if maintaining healthy posture is about putting less strain on your muscles, why does slouching come more naturally and seem “easier”? Shouldn’t it feel like work if it’s wearing on your muscles?
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Good posture is more about putting less strain on your *joints*, not muscles.
Muscle tissue heals pretty well when it gets stressed out. Bones not so much. So if you mess up bones, ligaments, your spine, etc. that might last a long time and cause you a lot of pain, whereas if you overstretch a muscle you’re usually fine in a few days.
Slouching is easy because it’s what happens when your muscles relax. Your body just kind of ragdolls until you’ve stretched as far as your bones and connective tissue will let you. But that means you’re stretching them and, over time, causing damage.
Good posture means your muscles are working to stop that stretching from happening. An insidious part of this is if you slouch for a long time, the muscles that maintain your posture get weaker and you have to think harder about maintaining it. Likewise, if you work harder on your posture and do more exercise, those muscles are strengthened and it’s easier to maintain.
You’ve got a lot of muscles that do a lot of work you don’t notice. Like, your neck is doing work to hold up your head. That’s why neck pain is so aggravating: you pretty much can’t sit up without engaging those muscles!
Good posture is more about putting less strain on your *joints*, not muscles.
Muscle tissue heals pretty well when it gets stressed out. Bones not so much. So if you mess up bones, ligaments, your spine, etc. that might last a long time and cause you a lot of pain, whereas if you overstretch a muscle you’re usually fine in a few days.
Slouching is easy because it’s what happens when your muscles relax. Your body just kind of ragdolls until you’ve stretched as far as your bones and connective tissue will let you. But that means you’re stretching them and, over time, causing damage.
Good posture means your muscles are working to stop that stretching from happening. An insidious part of this is if you slouch for a long time, the muscles that maintain your posture get weaker and you have to think harder about maintaining it. Likewise, if you work harder on your posture and do more exercise, those muscles are strengthened and it’s easier to maintain.
You’ve got a lot of muscles that do a lot of work you don’t notice. Like, your neck is doing work to hold up your head. That’s why neck pain is so aggravating: you pretty much can’t sit up without engaging those muscles!
Good posture is more about putting less strain on your *joints*, not muscles.
Muscle tissue heals pretty well when it gets stressed out. Bones not so much. So if you mess up bones, ligaments, your spine, etc. that might last a long time and cause you a lot of pain, whereas if you overstretch a muscle you’re usually fine in a few days.
Slouching is easy because it’s what happens when your muscles relax. Your body just kind of ragdolls until you’ve stretched as far as your bones and connective tissue will let you. But that means you’re stretching them and, over time, causing damage.
Good posture means your muscles are working to stop that stretching from happening. An insidious part of this is if you slouch for a long time, the muscles that maintain your posture get weaker and you have to think harder about maintaining it. Likewise, if you work harder on your posture and do more exercise, those muscles are strengthened and it’s easier to maintain.
You’ve got a lot of muscles that do a lot of work you don’t notice. Like, your neck is doing work to hold up your head. That’s why neck pain is so aggravating: you pretty much can’t sit up without engaging those muscles!
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