You Can’t Get A Better Posture By Trying Harder

 

Chronic Back Pain Relief In 7 Seconds

 

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Do you think your posture is poor? Have you tried a course of posture
exercises to correct it? Most people would say they feel their posture could be better but why does it become poor and what is the best way to improve it?

Modern living means we probably are not as active as previous generations. We spend long hours sitting at desks, in cars or when relaxing, slumping in front of the TV. In these situations you are not using your muscles as nature originally intended. Parts of your body get overworked such as your neck and shoulders whilst others will get weaker, invariably the lower back. Poor posture has been recognized as a factor in health for years and is a major factor in many cases of neck, back and shoulder pain.

The conventional approach to addressing poor posture is exercise. However, this approach may be misguided as the focus on specific muscles for improving posture could affect your body's natural support reflexes and make matters worse.

Your body has built-in postural reflexes to coordinate muscular activity for support and movement. If your posture has deteriorated it is likely these reflexes are not being allowed to work properly. Stress may be causing you to stiffen your neck, tighten your shoulders and tense your lower back. These actions will override your natural mechanisms for balance and movement. Constant inappropriate use of these muscles will eventually corrupt how you move. It becomes a catch-22 problem. The more you move in a poor way, the better you get at moving this way until it feels right.

Whilst I appreciate the popularity of exercises to improve posture, including core stability routines, I believe they result in unnecessary tension in the body. Should we have to work core muscles individually to get our body to stand tall? Did nature intend this as the best way to stand?

In my role as a teacher of movement re-education I see many people who suffer from muscle pain as a result of poor posture. I also see just as many who are suffering as a result of their attempts to correct it! Adding a little extra tension in order to stand properly will not improve your posture - it just adds to the strain on your muscles and joints. Rather than trying to stand and sit in a way you feel is correct, you can learn how to remove the unnecessary stress in your body and allow your postural reflexes to work as nature intended.

So forget about posture and learn about Poise.

Poise is a lost skill from our youth. When you have poise you use far less effort and your body will support itself with ease allowing you to move, breathe and function more freely. Poise is evident in top athletes and performers. Think of Muhammad Ali or Fred Astaire in their prime and that gives you a great example of freedom in movement. I doubt if they used exercises to improve their posture!

Poise can only be regained by first taking out the tension in your body and appreciating the push you get from the ground. When you’re on top of the world and walk with a spring in your step, you’re poised. When you can sit at your desk and feel no tension in your neck, shoulders and back – you are poised. Trying to improve your posture by trying harder will take you further away from your natural poised state. So don’t try – let whatever is beneath you push up and think of letting go to sit, stand and walk taller and you will be on your way to a return to poise.

Get relief from back, neck & shoulder pain in just 7 seconds at . . .

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Roy Palmer is a teacher of movement re-education and author of 7 Seconds to Pain Relief, secrets of lasting relief from back, neck & shoulder pain. He has helped back pain
sufferers, sports people and performing artists over the last 12 years. He is also the author of three books on the subject of performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletes.

Relief from Neck, Back & Shoulder Pain in Just 7 Seconds!

Why Is Conventional Medicine So Bad At Treating Back Pain?

Back pain treatment is a hotly debated topic. Every week you can read a least one research study that claims a popular, conventional treatment is ineffective. Even the most established treatments such as physical therapy do not escape the headlines. Only recently researchers at Warwick University (UK) found that one session just offering advice to back pain sufferers achieved the same results as six weeks of physiotherapy!

Of course, conducting such a large study is difficult as there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. What sort of treatment was given? What was the quality and experience of the therapists used? Did the subject all have the same cause of back pain? Did they carry out the exercises or advice as instructed?

This last question is the big one in my view. All courses of back pain treatment usually involve some sort of exercise or instruction on how to sit, stand or move to reduce the stress on the back. But are we capable of following this advice? Most therapists in conventional medicine make the assumption that we can.

However, if back pain is not due to a specific medical condition is it usually a muscular problem. The human body is perfectly capable of supporting itself with minimal muscular effort. Postural muscles are ‘designed’ to provide long periods of sustained activity to keep us upright and balanced. The phasic muscles (or movement muscles) are for short bursts of activity such as lifting your arm or turning your head. This is a bit of a simplification because all muscles provide a mixture of both functions but it will do for this example.

In my opinion, back pain and other muscular-skeletal problems can occur when we ‘misuse’ our body, or in other words use the wrong muscles to sit, stand and move. If we’re not moving correctly I our daily activities we’re going to do the same when trying to perform corrective exercises.

I see many people who tighten their lower back muscles to sit and stand up straight - these are the wrong muscles! They should not be active to keep you upright, this should be a function performed by muscles higher up that will balance your upper body on your spine.

So if someone suffering with their back is not ‘using’ themselves correctly how are they suddenly supposed to know how to use it right for exercising or trying to correct their posture? This is why I believe conventional back pain treatment does not offer the best solution.

Physical therapy, osteopathic, chiropractic and acupuncture treatments do get results and I recommend people to get a diagnosis and initial help from a qualified practitioner. In the short-term, manipulative treatment will help to get you moving and back onto your feet. However, I do not see these therapies as a long-term solution because they rarely get to the cause of ‘misuse’ and you could find yourself returning to your therapist on a regular basis.

If you are looking to address the cause of neck, back or shoulder pain you’ll need to go deeper. Your muscles are only doing what you tell them to do, but, and here is the big question, do you know what you are telling them to do? In place of exercise I believe a course of re-education will achieve far more by removing your bad habits that are causing your discomfort.

Get relief from back, neck & shoulder pain in just 7 seconds at . . .

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Roy Palmer is a teacher of movement re-education and author of 7 Seconds to Pain Relief, secrets of lasting relief from back, neck & shoulder pain. He has helped back pain
sufferers, sports people and performing artists over the last 12 years. He is also the author of three books on the subject of performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletes.

How To Choose An Ergonomic Office Chair

The average office worker will spend 7 hours a day at their desk. The wrong sitting position will put stresses on the spine that could lead to long term health problems. In addition to the health issues, your productivity will also be reduced if you are uncomfortable at your desk. Employees now recognize this problem and are now prepared to spend serious money on getting quality ergonomic seating and chairs for their people. However, if you select the wrong chair it will not help no matter how much you have spent.

What to look for in an ergonomic chair

·    Adjustable seat height

·    A good size seat

·    A backrest

·    Good padding on seat

·    Arm rests

·    Lumbar support

·    Easy to rotate

Desks and people come in many different sizes so ergonomic seating and chairs have to cater for the majority of variations. The height should be easy to adjust and have a good range of at least 40 - 53 centimeters from the floor to seat height. The depth and width of the seat should be sufficient to allow you to sit with your back in contact with the back support whilst leaving a space of approximately 8 centimeters between the back of your knees and the seat. If this distance is greater you could cause the muscles at the back of your leg to tighten. If the back of your knees are making contact with the seat you may impede your circulation.

It is essential to have good padding on the seat because you will be spending long hours on it! Arm and backrests allow for support which can prevent you from holding tension on your neck, shoulders and back - both rests should be adjustable.

Lumbar support is not as important as it was once considered. A good seat that supports your pelvis in conjunction with a good sitting posture virtually negates the need for lumber support. Having said this, it still can be a useful feature in ergonomic seating and chairs for when you are tired or under stress.

A rotating chair is definitely a must as most office workers will need to turn to get things from desk drawers of use PC and office equipment. This will help reduce stress on the lower back.

Get relief from back, neck & shoulder pain in just 7 seconds at . . .

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Roy Palmer is a teacher of movement re-education and author of 7 Seconds to Pain Relief, secrets of lasting relief from back, neck & shoulder pain.
He has helped back pain sufferers, sports people and performing artists over the last 12 years. He is also the author of three books on the subject of performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletes.



 

Computer Posture: Are You Making Work Harder Than it Should be?

 

Is your computer posture correct? Do you suffer from neck pain, a burning between your shoulder blades, lower back pain, headaches, digestive problems, breathing difficulties, eye strain ... the list goes on. All of the above could be related to how you sit at your PC for hours at a time every day, barely moving, eyes fixed on the screen with deadlines to meet.

If you have adjusted the position of your chair, computer screen and mouse but still find you suffer from the conditions mentioned above? You’re not alone and for good reason. Whilst you can easily re-arrange your furniture it is not so simple to follow the instructions aimed at the human elements, that is, your body.

Following advice on sitting correctly, such as, sitting straight with the shoulders back etc, is not as easy as it sounds. This is because the majority of adults have developed a poor body concept. What does this mean? We have lost the art of natural poise and movement through our sedentary lifestyles. Your computer posture is just one situation where it can go wrong.

I have taught many people about movement and posture over the last 12 years and one issue that usually comes up is the matter of sitting at a computer. Many make the mistake of trying to sit up too straight and tighten their lower backs, causing more harm than good. As soon as people learn not to try and sit up straight, they find it so much easier!

Early warning signs that should not be ignored.

Any discomfort experienced at your computer is a sign you are doing something wrong. You may not be too concerned if the aches and pains you associate with your work disappear at weekends. But prolonged periods (and we could be talking years) of sitting in a poor position will alter your posture gradually until you begin to suffer all the time.

More serious signs that require you to take instant action are tightness or numbness in your fingers, hands, wrists, elbows or shoulders. This could soon lead to upper limb disorders, also known as repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is a difficult condition to treat successfully and in a many cases the sufferer has to change job completely to one not involving computers - not an easy career move to make in today's hi-tech world!

If you experience any of the above symptoms, talk to your Occupational Health Advisor or visit your doctor.

The longer these conditions persist the harder it will be to treat.

So your computer posture can have a huge influence on not only how productive you are at work, whether you get aches or pains, but also your body shape! You probably don't want to look old before your time, but if you pay little attention to how you sit at your PC you could be rapidly attaining the stoop normally associated with old age.

Remember, you don't have to sit up straight with your chin in, shoulders back ...it will only cause more problems in the long-term. Just allow your body to be poised and let the chair and floor support your weight and remember to take breaks away from you computer.

Get relief from back, neck & shoulder pain in just 7 seconds at . . .

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Roy Palmer is a teacher of movement re-education and author of 7 Seconds to Pain Relief, secrets of lasting relief from back, neck & shoulder pain.
He has helped back pain sufferers, sports people and performing artists over the last 12 years. He is also the author of three books on the subject of performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletes.

Are You The Cause Of Your Lower Back Pain

                                              

Relief from Neck, Back & Shoulder Pain in Just 7 Seconds!

Although eighty percent of adults will suffer at some stage with lower back pain it still remains very much a mystery to the medical world. Are we missing something? Is the answer a little closer to home?

If you have had a medical examination for your lower back pain and no specific cause has been diagnosed what can you do? You may have been told that it is either ‘all in your mind’ or, worse still, be suspected of faking it to get time off work. The problem is that if medical tests cannot find a probable cause it is assumed there is nothing wrong with you. Now this isn’t much use to you is it!

The problem as I see it is that medical science does not yet recognize what could be a major factor in back pain. This factor, in my opinion, is that most adults, due to stress and the pressures of modern living, have lost ‘the art of natural movement’.

How often are we stuck behind a desk, the wheel of a car or clued to the couch in front of the TV? What is this doing to our backs? We all know that we should be more active but when we exercise can we move as freely and efficiently as we did as young children?

Has your doctor advised exercise? Yes it is true that activity is better than bed rest for your back, but how do you know if you are moving correctly? If posture and the way we move are a cause of lower back pain, are we not making it worse by using our bodies more vigorously?

I would suggest that before you start on an exercise program to help your lower back you should assess how you stand, sit, walk and run. If you can learn to reduce the unnecessary stress many of us place on our lower backs this can go a long way to resolving the problem for many sufferers.

One of the best ways to improve your lower back is muscle re-education to reduce the stresses and strains you unknowingly place upon your body. Learning how to use your body as nature intended can help eliminate or drastically reduce lower back pain. As a teacher of movement and posture re-education I see many people who, once shown a few simple ‘tricks’, are amazed at just how much unnecessary effort they have been using for even the easiest, everyday tasks. Once this has been removed they feel lighter, their movement is freer and the pain just melts away.

Get relief from back, neck & shoulder pain in just 7 seconds at . . .

www.neck-back-shoulder-pain-relief.com

Roy Palmer is a teacher of movement re-education and author of 7 Seconds to Pain Relief, secrets of lasting relief from back, neck & shoulder pain. He has helped back pain sufferers, sports people and performing artists over the last 12 years. He is also the author of three books on the subject of performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitation for athletes.