Right now many of us are working from home, sitting at a possibly poorly set up “office” space and feeling the irritating neck, shoulder and back pain that can come with it. The culprit for those aches and pains? Most likely poor posture.

In theory, the body is designed to be symmetrical. Ideally, your muscles should get equal use on the left and right sides, and all your systems should be interconnected. Unfortunately, that’s not often the case. Injury, habitual one-sided use, and too much time on the couch (or at your desk) render the 2021 edition human body pretty out of whack. If your posture is off, you’re bringing improper alignment into everything you do and compromising the efficiency of everything from your workouts to your energy levels.

Luckily, practicing good posture — stacking your spine and keeping your head held high — can help you avoid some of that discomfort. Even better? There’s plenty of benefits of good posture that go beyond way beyond alleviating WFH pain…

Increased lung capacity

When you’re slouching, your lungs don’t always have space to inflate fully, but when you’re sitting up straight, that reservoir can fill. Try this: Sit in an upright position, shoulders back, chest out, and take a deep breath in. Now, lean forward and slouch your shoulders, and take another deep breath. It’s nearly impossible to take in a full breath in a slouched position, so start working on that posture ASAP.

Better digestion

Poor posture compresses everything in your trunk area, including your stomach and intestines. When we eat, broken-down food travels through your small and large intestines via peristalsis, the undulation of the colon. This movement comes from your diaphragm, which drops down into the abdominal cavity as you breathe, and your hip, back, and abdominal muscles all contract as a response. This tighten-and-release helps facilitate peristalsis, but only if your posture is upright with room to move rather than compress. Sit up straight, happier tummy all round.

It may help boost your confidence

Primally, your posture reflects whether you’re a predator or prey, whether you’re thriving or weak. For our cave-dwelling ancestors, slouching was a way to protect vital organs during attack. To stand tall, however, showed that humans were not in fight-or-flight mode and could take on anything that came their way. Today, good posture communicates that you’re physiologically healthy and strong – and with practice, you’ll start to feel that way too.

You’ll have a stronger core

While we’re not saying that better posture will actually result in six-pack abs, it’s scientifically proven that it will definitely strengthen the core muscles that support the body. Your core muscles support your spine, so staying erect keeps them engaged. Initially, the body may even utilise more calories as it works to stay upright. As time goes on and your core muscles become stronger, they become more efficient at maintaining alignment without effort, and good posture becomes second nature.

You’ll have fewer WFH headaches

Because poor posture compresses your joints and creates tension, it’s no surprise that it can kick off – and exacerbate – WFH headaches. When you are sitting at a computer, you’re likely slouching forward, rounding the shoulders, and pushing your head forward. These poor mechanics compress joints in both the neck and low back, tighten the shoulder muscles, and as aforementioned, weaken the core. This joint compression then goes on to alter the feedback the brain receives about body position, which can lead to the onset of frequent headaches.

Better circulation

It is vital to recognise the health benefits of good posture as poor posture means poor circulation. Slouching can impact healthy circulation, when you slouch the ribcage presses down on vital organs. This increases the risk of high blood pressure as blood flow to and from the heart is jeopardized and weakens digestive and respiratory organs. 

One of the advantages of good posture is that it allows blood to flow optimally to and from the heart, reducing the risk of high blood pressure. This allows blood to supply organs with oxygen and nutrients and body systems to function properly.

To encourage healthy blood flow and reap the health benefits of good posture, sit with your hips back into the chair, feet on the ground, shoulders back and neck muscles relaxed. The use of a lumbar roll to support the lower back is also a brilliant tool for helping encourage better posture whilst sitting. 

You’ll get an energy boost

When your joints and muscles operate at their best, and you’re not compressing your organs, you tend to be able to breathe better and have better circulation. That leads to more oxygen getting into your system, and a greater feeling of relaxation overall. The result? Your energy can skyrocket. It’s like letting your body be in constant vacation mode instead of overworked-and-overstressed, just-another-day-in-lockdown mode. With more energy, you will quite possibly sleep better too, meaning less fatigue during the day, which improves your overall energy even more.