I was experiencing some neck pain, and went online in search of some at-home remedies. Of the remedies, posture was one of them which got me thinking: “Does posture really matter that much?”.
So will fixing my posture help with my neck pain and grant me numerous other benefits i see on these blogs?
holy fuck yes
So to correct one thing:
Poor posture is a symptom of poor core strength, particularly, your rhomboids and lower back. If your muscles are both stronger and more flexible, they will literally pull your bones into the correct alignment, without any conscious thought towards sitting straighter.
Start by taking a short walk once a day (free). A 100 day pushup challenge (free) or starting Yoga classes (can be free on YouTube, but in-person has several benefits, including having someone correcting your form, and some social structures to help provide extra motivation) would be a great next step. Longer term, maybe light weights and rows alongside using a treadmill or stationary bike.
If you choose to look into weight training, “Starting strength” is a decent program by Mark Rippetoe that I would recommend.
Hi. Your post is interesting in general but when you say 100 pushups a day… is it really a challenge for a normal or even a fit person or is it just some random thing you found while browsing?
On day one, do one push up. Day two, two. Sounds a bit ridiculous, but it gradually builds difficulty.
Crucially, it is not all in one sitting. On day 10, if needed, do five when you wake up, and five before bed.
Break it up into something achievable. And if you miss a day, don’t sweat it. Again, the idea is to start to build, or rebuild strength and flexibility, the exercises themselves barely matter; you could do planks instead, for example.
Wow. Super hard. I may try it but I don’t think I can do more than 20 or 25, even spreading them in 5 repetitions.
Don’t worry about what you can or can’t do four weeks from now. Stay focused on what you need to do this week.
Do as many as you can normal then go to your knees. Makes it much easier.
Most people would have trouble doing 100 pushups at once. But this sounds more like doing push ups everyday for 100 days.
Very interesting. I’ll look into these. Thanks!
As a 42 year old with regular recurring back issues, YES. Correct it while you’re young. It’s often too late when the issues begin to manifest.
Posture is so important for health, both as a practice and an indicator.
As a practice, stacking your body up in a good position lets it work better and protects your joints.
It is also an indication of strong enough muscles and bones, very weak people or those with osteoporosis often can’t achieve good posture.
It’s also free, nothing to buy, a free intervention that can only benefit you, so why not practice it?
Yes. And also, you should be doing stretching exercises.
It might not fix the neck pain depending on why you’re experiencing the pain. You should definitely give a shit about your posture though. Your spine is responsible for keeping your whole upper body upright (along with your abdominal muscles and some others). Neglecting and mistreating that is not a good idea long term.
I guess i can see the logic. I think at this point, bad posture just feels like a natural and normal thing since 90% of people also have it.
That’s why you see jokes about old people and their backs or memes that are like “Welcome to your 30s. Here’s some advil for your pain. Have a nice day.”
Yes, or back pain will become a thing.
Yes but not necessarily in the way you think. “Bad” posture is usually linked to weak muscles and lack of mobility/flexibility. If you strengthen/stretch your muscles and connective tissues, eventually it should help correct your posture.
Bad posture is also a symptom of a greater muscle imbalance or weakness, not necessarily something you should focus on changing on it’s own.
I had very bad posture, but once I started going to the gym and strength training and built a more balanced base of strength, my posture improved greatly on it’s own. At least I have noticed significant difference.
Hunched shoulders can be corrected somewhat just by exercising the back with pulling exercises like lat pulldowns, pullups, and rows.
Lower back issues can be helped by training dead lifts, good form for that exercise is extremely important though.
Of course you should also include some yoga and stretching in your routine too, that has numerous benefits. I would recommend getting a personal trainer if you’ve never been to the gym before to teach you to do exercises correctly until you’re comfortable on your own.
My hot take is that short-term posture doesn’t matter all that much. If you have bad posture but you get up every 20 minutes and stretch/do chores/exercise for 5-10 minutes, you probably erase the original issues.
My one-two punch, if you’re looking for advice: make sure you use a chair that makes good posture easy, with your keyboard+mouse & monitor height well separated on your desk (if computing’s the main thing you’re doing as you work). And then make sure you’re getting a lot of activity throughout the day. Spans of 2, 3, 4, etc. hours just sitting at your desk will be really bad for you, no matter how good your posture is.
I guess what I’m saying is if you can either focus a lot on posture or focus a lot on physical activity routines, prioritize the latter. But both are certainly important.
I spend most of my day staring at a computer, and i have an atrocious posture while doing it. Do back cracks count as stretching?
I spend too much time at my pc or driving so get lower back pain. I recently found this workout that’s really good. It’s challenging but really works well! I sometimes have to ease back a little, especially on the last part, but it still helps.
Apologies, I can’t remember how/where to get alternative YT links.
Only in that direction.
I don’t have the time to Google atm but there’s a growing body of experts shifting to the “it doesn’t actually matter”. Here’s a podcast about it but there are definitely more sources to find: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/the-myth-of-good-posture/13864470
I saw another comment in the thread about ensuring you get movement in – that’s what my PT hammered into me.
I had surgery for tech neck, so yeah. Chin up people!
I get neck pain due to stretched muscles, and will echo what everyone in this thread has already said. Doing the exercises that correct for muscle weakness helps a lot. I strongly recommend it, the difference is night and day.
As someone who has experienced a lifetime of back issues, absolutely.
Your pain will cause you to find a posture which doesn’t hurt. That’s probably not the best posture. That will lead to more pain to worse posture to worse pain.etc.
I did some physiotherapy somewhat recently. Traction was the best thing ever. Combined with exercise/physio routine and an awareness of posture, I felt better than I ever had.
It can be very challenging after a life of bad posture. Your body won’t like it at first. But keeping at it will produce wonderful results.
Assuming the pain is musculoskeletal and not something more serious.
One thing that helped my posture was raising my monitor - a hardback copy of Infinite Jest did the trick. But follow all the good advice here too - core strength, stretching, massage. It is really, really worth the effort.
