Watch Your Back: How to Have Good Posture All Day Long

ACTIVITY

POSTURE TIP

HOW IT HELPS

Eating breakfast

• Sit at a table with a chair that gives you back support
• Or stand at a counter where your food is about elbow height.

• This promotes mindfulness – you are enjoying your food, not multi-tasking.
• You start your day in a neutral position rather than sitting on the couch or in the car and struggling not to spill on yourself.

Driving

• Adjust your seat so you can reach the pedals and your arms are in a relaxed position with your hands at “10 and 2.”
• Use all the seat controls to make sure your back gets good support.
• Adjust your mirrors to make sure you can see all your surroundings.You should be able to see your rear-view mirror by looking up with your eyes, not needing to lift your chin.
• If you are on a long trip, stop and walk around to maximize comfort before you go back to driving.

• A properly adjusted seat makes you more comfortable and reduces strain on your spine, arms and legs.
• Taking breaks on long trips helps with comfort, stimulates circulation and keeps you more alert.

Carrying a bag

• Don’t overload your bag.
• If you have to move something heavy a long distance, use a cart and push it with your back straight.
• Use a reusable shopping bag with handles over your shoulder instead of held in your hand. If you have two or more bags, balance the load over both shoulders and make more than one trip.

• Using a cart requires much less effort than carrying, and your shoulders, neck and back will have less strain.
• If you’re carrying everything on one side, you will not keep your back straight, and you will have a lot more muscular effort.Taking an extra trip takes a little more time, but you will have less discomfort.

Lunch break

• If you sit through most of your work day, wear comfortable shoes and give yourself time during lunch to take a walk in a pleasant area. Enjoy being mobile, and focus on standing straight with your shoulders aligned over your hips.

• Humans were made to walk—it’s our natural form of exercise, and it gets us where we need to go.You will increase your circulation and muscle tone and it will be easier for you to pay attention when you get back to work activities.

Grocery shopping

• If you need to pick up an item from a low shelf, squat or kneel with your back straight. If you need to lean forward to balance, move at your hip joints, not at your back.
• Keep the item close to your abdomen while lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.This minimizes the strain on your body.

• Having the weight close to you is the most important way you can protect yourself when lifting. It is more important than avoiding twisting or placing your feet apart.

Loading or unloading the dishwasher

• Bend with your knees and pull out the silverware basket and put it on the counter.Once the silverware is ready to load, fill the whole basket and put it into the dishwasher.
• Rinse or scrape the dirty dishes and stack them on the counter before loading them.Pick up a few items together and bend your knees to lower yourself down to put them into the lower shelf. Don’t reach over and over again between the sink and the low shelf.

• Going back and forth between the sink and the dishwasher for each item leads to repetitive twisting and bending.You probably are so focused on getting it done that you aren’t paying any attention to your position.
• It’s easier to keep your body aligned if you break the job up into batches--all the silverware, all the plates and bowls, all the glasses, etc.