Posture and Common Sense Stretching

Concentrating on work at my computer today, I lost my posture. All of a sudden I realized that it was just gone, and that it had gone far away.

Before I knew it my neck and spine were alerting me to the error in my system. Bells and whistles were sounding off all the way down my arms and back, as well as upward in the smaller muscles of my head.

By shouting their alarms that at my age I should know better they gave me a straightforward warning that I was in big trouble, and they were right. I had no excuse.

I certainly do know that posture and common-sense stretching go hand-in-hand with good health and I need to remember it! Thankfully, we do have pain to help us know when we need to change course.

It’s been sometime since I purchased my ball chair due to a lower back problem and I’ve been thankful for it since day one.

It’s a huge help with fatigue when typing--so much so that I often sit longer than I should because I am comfortable.

Sitting on this chair enhances my sense of balance and helps me keep my spinal column aligned.

It came with an exercise guide so I learned right away about popping the ball out of its frame for general stretching and exercising.

The pain relief for my lower back is enough reason for me to justify buying this little friend and the extra benefits are proverbial icing on the cake.

Even though stretching is important, I still have a responsibility to maintain my entire posture or there will be a mutiny. Doing so when using the ball chair does increase muscle strength, but I still forget when I focus intently on writing.

This morning, for instance, I realized that I not only needed to sit up straight, once again, but I had neglected my posture long enough that I needed to slowly realign my neck and spine.

Gently pulling up, I straightened my spine and neck gradually. Then I relaxed with my arms at my sides. After taking a few deep breaths I slowly lifted my arms out to the sides and over my head, clasping my hands.

Pulling my spine and neck a bit higher, but not taut, I gently bent to one side and then the other from the waist, letting my head tilt a bit, stretching it to each side respectively. A few repetitions of this and I was rewarded with some of those wonderful little feel-good pops.

Next, as I continued to maintain good posture, I put my hands on my waist, elbows straight out from each side. Gently bending from the waist I concentrated on stretching my lower back side to side. How nice it was to be rewarded with good relief from constriction in that area too!

Thinking this through caused me to realize another aspect regarding the need to maintain correct posture. If I had been startled when I was in such a bad position for that prolonged period of time I could have easily jerked to a straight position and injured my neck, possibly seriously injuring it!

Hopefully, writing all this out to share it with you will help me to consistently remember what I know. That is, a relaxed upright position is the healthiest and safest habit I can nurture at the computer keyboard.

An added benefit is that strengthening muscles that support my neck and spinal column will help me maintain good posture when I am working in the kitchen or garden, painting, sewing, walking, and especially when picking up my grandchildren. No point in either one of us getting hurt because of carelessness on my part!

You should not just follow my path that I’ve explained here. Think about what your body is telling you. Do some reading on stretching for your posture, get the advice of a professional trainer or yoga teacher, or even a good chiropractor.

There’s so much we can do to help ourselves, if we will. For now, I’m going to take my ball out of its chair frame and go do some more stretches before continuing to work this afternoon.

Oh yes, our cat, the smartest, sweetest cat in the whole wide world, thinks that the ball, when it’s out of the chair, is amazing too. She ignores it when it is in the chair, funny girl that she is.

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