Best Tips to Sit Correctly and Avoid Posture Problems

Your parents told you to, your teacher told you to, heck, even we have told you to that bad posture causes back pain… You just need to practice good posture.

You should always ensure that you are practicing good posture when standing, sitting, or lying down. Basically, you should practice good posture all the time. If that sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry, you’re in luck. Your body and muscles naturally keep good posture without you having to even think about it. But with the advent of the desk job and working at computers, we tend to break good posture. See in the image below, some easy tips to avoid posture problems while sitting at work:

So why should you practice good sitting posture?

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Well, good posture:

• Helps to keep bones and joints in correct alignment which decreases the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces resulting in arthritis and joint pain.
• Minimizes injuries thanks to reduced stress on the ligaments.
• Allows muscles to work more efficiently.
• Helps prevent back pain.

And what happens if we have bad posture? Well, bad posture can lead to:

• Upper or lower back pain.
• Muscle fatigue.
• Headaches due to tension in the upper back, neck, and shoulders.

What is Good and Bad Posture?

Let’s look at just what is good and bad posture. Good posture is sitting in a balanced upright posture, with a straight line from the ear to the shoulder to the hip.

Poor posture is sitting slouched, with rounded shoulders, a hunchback, head tilted forward. Or sitting with your shoulder blades excessively back, arched lower back, and a pot belly.

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How to Sit Correctly

So how do we make sure we are sitting with good posture? Well, here are two tips for ensuring good posture when sitting:

1. Consciously ensure you are sitting with good posture.
2. Use ergonomic posture correcting equipment.

Sitting with Good Posture

One way to make sure you are sitting with good posture is to be consciously aware of how you are sitting and if you are sitting correctly. Remember to check your sitting position every so often and test if your posture is correct.

Here are some further tips for sitting correctly:

• Keep your feet flat on the floor.
• Make sure the backrest of your chair supports your lower- and middle-back.
• Keep your ankles in front of your knees. Don’t cross your legs.
• Keep your forearms parallel to the ground and your shoulders relaxed.
• Your knees should not be above your hips.
• Avoid sitting in the same position for long periods of time.

Use Posture Correcting Equipment

If constantly monitoring your sitting position sounds like a little bit too much work, then here is our second tip which is to make use of ergonomic, posture correcting equipment. This equipment can take many forms like chairs, back support accessories or even pillows, such as the Naipo seat cushion with ergonomic memory foam.

Your parents, teacher, and everybody else who told you, were just right. You should practice good posture, doing so can prevent injuries, muscle aches, and back pain. So what are you waiting for? Sit up straight and get started right away!

And if you can’t wait for good posture to fix that lower back pain you have, you can check out our article on stretches for lower back pain or you can try out the Naipo Shiatsu Back Massager Seat Cushion.

Is this not enought? Ultimately we want to share with you this short video on how to sit correctly and decrease back pain and neck pain.

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