5 Most Common Causes of Bad Posture
Many people associate their back pain with bad posture and this is somewhat true. When these people are trying to change something in their lifestyle, they usually rush to improve their posture with the help of massage, yoga, or exercise. If they still feel pain in the neck or back, they may visit a doctor. But only a few of them have a real understanding of proper posture.
There is a lot of factors such as injury, daily habits or shoes that can affect your good posture. Only when you fully understand the real cause of your bad posture and back pain can you choose the most suitable treatment or lifestyle changes that will give results. In this article, we gathered the five most common causes of bad posture.
Five Most Common Causes of Bad Posture
1. Daily habits
Your body can change the posture from good to bad in order to relieve tension, weakness, or a muscle spasm. This is due to the fact that the body has to use an alternative but less effective model of muscle contraction and stretching. This condition is called compensation when the body can still achieve its goal but with shifted alignment.
You can understand this process as a kind of workaround. If you face an obstacle while driving, you will probably try to go around it but also continue to move towards your destination. The musculoskeletal and the nervous systems also develop workarounds to complete the planned movement despite the fact that some muscles and joints are not able to work properly.
2. Injury
If you have had an injury, muscles near the place of injury become tense in order to protect the damaged area. Despite the fact that these muscle spasms can cause painful sensations, they are able to make the injured area more stable and protect it from aggravation. But these tense muscles usually become weaker over time and this leads to an imbalance between those weak muscles and normal muscles. This imbalance can result in an improper posture. Physical therapy or massage can decrease painful sensations and help muscles recover.
3. Your shoes
Did you know that your choice of shoes is one of the causes of bad posture? High heels shift your body weight forward and this can easily unbalance you. And if you wear out the outer or inner part of the shoe due to your habits of weight transfer, unbalanced kinetic forces can be transferred to your ankles, knees, hips, and lower back. This can lead to poor posture or cause pain in any of these joints and the lumbar spine.
4. Muscle tension and weakness
As with injuries, when there are areas in the body that are too weak and strong, the body will not be held upright against gravity in the most proper way. This condition usually leads to bad posture and painful sensations. Excessive muscle rigidity and weakness can be caused by a number of factors such as the way you work, how you perform your daily routine and household chores. But not only muscle tension and strength are important for good posture. The degree of muscle use and exercise can influence the spine and posture as well.
5. The use of technology
The way you sit at a computer and lie on a couch with your tablet or smartphone is able to make you take unimaginable positions. If you are fond of incessant texting, you may get a condition that is called a text neck in which your neck is bent for too long. This condition can lead to severe neck pain.
Also Read, Upper Back Pain – Causes and Relief Methods
