Influence of Exercise on Body Posture

Good posture results when the muscles of the body align properly, allowing for efficient movement. When your body's muscles and joints are balanced and supported properly, you're better able to perform everyday activities, such as squatting to pick up laundry or running down a flight of stairs efficiently.

When you are poorly aligned, the joints in your body (e.g., shoulders, spine, hips, knees and ankles) do not fit together properly. This causes some muscles to work harder than others. Over time, those muscles become tense while the others weaken, creating muscular imbalances that slowly devolve into poor posture. As posture deteriorates further, joint movements become restricted and the differences between tense and weak muscles places greater stress on your joints, which then have to compensate. This causes pain, stiffness and loss of motion throughout the body. But fix these imbalances, and your posture (and the pain associated with it) will improve.

A qualified personal trainer can provide information about your posture by observing it during a comprehensive fitness assessment. In many cases, a plumb line hanging from the ceiling can be used as a vertical line of reference. The trainer can position you along this vertical reference point. Ideally, the vertical cord should line up with your ear, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle. More often than not, our posture does not fall perfectly along this perfect vertical line—even if you are reasonably healthy and fit.

Exercise helps on the body posture through the following ways;

·         Keeps bones and joints in the correct alignment so that muscles are being used properly.

·         Helps decrease the abnormal wearing of joint surfaces.

·         Decreases the stress on the ligaments holding the joints of the spine together.

·         Prevents the spine from becoming fixed in abnormal positions.

·         Prevents fatigue because muscles are being used more efficiently, allowing the body to use less energy.

·         Prevents backache and muscular pain.

·         Contributes to a good appearance.