A few tips to better posture.

There are a few things to consider when trying to ferret out the source of pain in the body outside of disease or any other such reason. As massage therapists, we usually start by analyzing posture, but what does that mean? And, how can you improve posture to feel better? Two of our first questions would be to ask what you do for a living and what type of exercise you do. The reason being, how you hold your body 40 hours a week is very reinforcing for your postural habits. Also, your choice of exercises can influence any postural and musculature imbalances. For imbalances, we usually would recommend a personal trainer and for postural correction, a chiropractor.

Beyond this, we tend to focus on the muscles and how to help make them looser. True, we can try to help you relax for an hour (as in Swedish massage), but true relaxation comes from the absence of pain. We can recommend stretches to help keep you loose between appointments http://reumassage.com/stretching/. We will actually be adding instructional stretching soon to that page to help people. Any instructions on frequency of stretching or for medical need should be directed to a physical therapist. After all this, there are a few small changes you can make to help reinforce good posture:

A few simple tips to help posture:

If you are on the phone a lot, use a headset.
Train your muscles in balance (example: upward dog balances downward dog).
For women: make sure your bra is the proper fit-get a professional fitting.
If you wear a purse, try switching off sides or try an across body bag.
If you wear a bookbag, use the sternum strap.
Bend at the knees, no really…try it.
Depending on your profession…(for example hair dressers or dental hygienists), try to review if there are recommended postural tips (for example horse stance, archer stance).
Look at your work environment…is the monitor too high or low? Do you have to constantly keep reaching to get things?