How Does Your Posture Affect Your Physical & Mental Health

Growing up we were told to ‘stand up straight’ , ‘No sloughing’ & ‘Pay attention”. Well this is more important than you may think.

Good posture supports good health both mentally and physically.

Having better spinal alignment helps reduce pain in the body as it mitigates excess strain on your joints and muscles.

Less pain, more gain. Better posture also helps boost your mood. When your spine is stacked it becomes easier to breath, so you feel less stressed. You end up using your core muscles more efficiently and digestion is more fluid. All this to say that better posture helps you age with strength and grace.

Don’t believe it yet? Here is some science to back it up:

1.Breathing Better

When you are in a slouched position, you shorten the muscles at the front of your body, thus placing greater stress on your posterior chain and you reduce your ability to breathe in fully. Your diaphragm should contract like an umbrella opening, 360 degrees. Bad posture negates this and lack of oxygen puts our mentally into a state of fight or flight causing greater sub conscience anxiety.

2.Relieve Aches and Pains

Your body is designed to be at it most efficient when you are standing in a “neutral” position. This means your head, torso and pelvis are stacked on top of each other. At Agatsu we refer to this as the 3 Point Stack.

When you slouch or hyper extend these points without control, you barrier at end ranges of motion and put extra stress on muscles and joints in ways they aren’t designed to endure. You might not notice this right away but over time or maybe at the end of a seated or standing long work day you start to feel stiff and sore.

Long term as we age this stress can be the cause pain in your neck, jaw, shoulders, upper and lower back, hips and knees, heck just about everywhere! It can also effect circulation, digestion and constrict nerves. This is not something you want to be promoting as you age.

3. Improves Your Mood

In last week’s blog we talked about ‘fake it, till you make it’. Good posture is another way you can help yourself feel more positive throughout your day.

Think of how a depressed person usually stands. Hanging head, shoulders slouched, spine hunched, this can’t feel great on your joints. As I mentioned above, after a while in this gollum position, you’ll start to notice aches and pains which can make you crabby subconsciously.

Next time you find yourself feeling stressed or anxious, try finding your 3 point stack standing or laying down and then just observe your breath. Notice how it feels in your body as you inhale and exhale. 5-10 deep breaths with better posture goes a long way to helping your heal and feel more optimistic. It will also help improve your concentration as oxygen can flow more easily throughout your system and feed your brain.

Here is Agatsu Senior Instructor Sarah Yeo takes you through a simple way to find your neutral posture.

Got a question for us? Drop a comment below!