Factors Affecting Posture

Your posture -- how straight your back is when you stand and sit -- can have a dramatic effect on your comfort and general quality of life. Good posture is comfortable and healthy; bad posture is uncomfortable and unhealthy.



There are a few different factors that affect your posture, ranging from your physical fitness to your day-to-day behavior to the actual shape of your skeleton.

Structural Problems

• Poor posture can be caused by inherent structural problems in your body. If your pelvis is out of alignment, your spine is curved or your feet are out of alignment, you will have naturally poor posture. If you are unfortunate enough to have this problem, you will need to get it medically corrected, either through prescribed stretches or through surgery. This is because structural problems make it physically impossible to sit or stand with correct posture.

Functional Problems

• Posture is also affected by functional factors. These are caused by how you actually use your body's structure. Rather than being ingrained problems, they are behavioral problems caused by poor habits.

  Sitting or standing incorrectly is a major factor in functional posture. Standing with a rounded back or sitting while leaned back into your chair are both examples of bad posture caused by bad habits.

Physical Fitness

• Your fitness is related to your functional posture. If you are out of shape with a weak core, it will actually be difficult to sit or stand with the correct posture.

  One major muscle group that affects posture is the muscles in and around the neck. Since your head weighs ten pounds, if you routinely sit with it slouched forward you will be taking pressure off those muscles, allowing them to weaken. So, the first step in improving your posture through physical fitness is to try to keep your head up as much as possible.