Through time, we tend to develop poor posture. Sitting all the time and looking at the computer or cell phone can cause muscles to tighten. Your head, neck, and shoulders begin to move forward and, you hunch forward. With proper stretching, you can help improve poor posture.
Why Stretching Is Important
We often think about stretching as a way to warm up before we exercise. Warming up, however, is so much more than just prepping the muscles for activity.
Stretching helps relax tight muscles and release stress. Not only can tight muscles cause pain, but you also become less productive because you can’t concentrate. In addition, when you don’t release stress, it can cause chronic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
Another benefit of stretching is it keeps your muscles firm and pliable, as well as keeping your joints flexible.
How Does Stretching Improve Posture?
Because tight muscles tend to create poor posture, stretching out those muscles and relaxing those muscles allows you to sit up straighter and pull your shoulders back without pain.
Stretching also strengthens your muscles allowing you to hold your head higher and straighten your spine.
When your posture is slouchy in your neck and shoulders, your lower back tries to compensate. You develop lower back pain. By improving your posture, you can help keep your lower back healthy and free of pain.
Body Awareness
Being aware of how your body feels is the key to knowing when to stretch. You may not feel pain right away. You may even ignore pain because you’re busy doing other things. Being aware of where you hurt and the position of your head and shoulders can help you determine when your posture is out of alignment.
It’s not just your neck, back, and shoulders that you need to notice. Hips can get tight as well when you sit a lot throwing your posture off. Pay attention to where you hurt so you can use stretching to relieve pain and improve posture.
Our daily lifestyles are ripe to create poor posture. Stretching can not only relieve the tight muscles that cause poor posture, but it can also help you stand up straighter and have more confidence that you look and feel your best.
