Is your sitting posture giving you that excruciating back pain?

The posture you assume when sitting is very critical to your health. This is because sitting is the posture that puts your back under a lot of pressure more than standing and walking or even running.

Bad posture is a common problem for many people, as we live in a world full of activities leading to poor posture.

Postural dysfunction (poor posture) is when our spine is situated in unnatural positions for extended periods of time, occurring as a result of one’s daily activities.

Some causes of poor posture include: Slouching in a chair, hunching your back, improper understanding of correct posture, not having an exercise routine, poor core stability and looking down at your computer and/or cell phone for extended periods of time.

While at work, you slouch in your chair as you hurriedly finish a report. When you get home, you want to unwind so you spend a few hours weeding your garden with your back hunched forward or slouch in a couch watching television.

READ: Right postures to avoid workout injuries

You may not feel any ill-effects after sitting with poor posture for a few hours, but over time the stress that poor posture places on your spine can lead to anatomical changes in your spine.

This in turn can cause back pain through the constriction of your blood vessels and nerves. The stress from poor posture can also affect your muscles, discs, and joints, all of them pain inducing.

Back pain caused by poor posture may have any of the following characteristics: Back pain that is worse at certain times of the day, pain that starts in your neck and moves down into your upper and lower back, pain that subsides after switching positions while sitting or standing and sudden back pain that coincides with a new job, a new office chair or a new car.

However, poor posture can easily be corrected.

Let’s examine some examples of poor posture versus good posture.

•Poor Posture: Rounded shoulders, slouching, head tilted forward, bent knees, pot belly.

•Good Posture: Straight line from your ear to your shoulder to your hip, balanced and upright posture.

Eunice Kabana, Physiotherapist, C & P Health Centre.