By Dr. Emil Tompkins: A Family Chiropractor with a passion for family health and wellness.
Do you have bad posture? Do you feel like your head leans too far forward, or your shoulders are rounded. Do you hear, “Sit up straight!” On a regular basis. Do you slump in your chair whenever possible. If so, then posture is definitely an issue for you.
What can poor posture do?
Poor posture can affect you in many ways. First, it can cause more pain. If your head is shifted forward by only 2 centimeters, you’ll double the weight of your head. This places more pressure on the neck, and upper back, eventually leading to pain in those areas. If your shoulders are rounded. You create weakness in the muscles between your shoulder blades and you create tightness in your chest muscles.
Your posture is a window into your spine.
If this situation is left over time, your posture will gradually worsen and this can lead to pain, difficulty breathing. There have even been studies linking emotional state and depression to poor posture.
What’s worse, is that an activity you do much of your day every day will reinforce this poor posture situation. Your phones. Think about the position you’re in when you receive a text message from a friend. Where is your head when you’re reading facebook posts from family members? Most people aren’t even close to normal
posture when they’re using their phones. Your shoulders are forward. Your head is looking down so that you can see, and your posture is suffering by the minute. Daily, you’re training your body to experience poor posture.
The best exercise to improve posture
But there is a solution. You must train your body to maintain normal posture. The only way to do that is by performing exercise to improve posture. Stretch out those chest muscles, and strengthen those muscles between your shoulder blades. You can accomplish this and much more with a single exercises. The exercise is called wall angels. 
Here’s how to perform wall angels.
- Stand with your back to a wall.
- You want your heels, rear, back, head, shoulders, elbows and wrists to be touching the wall.
- Then, slowly raise your hands up (keeping them touching the wall) until they are over your head.
- Then slowly lower your hands until they are even with your shoulders. While still making sure they’re touching the wall the entire time.
- Repeat the wall angel 5 – 10 times.
When you complete the wall angels, pay attention to your posture as you step away from the wall. Do you feel taller? Does your head feel less forward than before. It should. Repeat this exercise to improve posture daily and see your posture change for the better.
Every day in our office, we’re working to provide individualized care and service to our patients and our community. WE will locate the true causes of your poor posture. Provide an individualized care plan to improve it, And offer the most complete wellness services available so that you can watch your health progressively improve every day.
Get the Whole Picture
If you’d like a more complete evaluation to understand the causes of your poor posture, please schedule an appointment for our office to perform a complete evaluation, x-rays, and individualized care plan, click the link below to schedule an appointment today.
Tompkins Family Chiropractic Marana and Northwest Tucson, Call 520.572.2596 http://www.tompkinschiropractic.com From back pain to sciatica, neck pain to headaches, ADHD to Autism, Dr. Tompkins creates an individualized health program to suit your specific needs. Come see why we were voted Best in the Northwest 3 years in a row. Whether you have pain with pregnancy, headaches, sports injuries or ADHD, migraines, or just want to be healthier, Dr. Tompkins has a program that will work for you and your family. Call us at 520.572.2596 and we’ll be happy to help your family grow healthier.
