My Posture Isnt Bad So Why Bother Getting It Checked?

My posture isn't that bad, why should I be bothered?

If you ask anyone, they’d be able to pretty accurately explain what the perfect posture should look like. Sit or stand up straight, shoulders back, head up looking forwards, no slouching, don't stick your bum out. Most of us will have heard phrases like this thrown about a lot.

But how many of you actually have the perfect posture? In my experience, I’d say less than 5% of people reading this blog will actually have a perfect posture.

Why is it important? There’s many reasons why good posture is important, for both your mental health as well as your physical health. Your spinal cord is running through the middle of your spine, so any changes to the position or function of your spine will affect how effectively your nervous system can function. 

Sit down in a chair and position yourself into what a perfect posture should be. Open up fully through your chest, make sure your head isn't sticking forwards, and make sure you're not slouching at all. Take a big deep breath in this position. How does it feel?

Now slump down and slouch in the chair, stick your head forwards and round your shoulders. Take a big deep breath in this position. What difference do you notice?

When sitting in the perfect posture position, the deep breath should feel bigger and more comfortable, feeling like you're getting a really lungful of air. The slouched posture should feel uncomfortable, and like you can't take a full breath.

This shows you how important your posture is for your breathing, something we all know to be essential for us to live. 

But research also shows that having good posture increases your resilience to stress, increases your self esteem, improves your mood, and decreases your feeling of fear. 

Changes in posture, particularly the head forward posture, or ‘text neck’ position commonly seen nowadays,