Poor Posture: Is It Bad For My Health?

What is "Bad Posture"?

Firstly, let’s think about this – what does it mean to have “good posture”?

In order to have “good posture” your body must comfortably be able to hold itself in a position whereby all of your bones and joints are aligned properly. It prevents excessive strain on the musculoskeletal system (ligaments, tendons, muscles, joints and discs of the spine), and avoids an imbalance of ligaments and muscles whereby some become tighter and shorter, and others become weakened and longer. 



Bad posture is the opposite of this, and can affect your health in many ways. It is commonly associated with symptoms of back pain, pain in the neck, shoulders and hips, headaches, and general fatigue or tiredness. It can also make you look shorter than you are, fatter than you are, (yes, really), and make other existing issues you might have worse – like heartburn!

Is Bad Posture Bad For Your Health?

Bad posture can have many effects on your health. If your body is working hard to maintain a certain shape (or posture) then it is spending too much energy. Eventually, this posture will cause pain – aching, burning, dull, toothache-like pain. 

This type of pain is typically felt in the shoulders of people who sit with bad posture, or in the lower back of people who stand with bad posture. Sometimes the opposite is true.

Bad posture also causes you to become more tired, more easily, or you might even feel fatigued all of the time. This way of using your body is not efficient – it is what we call ‘metabolically expensive’.



In addition, sitting bent over all day, slumped, with bad posture makes it very difficult for your diaphragm to move – so you start to breathe ineffectively too, and use the muscles of your neck to get more air in – again, this is metabolically expensive and an inefficient way of functioning. 

Osteopaths believe that movement is very important in the body. When we breathe, the abdominal organs, which have slippery coverings so their surfaces can glide nicely over each other, are also restricted in their movement. So digestion can slow, and the functions of the organs like the liver and spleen can start to become a little bit static. Whether or not this has an effect on overall health, the verdict is yet to be proven one way or another.