Not Naturally Healthy

Proper posture can shave pounds off a person’s look – now if everybody knew that from day one, there’d be a lot less people slouching. It seems inane to think that proper posture could potentially be as important as eating right and constant exercise, but darn it, it just plain is. It is in fact, so important, that posture aids and posture chairs have been invented to help a person sit, stand and walk right and keep their body working at maximum efficiency.

Poor posture can lead to various aches and pains across the body, depending on where you’re not holding up your body right. Joint stiffness is another side effect of bad posture. Incidentally, poor posture, believe or not, can easily lead to lowered confidence and self esteem. This obviously includes the aforementioned look changing powers that proper posture has, but it also includes a subtle influence on the way you look at the world.

What Causes Poor Posture?

Now what bad habits and things makes the market of posture aids profitable? Well, there are plenty actually, from obesity to good old fashioned bad habits from kids who never quite listened to their parents. Fashion also plays a part in messing up posture, especially for women as high heels can cause some trouble.

There are some ways of fixing up your posture without resorting to posture chairs. Exercise is one of them. It doesn’t just make you feel better and make you fitter, it also strengthens your back and abs. Those are the muscles that help you with your posture and if they’re stronger and more flexible, maintaining proper posture will be a lot easier. You can also study the way your stand in the mirror – if your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and ears don’t make a line, you don’t have proper posture. A lot of people have jobs and careers that require them to sit down – sitting down properly is a matter of leaning back into the chair as far as you can, with your knees level to your hips.

Now, if you have a spine issue or if you’re just having trouble getting rid of that bad habit, there are posture aids to help you get the proper stance to get through life. Injuries can also cause muscles to try to protect your body from a different angle, which can affect flexibility and thus your posture. At worst, it’s something you inherited and even then, it’s still repairable.

Posture Aids

Posture aids can vary from back braces to simple adjustments to a person’s office space. High backrests are the name of the game for people who spend far more time sitting down than walking or standing up, which is more common than what most would expect – entire posture chairs have been made for the picky or for those with spine issues.

A posture chair’s design is fairly simple – it follows what has been determined to be the natural flow of the human body while sitting. A posture chair usually has a high back and an adjustable height to maximize its usability for anyone who happens to need or purchase it.

There are plenty of other physical aids, but it just wouldn’t be this era without an electronic one. Called the iPosture, it complains the power of nagging with a snappy small i that reminds you that it’s definitely something futuristic. It’s a simple device that is clipped to clothing or somehow adhered to a person’s skin and it gives a soft but very noticeable vibration whenever your body falls out of alignment for one reason or another, reminding you to sit up or stand up straight like an ever-present school matron or your mother.

It works on a Pavlovian level for the better part of a month, making sure that even when it’s not on you, you’re going to watch your posture. Although after the first month, a user should keep using it to make sure that the Pavlovian response doesn’t diminish and becomes a big part of their life. It’s like shock therapy, without the shock and for your posture.

There’s only one real drawback to this posture aid – it’s almost a hundred dollars to purchase, making paying attention to your posture seem almost easy by comparison.

Stand Proud

Good posture goes a lot further than you’d think. Good posture could be the difference between a promotion because you look confident and strong at work to a bad review because you always seem depressed and moody due in large part to the hunch you’re cultivating.

Luckily, getting good posture is a matter of developing the right habit and sticking to it, like creating an exercise routine that you absolutely must keep at to make sure that you lose ten pounds by summer. It takes some attention and some willpower but anyone can do it – anyone, posture aids or not.