If you’ve caught yourself looking in the mirror or glancing at pictures and felt like you have poor posture, this article is for you. Inside, we will share our favorite at-home test you can utilize to finally answer the question, do I have bad posture?
Why Would Your Posture Take a Turn for the Worse?
There’s a few different reasons why you’d notice your posture has taken on a rounded look over time.
- The first reason is due to screen time. Most working professionals are spending a majority of their day in front of a computer, phone, or tablet. If you’re not in front of a screen at work, you’re typically looking at one when you get done.
- The second issue can be due to whiplash injuries that occured due to a car accident, such as a rear-end collison, or possibly a sport that subjected your neck to significant impacts (football, rugby, hockey, lacrosse, etc).
- The third issue could be due to a bad position you’re repeatedly in. This could be something like reading a book in your lap, or proping yourself up in your bed to watch tv, etc.
Each of these issues could be reasons why you’d have bad posture.
Posture is More than Looks
Your bad posture is much more than just how you look. Posture is a window into your nervous system. Most people are surprised to learn that posture is less a function of how strong you are, and likely a result of how healthy your nervous system and inner ear are at any moment.
Your brain is in charge of how you hold your body in space. This positioning is known as proprioception. If your brain and nervous system are healhty and balanced then your posture is likely to be as well. However, if you have shifting in your spine and irritation in your nervous system as a result then you’re more prone to negative postural changes.
At Prime Chiropractic, we specialize in the health of your spine and nervous system. If there’s a problem in your spine and nervous system it could present as neck pain, back pain, headaches, fatigue, or some other symptom. This is due to the fact that your nervous system runs everything in your body. If you’d like to have a Neuro-Structural Examination to test the health of your spine and nervous system, click here!
The Test to Know If You Have Bad Posture
If you’re looking to determine if you have poor posture or not, here’s a simple DIY test you can do at the comfort of your home.
The Wall Test–
First Step: Stand up against a wall barefoot.
Second Step: Attempt to place your heels, calfs, buttocks, shoulder blades, and the back of your head against the wall.
Third Step: Try to hold this position for a period of time
If you’re able to touch all landmarks against the wall without straining, then congratulations, you’ve passed the at home posture test!
However, if you find it to be difficult or impossible to maintain all of your body parts on the wall for a period of time, it’s likely you have bad posture and could benefit from some structural correction or exercises to improve. If you’re located near Centennial, CO and would like some help, click here to find out more about Prime Chiropractic.
Finally, if you had to lift your chin into the air in order to touch the back of your head against the wall, then you have failed the Wall Test. Your chin must stay level and parallel to the floor in order to pass the test. Extending your head back alters the position of the test and means the structure of your spine will not allow for an upright position
What Are Your Next Steps
If you’ve determined you have bad posture and now want to know what to do about it, read on.
Theres’ a few things we would suggest for anyone who wants to improve their poor posture.
- Determine what activities in the present or past could have led to the poor posture you’re now seeing.
- Understand bad posture is potentially a nervous system problem. In order to correct this, a specialist who addresses nervous system problems would be advised.
- The inner ear may also be playing a role in this issue and could need to be addressed.
We believe it’s never too late to begin improving the structure of your spine and posture. As we age, it gets harder to reverse the probelm and get back to square one. However, in most situations, there’s positive change you can expect to see.
Possibly. Pain can be due to many different reasons, making it almost impossible to determine the sole cause. However, if you have bad posture, it’s highly likely it’s playing a role in your pain.
Yes, this is possible and even likely. Most people who have postural changes don’t notice any negative effects. But, the absence of pain or symptoms doesn’t mean you’re healthy. Also, if you have poor posture, it’s possible, even probably you’ll have symptoms build over time.