Five Important Benefits of Good Posture

How often do you notice and correct your posture throughout the day? If you barely give it a second thought, then you’re doing your body a great disservice. That’s because good posture is about much more than making you look better when you sit or stand. It’s about reducing strain on your muscles and joints, increasing the efficiency of your movements, and improving your overall health. In fact, when you practice good posture, you’ll be able to enjoy these five important benefits almost immediately.

1. Better Breathing: Getting your body into proper alignment helps open up the chest cavity and lungs, thus allowing you to take fuller, deeper breaths. Studies show that good posture can produce up to a 30% improvement in breathing, which is a number everyone from athletes to asthma sufferers should take note of.
   

2. Better Blood Circulation: When you slouch, you compress blood vessels and restrict circulation. By contrast, good posture allows the blood to flow freely and provide every cell in your body with nutrients and oxygen.
   

3. Pain Prevention: Bad posture places added stress on muscles, joints, and ligaments, which can result in neck, back, or shoulder pain. Standing and sitting with good posture eliminates that stress and helps you remain pain free.
   

4. Improved Mood: Recent research has identified a clear link between posture and mood. When you’re feeling depressed or fatigued, your shoulders start to droop and your upper body begins to slump, while the opposite happens when you’re feeling happy. Want to instantly improve your mood or ward off fatigue? Try practicing good posture!
   

5. Better Physical Performance: Good posture requires a combination of balance, core strength, and proper muscle use, so the more you practice good posture, the more you improve those related skills. This often translates to better physical performance in athletic pursuits such as Pilates, running, and martial arts, as well as to ordinary daily activities such as carrying the groceries or vacuuming the living room.
   

These are just a few of the ways good posture can improve your overall health and help you get the most out of life, so we encourage you to be more mindful of the way you sit, stand, and carry your body every day.