion, something you should be considering if you ever have digestion problems. 

Improving Breathing

As a final consideration, you should improve your posture to enhance your ability to breathe.

Slouching means that your upper body begins to curl into a ball. This tightens your rib cage, which makes it difficult for you to breathe. Your diaphragm won't be able to fully expand and you'll end up breathing shallowly. 

As a result, you'll end up using your neck muscles to help you breathe. This will quickly tire them out and lead to pain and soreness at the end of the day.

Poor posture forces you to limit how much breath you take in, making it difficult to get adequate oxygen. You can get fatigued, lightheaded, and experience low moods because of this.

With better posture, your body will be in a better position to naturally expand. This will make it easy for your diaphragm to operate properly and ensure smooth breathing. 

Closing Thoughts

Posture is something that you might be overlooking, but improving it is a simple way to boost the way that your body functions. Good posture comes with several benefits while bad posture makes your life quite difficult.

Some of the reasons why posture is so important include to reduce pain and tension, sharpen balance, increase mobility, aid digestion, and improve breathing.

If you spend a lot of time sitting every day, then it's time to commit to having better posture. Doing so will greatly improve the way you feel and you'll end up getting more done as a result!