Lower back pain and posture are often related. Poor posture can certainly cause pain and pain can contribute to temporary or permanent bad posture. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between posture and pain, since this is one of the many possible causes of symptoms that people can definitely eliminate from their lives with a bit of proactive effort.
Poor posture is a growing problem, despite doctors doing their best to educate people as to the many risks. We actually witness real cluelessness among young people recently regarding postural issues, with many youth simply not realizing the problems that are literally just over tomorrow’s horizon, since they are purposefully doing everything in their power to compromise their own health with abysmal postural habits. However, we also witness older adults with good intentions also committing postural suicide on a regular basis, leading to pain problems and other more sinister collateral effects.
This dissertation investigates how posture influences lower back pain and vice versa. If you are one of the millions of people who are suddenly realizing that your current acute pain is your own fault due to ignorance of common sense postural truths, then now is the time to begin fixing the problem. We can help.
Lower Back Pain and Posture Inter-Dependence
Poor posture can cause a variety of pain syndromes to occur. Lower back pain is just one of the many possible locations for posture-related symptoms to occur. The upper back, neck, hips, knees and feet are also common locations where patients endure unnecessary suffering.
However, pain in many different areas of the body can also cause or contribute to poor posture. The longer these symptoms occur, the greater the chance of postural consequences lasting even once the pain eventually resolves. Humans are creatures of habit and some will continue bad posture habits based on past pain unwittingly, purely out of force of practice. In other cases, people will mistakenly credit negative changes to their posture with helping to relieve past pain, thereby continuing these poor anatomical habits purposefully out of a lack of enlightenment.
The body is often affected by antalgia, which describes a nonspecific response to pain. Doctors often use the diagnostic name antalgic gait to describe how patients walk differently in response to pain, but the term can actually be applied to any anatomical action, including antalgic posture, often diagnosed in back pain patients as antalgic lean.
Lower Back Pain and Posture Causes
Poor posture can be defined in many specific and general ways. Generally, we can include any of the following factors that might be pathological to good health and wellness:
Forward head posture is known to place tremendous stress on the neck and upper back muscles. Severe continuing forward head posture can lead to injury of the spine, muscular tissues, as well as RSI diagnoses throughout the dorsal anatomy. Some patients suffer tight and painful lumbar muscles from the far-ranging consequences of extreme forward head posture.
Slumping and hunching forward the shoulders is known to create muscular imbalances, enacting weak back muscles and overly tight chest muscles.
Having a protruding abdomen changes the center of ideal anatomical gravity and can definitely cause lower back pain. There are reasons why lower back pain is more common in both pregnant women, as well as obese people of all ages…
Standing can affect posture through many mechanisms, ranging from pronated foot position to flat-footedness to placing more weight on one side of the body to leaning forwards or backwards. Typical results of standing-related postural issues are knee and hip pain, pelvic tilting, lumbar pain and abnormal lumbar lordosis.
Lower Back Pain and Posture Fixes
For most people without significant anatomical defect or disease, demonstrating poor posture is simply inexcusable. We all know, or can easily learn, how to stand, recline, sit, and do all the things we need to accomplish in life, using ideal posture and ergonomics, particularly in this high-tech internet ago where all the information contained in the collective human mind is available with a click. Continuing to demonstrate poor posture is usually due to ignorance in some cases, lack of attentiveness in others or simple cluelessness about the true importance of good posture. However, when pain strikes, people are suddenly shaken from their lackadaisical attitude and forced to reckon with their postural failings.
We have already written much about actual tips for good posture on our other websites. Please use our search function to query posture to read all of these important essays. However, some fast tips we will mention here, due to their growing importance in the modern world include all of the following suggestions that will help improve your posture exponentially:
Always maintain the rules of good posture and ergonomics, when standing, sitting or reclining.
Do not become engrossed in work or play past the point of good health. Alter your activity throughout the day and vary your position hour to hour.
Do not spend your entire day with your eyes glued to an electronic device held in your hand below eye level. This is postural murder. If you can not see your screen without glasses, get glasses. Do not destroy your posture to preserve your appearance or ego.
Set up your work/play station to reflect good ergonomics and be flexible for sitting or standing use.
Stretch, eat right and exercise to facilitate the ability to maintain good posture at any age.
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