18/07/2018
More often than not we see our kids sitting in a similar manner as shown in the picture below.
This is a clear example of bad posture.
So what does bad posture actually mean apart from a visible hunch in the back?
Let's start from the top and work our way down.
Neck
The neck is the top portion of our spine holding our head up high. Naturally the head should be in a position where our line of sight is parallel to the floor but as shown in the picture, a bad posture has the head dropped forward which causes an extentention in the cervical(small bones making up our neck and can be felt by touching the back of the neck).
In easy words it will cause the kid to have a nerd neck. The kid will experience headaches and pain in the neck and this will cause long term damage to the neck.
Shoulders
Naturally the shoulders are dropped back down helping the spine be in nearly a straight line and boosting our chest out and forward.
In bad posture the shoulders are drawn forward which causes the shoulder joint to be internally rotated. This causes the rounding of the upper back (the visible hunch) which brings an exterior curve in the spine. It also causes the muscle fibres in the chest to shorten as forward drawn shoulders bring the shoulder closer to sternum (the middle part of the chest). This positioning of the shoulders will harm the shoulder joint in the long term and cause issues like shoulder impingement and pain when you try to raise your hands above your head.
Lower back and stomach
Sitting in this posture causes the lower back to stretch over as well and if seen from the front this causes the stomach to kind of accumulate in the middle, this weakens the core and causes the stomach to pop out and make you look like you have a big tummy.
Bad posture also weakens the glutes and hamstrings and will cause back pain.
