Local Chiropractor Offers Tips For Good Sitting

The way you sit or stand may seem like a simple matter, but it has a lot more influence on your physical and mental health than you may think. Poor posture can cause pain and soreness in your back and neck, as well as headaches, poor circulation, fatigue, and other problems. It can even affect your mental outlook, and can be a factor in low self-esteem and depression.

A chiropractor near you is well-versed in posture issues, since their main focus is on spinal health. Here are a few tips for good sitting posture, from the American Chiropractic Association.

. Keep your feet on the floor.

. Don’t cross your legs. The rule is, your ankles should be in front of your knees.

. Leave a small space between the back of your knees and the
front of your seat.

. Make sure the chair is the proper height — your knees should be at or above the level of your hips.

. If you can adjust the backrest of your chair, make sure it supports your lower back.

. Sitting is not just about your lower body. Proper sitting posture means relaxing your shoulders and keeping your forearms parallel to the ground.

. No matter how good your posture is, your best local chiropractor says it’s a mistake to sit in the same position for too long. You need to change your position or get up periodically to stimulate circulation. Besides, keeping the same posture for too long allows you to fall into bad habits, like slouching.

Pay attention to your posture — it’s important for your health!

YOGA AND MEDITATION ON THE JOB

Ask almost anyone these days how their job is going, and they'll probably tell you they're stressed. Stress levels in every area of life have increased, but especially in the workplace. In many industries and professions, people are working longer hours and dealing with increased pressure to perform well, so it's no wonder that they're feeling stressed. Stress has been shown to be a factor in many types of physical and mental ailments, so dealing with stress in the workplace has become an important issue.

Perhaps that's why a new study has revealed that more and more workers in the U.S. are using stress-reduction techniques like yoga, massage and meditation. The study, which appeared in a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that in the group of more than 85,000 adults who participated, yoga practice increased from 6 percent to 11 percent from 2002 to 2012. During the same period meditation rates increased from 8 percent to almost 10 percent for this group. 

The other significant finding from a Jamison chiropractor was that people were more likely to practice these techniques if they had a job, which makes sense because jobs can create stress.

One of the recommendations of the study is that companies should try to provide more outlets for their employees to learn and practice these stress-reducing techniques. It could be a smart move for a company to offer classes or discounts at gyms, local chiropractic office or yoga centers where their employees could learn yoga, meditation, or other mindfulness techniques like tai chi or qigong.

Stress costs our economy billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, sick time, and other problems, so its good business for companies to make it easy for employees to do a little yoga or meditation!