HOW Poor Posture Affects Your Health & Athletic Performance

HOW Poor Posture Affects Your Health & Athletic Performance

The posture you have in the day to day life has a big impact on athletic performance, as well as on your mental and physical health. We are all told from a young age to not slouch and to stand up straight when walking, but so many people still do it throughout their adult life.

So why do people have a poor posture? Well, there are multiple reasons for this. Sometimes it’s because of accidents or injuries, other times it’s because of genetic factors, while other times it’s because of bad sitting habits. Just hunching over at a 60-degree angle to check your phone can put more than 60 lbs. of pressure on your cervical spine!

Other reasons include:

  • Poor sleep support (a bad pillow or mattress)
  • Being overweight
  • Stress
  • Muscular imbalances
  • Improper shoes
  • Standing with a bad form
  • Walking incorrectly

When people walk or stand incorrectly, bones and muscles line up incorrectly and eventually block the flow of the sciatic nerve. This can lead to sciatica, a painful and unpleasant condition.

The Main Cause of Poor Posture

But the main cause for poor posture is definitely prolonged sitting. A study held in 2012 found out that each week people spend around 28 hours standing, 11 hours lounging around and an astonishing 64 hours of sitting. The average of working out was just around 2 and a half hours per week.

So that means that people are sitting for about 9 hours each day, some even for more. And sitting for so long inevitably leads to slouching and poor posture. Even if you know how to sit perfectly, you won’t be able to hold that pose for 9 hours, and you will change positions, putting your back into awkward positions.

Slouching puts a lot of pressure on lower back muscles and the spine. Besides this, the hip flexors get tight, while the glutes become weak. Tight hip flexors limit the range of motion, while weak glutes can cause stability problems in the gym. So lots of hours of sitting on a chair can definitely affect performance when working out.

Not only the lower part of the body is affected, but so is the upper side. Most people keep their monitor or laptop way below their eye level, which makes them to constantly look down. As mentioned before, this puts a lot of pressure on the cervical spine, neck and shoulders. Then by going to the gym with these tight muscles and imbalances, people easily get injured.

Poor Posture Also Affects Your Heart

Dr. Joel Goldthwait noticed that the abdominal nerves and blood vessels are under tension in individuals with bad posture. Not only this, but he also found out that those people display various cardiac issues and impaired blood circulation.

So your poor posture directly affects how your body carries blood to all the major organs and muscles. A slow blood flow allows for fatty acids to clog the heart, which can then lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol. But it may also lead to varicose veins and even the formation of dangerous blood clots.

But This Is Not All

Poor posture has also been found to negatively affect digestion and breathing and puts a lot of strain on your heart. A study published in 2007 also found out that strain in the neck muscles may lead to higher blood pressure.

A poor blood circulation means that fewer nutrients flow to the brain, which impairs memory and concentration. And last but not least, all of these factors could lead to a stroke.

Not just physical health is affected by a poor posture, so is the mood. This study showed that people who had a good sitting posture had a better mood and a lower fear compared to slumped participants who had more negative emotions and a worse mood. So even when you are stressed, make sure to keep a good posture as this can improve your mood and self-esteem.

So a bad posture can damage joints, create muscular imbalances, stress organs, affect blood circulation and also create a bad mood. It’s clear that you need to take action right away, and we are here to help! We offer a wide variety of Yoga and Pilates programs, and we work with both professional athletes and regular people. After attending our classes, you will relieve stress, treat certain medical conditions, rehabilitate after injuries, have more mobility and a better posture. Check our website for more info and contact us today! The staff at the Abbysan Center will gladly assist you!

Real Cause Of Sports Injuries

Real Cause of Sports Injuries

The answer to a fit and balanced body is definitely not found in sports. Sure, sports are fun, have some health benefits, and get us outdoors. Some are good for us. But to consider starting a sport to have a fit and well-balanced body is not the best option. Sports do not get us in shape; they actually get us out of shape.

The problem with most sports is that they develop tight muscles and create imbalances, either because of uneven use of muscle groups or because of uneven use of one side of the body.

Imbalances in Running and Tennis

Let’s take running for example. Sure, it is great for the cardiovascular system. But it dramatically tightens the muscles at the back of the legs. And besides this, it has no effect on most other muscles of the body. This intense shortening or disproportionate strengthening results in major muscular and structural imbalances.

Tennis is a game of repetition, and it creates a lot of strength and flexibility imbalances throughout the entire body, imbalances that could lead to injuries if not corrected. First of all, the player gets stronger in his dominant side and by always hitting the ball with the same hand. All parts of the body are linked together in a kinetic chain, and when one single part of this entire system does not work properly, it can create imbalances throughout the entire body and injuries on muscles that need to take abnormal loads.

Long Term Side Effects

The harder you train, the tighter your muscles will become, and this applies to most sports. Sure, there are some benefits to this as well. You will initially lose a few pounds, burn some fat, add some muscle mass and feel great about yourself. The problems appear over the long term when imbalances are created (unless you do something about this).

Muscle tightness or imbalances are bad, but they are not that bad. Some people can live with them for their whole life, not even realizing what the problem is. The real problem is when these imbalances lead to major injuries. Then you will have to quit working out completely or to switch to a different activity and start it all over from scratch, losing all of the progress you made to this point.

But switching to a different sport or activity will not solve the problem, and will eventually lead to the same injury again. We already discussed more about this in a previous article, and the solution lies in Yoga and Pilates.

Imbalances Lead to Injuries

Invariably, a lack of awareness about existing imbalances and the need for total fitness training is what leads to injuries. All injuries in sports are caused by structural and muscular imbalances, and we are not talking here about the obvious cases where you fall of the bike, you trip over a rock or the hockey puck hits you in the head.

If you start a training program with an existing imbalance that may have developed over the years from poor posture, an old injury or genetic bad luck, it will make its presence known at one point during training. The same thing is true when developing muscular and structural imbalance as a result of training.

Unfortunately, old-fashioned stretching is not something that most people like to do or have time for. And then, they slowly have to witness their bodies getting tighter and tighter. They eventually recall their pre-training days when they were free of muscle tightness and they were still able to touch their toes.

In the morning they barely crawl from bed to a hot shower, to their training clothes, and maybe also take an aspirin or two on the way. Then they wander through the city in search of chiropractors, physical therapists and orthopedists.

The Solution

Once injured, you will have to go through a lot of re-patterning, body tissue adaptations and changes in muscle length and strength ratios. If you got injured 1 year ago and didn’t do any rehabilitation, then the recovery will also take 1 year or more. It’s the same with weight loss. If you gained a lot of weight over the course of 2 years, it will also take around 2 years of eating healthy and working out in order to get back in great shape.

No matter the type of muscle imbalance or tightness you have, we can help you get back to normal through our Yoga and Pilates programs. We have many years of experience, helping both professional athletes and regular people. We offer a wide variety of methods and classes that can help relieve stress, treat certain medical conditions, rehabilitate after injuries, have more mobility and a better posture. Check our website for more info and contact us today! The staff at the Abbysan Center will gladly assist you!