I was experiencing some neck pain, and went online in search of some at-home remedies. Of the remedies, posture was one of them which got me thinking: “Does posture really matter that much?”.
So will fixing my posture help with my neck pain and grant me numerous other benefits i see on these blogs?
holy fuck yes
So to correct one thing:
Poor posture is a symptom of poor core strength, particularly, your rhomboids and lower back. If your muscles are both stronger and more flexible, they will literally pull your bones into the correct alignment, without any conscious thought towards sitting straighter.
Start by taking a short walk once a day (free). A 100 day pushup challenge (free) or starting Yoga classes (can be free on YouTube, but in-person has several benefits, including having someone correcting your form, and some social structures to help provide extra motivation) would be a great next step. Longer term, maybe light weights and rows alongside using a treadmill or stationary bike.
If you choose to look into weight training, “Starting strength” is a decent program by Mark Rippetoe that I would recommend.
Hi. Your post is interesting in general but when you say 100 pushups a day… is it really a challenge for a normal or even a fit person or is it just some random thing you found while browsing?
Most people would have trouble doing 100 pushups at once. But this sounds more like doing push ups everyday for 100 days.
On day one, do one push up. Day two, two. Sounds a bit ridiculous, but it gradually builds difficulty.
Crucially, it is not all in one sitting. On day 10, if needed, do five when you wake up, and five before bed.
Break it up into something achievable. And if you miss a day, don’t sweat it. Again, the idea is to start to build, or rebuild strength and flexibility, the exercises themselves barely matter; you could do planks instead, for example.
Wow. Super hard. I may try it but I don’t think I can do more than 20 or 25, even spreading them in 5 repetitions.
Do as many as you can normal then go to your knees. Makes it much easier.
Don’t worry about what you can or can’t do four weeks from now. Stay focused on what you need to do this week.
Very interesting. I’ll look into these. Thanks!
Posture is so important for health, both as a practice and an indicator.
As a practice, stacking your body up in a good position lets it work better and protects your joints.
It is also an indication of strong enough muscles and bones, very weak people or those with osteoporosis often can’t achieve good posture.
It’s also free, nothing to buy, a free intervention that can only benefit you, so why not practice it?
Yes. And also, you should be doing stretching exercises.
I had surgery for tech neck, so yeah. Chin up people!
Bad posture is also a symptom of a greater muscle imbalance or weakness, not necessarily something you should focus on changing on it’s own.
I had very bad posture, but once I started going to the gym and strength training and built a more balanced base of strength, my posture improved greatly on it’s own. At least I have noticed significant difference.
Hunched shoulders can be corrected somewhat just by exercising the back with pulling exercises like lat pulldowns, pullups, and rows.
Lower back issues can be helped by training dead lifts, good form for that exercise is extremely important though.
Of course you should also include some yoga and stretching in your routine too, that has numerous benefits. I would recommend getting a personal trainer if you’ve never been to the gym before to teach you to do exercises correctly until you’re comfortable on your own.
I’ve had DOGSHIT posture my whole life. Don’t really care about it. Otherwise very fit, active, and healthy.
Now I have a bulging disk and a schmorl hernia in my spine. When that shit starts hurting, it’s genuinely paralyzing. Worse than breaking a bone, and the spine does not heal from that naturally.
I don’t think you have to build a lifestyle around stretching, yoga, proper posture, and mobility exercises, but dear god do some little things to keep your knees, spine, and neck in working order
One thing that helped my posture was raising my monitor - a hardback copy of Infinite Jest did the trick. But follow all the good advice here too - core strength, stretching, massage. It is really, really worth the effort.
chronic pain is not as much fun as they ought you to believe - turns out it’s not that easy to amputate some section of your back
My hot take is that short-term posture doesn’t matter all that much. If you have bad posture but you get up every 20 minutes and stretch/do chores/exercise for 5-10 minutes, you probably erase the original issues.
My one-two punch, if you’re looking for advice: make sure you use a chair that makes good posture easy, with your keyboard+mouse & monitor height well separated on your desk (if computing’s the main thing you’re doing as you work). And then make sure you’re getting a lot of activity throughout the day. Spans of 2, 3, 4, etc. hours just sitting at your desk will be really bad for you, no matter how good your posture is.
I guess what I’m saying is if you can either focus a lot on posture or focus a lot on physical activity routines, prioritize the latter. But both are certainly important.
I spend most of my day staring at a computer, and i have an atrocious posture while doing it. Do back cracks count as stretching?
No they don’t.
You’re better off taking a few minutes to really relax your muscles in your neck and back. Start by breathing in as deep as you can into your belly, then in the same breath, switch to your lungs, and breathe in as deeply as you possibly can until it hurts, and then exhale. Do that for a minute and then when you think you can’t possibly breathe in any deeper, breathe in deeper still.
If you do this for a few minutes and feel crazy muscle spasms in your neck and back, you need to start taking a lot more deep, relaxing breaths.
Everyone talking about pain so I’ll add this: A person is shitloads more attractive with a straight posture. Shoulders back, head high y’all. Fake it until it’s a habit if you must.
Adding to what others said: there is a saying “your next position is your best position”. You should switch posture frequently during the day. Sitting in front of a PC whole day does not make it easy unfortunately. You should just try to switch consciously, walk around a bit, stuff like that.
Good posture also helps you breathe better, which can help you feel more energized and concentrate better. Your diaphragm doesn’t work right when you sit hunched over, so your breath gets more shallow.
If you ever need to talk a lot for work or some other reason, good posture is essential so your voice sounds good and doesn’t get tired too easily.
And it helps strengthen your core, which is good for balance and other things.
I had severe headaches for years before a doctor that I trusted talked me into getting help from a local chiropractor with a good reputation. I’ve since learned a lot and would recommend a massage therapist or PT over a random chiropractor. Even then was skeptical. But this chiropractor was able to demonstrate exactly where in my neck the pain behind my eyes was coming from, provide me with some immediate relief, and help me with a path to long-term recovery. Biggest takeaway: posture is critical. Good posture is uncomfortable and tiring at first. You’ll get better at it and your muscles will adapt. It’s well worth the sacrifice. Wish I’d learned twenty years ago but better late than never.
Ultimately, it depends on the source of the neck pain. But, also it is something free you can do that can only help.
Also too much stress can cause neck and/or shoulder pain. (Which posture can at least help a little)
