Good posture can have a big impact on your overall health, but it's hard to sit up straight all the time

3 Things Spine Specialists Do to Maintain Good Posture Here's what spine specialists do to maintain their own posture

Good posture can have a big impact on your overall health, but it's hard to sit up straight all the time

• It’s difficult to maintain good posture all the time, but it can make a major difference in your health and mobility, especially as you get older.
• Spine specialists shared what they do to maintain their own posture, from doing a variety of regular workouts to making small adjustments in their workspace.

Many of us likely remember shrugging off requests from our parents to stand up straight when we were young, but good posture is important for multiple reasons. Not only might you not like the look of rounded shoulders and a curved back, but having good posture can make a big difference in your health and mobility as you age.

Holding your body correctly, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping, can lower your risk of pain, injury, and other health issues. 

In general, you want to maintain the three natural curves of your spine—at your neck, mid-back, and lower back. That means having your head above your shoulders and the top of your shoulders over your hips. But that can be surprisingly tricky, especially if you’re hunched over a computer all day or always rushing around.

With that in mind, we asked spinal specialists how they maintain their own posture throughout the day, even with their packed schedules. Here’s what works for them. 

Doing a Mix of Exercises

To help set an example for patients, Rahul Shah, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Premier Orthopaedic Spine Associates, told Health he does a mix of cardio and strength training workouts several times a week.

“Cardiovascular and strength workouts serve to increase my endurance as well as the harmony in which my muscles work in concert,” Shah said. “I find that this combination serves to improve my natural ability to stack my head level over my pelvis with minimal additional concentration or strain, enabling me to pay attention to my daily individual clinical tasks.”

Rowing is his cardio exercise of choice, while he does squats, bench presses, and overhead presses to focus on working several muscle groups at a time. 

Mara Vucich, DO, a physiatrist with the Maryland Spine Center at Mercy Medical Center, who also prioritizes regular exercise for spine health, said she likes yoga and Pilates to strengthen the muscles in her upper back, lower back, and core.

Vucich also does chest-opening exercises to stretch the shoulders and hip-opening exercises for the pelvis. “They tend to get tight from sitting,” she said.

Having Regular Self Check-ins

Mental check-ins help with posture for Marissa Prezzano, an occupational therapist at Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. “I’ve learned to practice mindfulness throughout my day,” she told Health. “This helps me check in with my body to see if I’m in the most optimal position, whether I’m sitting or standing.”

When she’s working at her computer, Prezzano said she usually thinks to herself every few minutes, “Relax your jaw, relax your shoulders, sit upright.”

“If I’m looking at my phone for an extended period of time, I make sure to hold my phone up at eye level,” she said. “At first, I had to think about it a lot, but now that it has become a habit, it comes more naturally to me.”

Vucich also tries to do little mental check-ins throughout her day to see how she’s sitting or standing. “I ask, ‘Am I OK with how I’m sitting, or do I need to fix my posture?’” she said. Vucich said she recommends this to all of her patients—and some will even set a reminder on their phone to go off every 30 minutes.

Making Workstation Tweaks

While standing is often the focus, good posture is also important when sitting, Harvey Smith, MD, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Penn Medicine, told Health.

Smith stresses the importance of working to maintain the arch in your lower back when sitting. “Check if you can slip your hand between your lower back and the back of your chair,” he said. “Periodically confirm that your shoulders are back and your gaze is forward.” If you’re struggling to make this happen, Smith said that adjusting your computer monitor to a different height or placing your keyboard closer or farther from you at your desk may help.

He also said he adjusts his chair so that his feet meet the ground under or slightly behind his knees. “If your feet are out in front of your knees while you are sitting, it may tend towards slouching of your lumbar spine,” Smith said.  

Overall, Smith said that making “small adjustments” to your workstation and work environment will lead to changes in your posture over time.

This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Korin Miller