What Posture Means For Your Back Pain?

Slouching increases the length of your spine in the lumbar canal by around 20%. For extended issues, this can create quite a problem, especially if you slouch throughout the day at work or working from home. Poor posture also causes adaptation in the ligaments, causing them to lengthen and decrease in stability.

Sitting in a flexed position over the course of 4 hours, you’re going to see 15% of fluid moving out of the annulus and 10% out of the nucleus of the disc.

A good posture should resemble your head over the shoulders. If your head is above the shoulders, the weight of it won’t be something that we notice day-to-day. When it starts to lean forwards, you’ll likely notice the weight of your head a lot more – in the same way that if you hold a shopping bag away from the body it quickly becomes ‘heavier’. If your shoulders are rounded, this is going to impact the hips as your lower back is going to start compensating. There can be two possible complications relating to the hips. Your hips may come forward and exacerbates the curve in the lumbar spine, this can happen during pregnancy. The hips can also move backwards forming an anterior pelvic tilt that causes shearing in the lower back. The knees typically should be under the hips or very slightly behind. If your knees are slightly bent all the time, the leg muscles never quite relax. The feet and the ankles should also be neutral.

You can measure how your posture is progressing during your rehabilitation process by standing against a wall and seeing how balanced your spine is. It should become easier to have this good upright posture as you get stronger.