Posture Correction Tips

The truth is they do! Or rather, they did once.

Most healthy children start off live with a very healthy posture indeed. Just look at these 3 photos and you will start to understand that children have no postural problems in their pre-school years.

No one ever told this baby to "sit up straight", in fact he doesn't even understanding the meaning of posture correction but he innately sits with wonderful natural posture.

Young children naturally stand without excess tension, thus allowing them to stand and move with graceful ease.

Bending down to pick up a ball is done with great ease, because the knees and hips are used to the baby's advantage.

Now that is a very good question and a very important one too, given how common back pain is.

The answer is..... a few different things. But I believe the main reason we lose our perfect posture is because of the design of school tables and chairs.

The table and chair is a seemingly harmless tool. What could be so bad about them?

The truth is not much at first. Sitting for short periods on any chair will have little to no long term impact on posture. However, school furniture has to be used for thousands and thousands of hours over the course of several years. This means that any bad postural habits encouraged by school furniture are amplified with devastating consequences.

In this picture you can see the shape of the girls back is starting to hunch as she goes out her school work. When you consider that the head weighs about the same as a bowling ball, it starts to become blindingly obvious that this posture is going to have series consequences if held for several hours every day.

This picture shows the common c-shaped curve of the back that most children develop as a direct result of school tables and chairs. Even though the teenager in the photo is sitting on the floor, the posture is fixed in this position because the habit is so ingrained. The muscles in the abdomen and shoulders have physically changed, locking him into this position.

Although these changes are not irreversible, he will need the help from a professional to reverse this postural habit. 99.99% of children will never receive such help until they start to suffer debilitating back problems that result a few years down the road.

When most people start to suffer backache they typically will try one or more of the following:-

Physiotherapy
Chiropractor
Acupuncture
Pain Killers
Surgery

Yet the school furniture that caused the problem is never addressed and the whole process is repeated on the next generation of school children.

Knowing how to tackle this problem requires a good understanding of exactly how school furniture encourages poor posture.