Posture and Alignment When Exercising

We all know that how we stand, head held high with good posture, not only makes a difference to the way people look at us, due in part to the way we look, standing tall and confident, but more importantly, it’s the way proper posture makes your body feel. Poor posture not only makes you look depressed and tired, it can lead to an endless list of health problems that include headaches, chronic back pain, repetitive strain injury and more.

When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, we need to care for our bodies from the inside out. All of us need to focus on good posture no matter what we’re doing from sitting in front of a computer 8 to 10 hours a day to exercising at the gym. When posture is good, there’s no pain and anything we do can be carried out with ease. When it comes to working out and weight training, the better our posture, the less stress there is on your joints. When your posture is bad, unmanageable stress is put on the joints which will eventually lead to pain so whether you’re exercising or sitting, you need to make sure to focus on good posture if you want to prevent an injury. You may want to consider hiring a personal trainer who will assess your posture while you workout. If your personal trainer isn’t closely watching you while you train to make sure you’re doing the exercises correctly, with the best form, they’re setting you up for an injury. If you run into this problem, find another personal trainer.

Exercises Approaches to Improve Posture

There are several exercises that improve posture, muscle balance and flexibility, including bending over row if it’s executed correctly. Other highly effective exercises include Pilate exercises which are all about teaching people to use their core muscles, specifically the muscles of the back, stomach and pelvic floor. By focusing on these areas, Pilates teaches people how to hold themselves appropriately. Yoga is also a good choice when it comes to improving posture. There are several diverse varieties of yoga and all help to reduce tension in the body and restore flexibility to joints and muscles. Regularly practicing yoga increases body awareness, which helps you break patterns and habits of bad posture. All yoga variations involve poses that comfortably stretch the muscles and alleviate tension.

Good Posture Begins with a Balance Spine

Upper Cervical Chiropractic care is a highly effective way to balance the spine and nervous system, keeping them aligned and in balance. Misalignments in the spinal column will lead to postural changes, muscle imbalances, imbalanced weight distribution and slow reaction times. Many injuries associated with strenuous exercise can typically be prevented with regular Upper Cervical Chiropractic care by keeping your spine in alignment. By ensuring that your spine is aligned, you’ll know that you aren’t suffering from reduced performance because one or more of your muscles or bones is carrying more than they can handle when it comes to weight or functionality within your body. Bottom line, when your body’s in alignment you’ll get more out of your exercise efforts, pain free.

Upper cervical chiropractic focuses on balancing the head on top of the spine in order to achieve whole body alignment. It does this without any popping, cracking or twisting of the spine common with other approaches. To find an upper cervical specialist go to www.upcspine.com or if you are in the Seattle, Washington area to schedule your evaluation, click here.

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Dr. Reanna Plancich of Discover Health Chiropractic in Seattle, Washington is an Upper Cervical Chiropractor trained by the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association (NUCCA). Her upper cervical clinic also serves the Northwest Seattle area of University District, Wallingford, Wedgwood, Montlake, Laurelhurst and Capitol Hill. She is uniquely trained to correct problems in the upper cervical spine (upper neck). This vital area is intimately connected to the central nervous system and problems in this area have been shown to be an underlying cause of a variety of different health problems, including migraines and other headaches, whiplash and auto injuries. More information can be found on her website at https://www.discoverchiropracticinseattle.com/