The mild discomfort from activating postural muscles correctly may as too high a price to pay for looking good but long-term damage is.

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2 Stand up straight! I bet you often hear that growing up.the stern warnings of our youth are often ignored as we grow older. Who cares about looking tall or appearing confident anyway? Constantly monitoring how you stand or sit canbe a pain in the neck, but it is much better than the literal pain you have when poor posture catches up with you. Poor posture can lead to constant headaches, neck and back muscle imbalances and muscle weakness.improper posture can also be the reason athletes fail to achieve the muscle development they are targeting when they exercise. The constant pain of sitting in a car in peak hour traffic can also be the trigger for road rage. The next time you feel yourself about to yell at a hapless pedestrian ask yourself Am I sitting properly? Do I have my postural muscles turned on?. The mild discomfort from activating postural muscles correctly may as too high a price to pay for looking good but long-term damage is. To draw a longer bow, there is an endless list of secondary problems that poor posture contributes to:the entire gamut of problems from not being physically active and also improper digestion, varicose veins, spinal cord displacement just to name a few. In order to avoid problems and also to look and feel good keep an eye out for these 7 habits that cause long term postural problems.

3 Slouching 1When Sitting

4 Slouching while sitting causes excessive cumulative strain on the muscles, joints, discs and ligaments of the neck and back. It is deceptively comfortable as we first slouch into the chair. That s OK for a little while but prolonged slouching times repeated daily can lead to permanent damage over time. The two secrets to combatting slouching while sitting are: 1. A strong core 2. Having a mental reminder to re-set your posture every few minutes. A clever one is to re-set every time you change programmes, documents or messages.

5 2Down You Spend a Lot of Time Sitting

6 Many people sit for a living: drivers, office staff, movie critics. Sedentary workers need to have strategies to combat the hours they spend sitting every day to avoid long term postural damage. Muscles like being worked. When they remain static for long periods of time theyshrink in size they become short and weak. Other problems are reduced blood flow to all parts of the body, lack of stimulus for the gut to process food and poked-necked or forward head posture. Forward head posture (FHP) is a common result of prolonged sitting, and screen time on devices such as computer, tablets and smart phones. Repetition trains the mind and the muscles. The average Australian spends 9.5 hours in front of a screen. You can imagine how much of that time is spent in fhp. The effects of fhp range from chronic pains and headaches to disc herniations, pinched nerves and blood vessels, and arthritis. Besides being more active and avoiding sitting for too long, you can also adjust how you sit. Keep the top of a computer screen at eye level, sit in an upright position and keep your head aligned with your neck and spine.

7 3 Rounded Shoulders

8 Have you ever been compared to the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Be honest. Rounded shoulders do give that look, even if you don t have the medical condition Dowager s hump or kyphosis. If you spend a lot of time with your shoulders in a forward position, you could be causing irreparable damage to your spine. Some people have adopted this position from childhood, while it has been imposed on others based on their regular activities. There is a high tendency to hunch over a computer when actively using it. Hunching over a steering wheel for long drives can cause that as well. Weight lifters, swimmers, furniture movers and manual labourers are also likely to develop rounded shoulders. Sedentary activities or ones that repeatedly activate your chest and arm muscles are the usual culprits for the onset of rounded shoulders. With rounded shoulders the whole of your back and your neck become vulnerable to soreness. A classic way to self diagnose rounded shoulders is to stand in front of a mirror in a relaxed position and see whether your knuckles face forward while your arms hang at your side. If so then you have rounded shoulders. To combat rounded shoulders reset posture regularly when engaged in sedentary activities. For the physically active, ensure that you have work to do that engages the posteriors shoulders and shoulder blades. For more information on this contact you mhealth clinician.

9 4 Cradling or Necking Your Phone

10 This is one of the most obvious and common causes of long term posture problems. Multi-taskers are the most vulnerable group. Cradling the phone with your neck will help you kill two birds with one stone, but that s detrimental to your long-term health. The result is constant strain on your neck, shoulders and upper back. Quite often, people would try to balance it out, so when one side begins to hurt they switch to the other. A stiff neck is a common result, but it can get worse. Repeated daily cradling of the phone can lead to constant headaches, shoulder and shoulder blade pain as well as tingling or numbness into the arms. The good news is that the easiest way out of this problem is to stop. Use a hands free device like headphones or bluetooth, if speakerphone isn t convenient. You do not need any exercises to correct it, unless the effects are already present.

11 Sway back or 5Hyperlordosis

12 An excessive curve of your lower back can cause a posture where your chest sticks out, while your bottom does the same. A sway back or big lumbar lordosis affects how the entire spine sits all the way up to the head. This can be genetic but is can also be caused by different things that people do. High heels, gymnastics, ballet and some weight lifting programmes can cause hyperlordosis or sway back. Pregnant women are definitely susceptible to this problem. Obesity can also drive sway back postural issues. Lower back pain is the most frequently reported symptoms but sway backed posture can also cause issues with muscle spasms, bowel and bladder and circulation issues of the legs. Sway back can be reversed in some cases with a specific exercise programme and appropriate hands on manual therapy. Professional care can also assist those who have a permanent sway back deformity. Clinical Pilates with a qualified health professional helps strengthen the abdominal muscles, buttocks and hips to correct the effects of sway backed posture.

13 Poor Standing 6Posture

14 Difficulty standing for long periods of time or standing straight is one of the most obvious signs that something is wrong. If you have pain in your back with prolonged standing, you need to consult a physician immediately. When you look at the spine from the side, it normally has an gentle S-shape. It curves inwards at the neck and lower back and out at the upper back/thoracic spine. This enables the head to sit balanced in line with your hips. A sway back (see above in habit 5) or flat back may be the cause of pain when standing still. A flat back means the curve is gone and your spine is held straight without the normal gentle S-curves. As you can imagine, this throws yourposture off-balance. Flat back causes strain on the legs and the passive load bearing components of the back, causing the muscles to ache almost continuously. Flat back can be reversed in most cases with a specific exercise programme and appropriate hands on manual therapy. Professional care can also assist those who have a permanent flat back deformity. Clinical Pilates with a qualified health professional helps strengthen the abdominal muscles, buttocks and hips to correct the effects of flat backed posture.

15 7Favouring a Leg

16 Most people have a favourite leg to stand on, take the first step on stairs with or preferentially load in exercises like the squat. That leg inevitably gets punished. You don t have to be a genius to see that pushing your weight to one side will alter the entire posture of the body and cause un-natural spinal curves. The body will accommodate for this but if the load is constantly there it can lead to long term postural issues. But it s not just with standing. This also happens when you constantly carry heavy items on one-side of your body, such as a heavy backpack, hand bag or a toddler. The weight which should be handled by your core and your buttocks is now being taken care of by one side of your back. The muscles on one side become stronger, while the other deteriorates bringing about an imbalance. Concurrently, the strong side s muscles can also be over worked, causing pain. Squaring up the body and paying attention to loading evenly with exercise helps prevent long-term problems. Clinical Pilates with a qualified allied health professional is one of our favourite ways to balance bodies out and alleviate postural pain and also prevent long term structural damage. Attention should be paid to the entire kinetic chain from feet to head.

17 Posture - You ll Get it Right with perseverance There are a lot of things to keep an eye out for, and it might seem worrisome, being conscious of your posture all day long. But all you need is to form the right habit, and the rest will look after itself. If you experience any of the problems above we suggest you check with your physician before commencing any new exercise programme. If this ebook has been helpful to you, we would like to hear about it and to know how best to help you with our future products.