How to Strengthen Your Spine and Improve Your Posture
By Alexis Mills
It is important to protect your spine and do what you can to keep it strong because it is at the center of the body and does so much to support the rest of the body. When you neglect your posture, it can lead to chronic pain over time. A majority of people don't have the best posture. A sign that you need to correct your posture are hunched shoulders, rounded shoulders, forward head hold, or an arched lower back. The first step is awareness and then figuring out what you can do to fix the problem.
Neck Exercises
Doing exercises to keep your neck strengthened and the top of your spine supported is important for long-term overall health. You can do a chin tuck to help reverse forward-head posture to strengthen the neck. Start with the shoulders back and down, look straight ahead, and tuck your chin to your chest. Hold this for about five seconds and repeat up to 10 times. As ugly as it looks, the more double chin you can create, the better results you will notice. Also, you can do neck circles to help relax the muscles and improve your range of motion at the top of your spine. Start to move your nose in small circles and gradually keep making the circle bigger. Forget how weird you might look and try to focus on the sensation of stretching the neck and upper spine.
Exercise Your Core
A great way to help your posture and support your spine is by strengthening your core, the center of your body. By doing ab exercises you will be able to have more controlled movements throughout the body and make it healthier. Doing core exercises such as crunches, sit-ups, bicycle crunches, medicine ball rotation, and planks will all help you strengthen your ab muscles. If you have a desk job, you can try to sit on a Swiss ball to both train your back, activate your core, and train your balance all to improve your posture. When you are sitting on a ball instead of a chair, your core muscles are constantly working to keep you stable.
Chiropractic Care
Your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic can help you correct your posture and maintain it when you are able to work toward a perfect posture. Chiropractic care is a natural healthcare option and can be a therapy to help postural issues such as scoliosis, forward head posture, hunchback, or any repair damage to the normal curvature of the spine. Through their examination they can help target exactly where you need to change your spine to make it straight. They will also help recommend what you, specifically, can do for exercise and life changes that support your spine and back.
If the exercises you are doing on your own to strengthen your spine and improve your posture are not working, then it is time to consider chiropractic care. Your spinal health is not something you want to dismiss.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in San Diego, Calif.