Poor sitting posture

Poor sitting posture is something that can lead to a variety of health problems and is a common cause for back and neck pain. One of the first indicators of poor posture is a slouching or forward head posture. (forward head positioning may also cause impingements to the cervical nerve roots, which may also lead to cervical headaches). Many causes of poor posture include injuries, car accidents, consistent use of computers, and loss of exercise. Something as simple as sitting on your wallet can cause imbalances and poor sitting posture by forcing you body to compensate to keep you head in line with your pelvis.

Depending on the amount of forward lean in the seated position, the lumbar spine can lose its natural curve and its position ranges from neutral alignment to large degrees of flexion. In a forward lean position the stabilizers and lumbar spine extensors are stretched and fatigued, altering their length tension relationship, ultimately affecting their ability to provide stability for normal movements of the lumbar spine, which may increases the risk of injury to this area.

As I am sitting at this computer typing I am trying to maintain a natural lordotic curve, in an effort to do this I may increase my posterior pelvic tilt and have a high degrees of flexion in the cervical spine because I am sitting at a table that is too small for me. Increased rotation of the pelvis/hip places the hip flexors in a shortened position for prolonged periods of time. This position can lead to weakness that affect the normal force coupling and length tension relationship, as a result of the combination of irregular length-tension relationships, improper kinetic chain alignment, and force couple imbalances of the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex, some people will compensate by using movements through the lumbar spine instead of the hip which greatly places the lumbar spine at risk of injury.

Rotator cuff impingement and an increased risk of potential injury can also be affected by poor sitting posture. Depending on how close you are sitting to your computer desk and how much of a forward lean you may have excessive thoracic kyphosis and anterior flexion positioning of the arms which may result in anterior tilt, protraction, and rotation of the scapula, along with potential slight internal rotation of the humeral head. Your position may lead to tight or weak internal rotators of the shoulder, and fatigued external rotators of the shoulder, increasing the risk of potential injury. The poor alignment may affect tendon attachments of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.


Posture Confidence