My definition of posture is the position someone holds their body in. Posture is a constant variable in our lives. The importance of good posture becomes much greater when we are working in a position for an extended period of time. Repetitive strain and overuse injuries are the enemy. Not necessarily the position we are sitting or standing in. A key variable in how to maintain good posture is to change the position we are working in multiple times throughout the day.
Having a neutral spine is another key variable to improve your posture. The old advice of “stand tall”, or “sit up straight”, is actually more complex than that. Sitting or standing “too tall” can possibly lead to poor posture. The spine isn’t straight. It has natural curves. When we properly sit and stand up straight, the spine is curved, which is often referred to as a neutral spine. Sometimes I refer to it as a balanced spine, that isn’t compressed or overextended.
Bad posture affects my confidence, pain levels, and overall health.
Proper posture looks like the combination of balance and stability. When working on a computer for long periods of time, I like to compare myself to a tree. Strong, but also able to move slightly, like a tree blowing in the wind. Not strong and stiff all day long, like a brick building. This would lead to poor posture from repetitive strain and overuse injuries.
There is not just one core muscle that helps us to maintain proper posture. It’s a system of different muscle groups. Instead of focusing on multiple different muscles to engage, I like to focus on 3 main variables of my workstation setup. Those good posture variables are to keep the top of my monitor screen eye level, keep my elbows slightly above desk level, and to keep my feet flat on the floor. These 3 good posture variables apply for both sitting and standing while working on a computer.
Poor posture affects us regardless of age. It’s possible to correct bad posture no matter how old you are. It just takes a few small changes to our bad habit, done consistently on a daily basis.
How Can Posture Affect Your Health
Posture affects the level of pain I feel. The first bad habit I ever realized I had (while sitting at a computer) was my feet weren’t flat on the floor. My job was so stressful, it would cause me to contract my hamstrings while sitting, which would pull my feet under my body and chair. My toes would be on the floor, but my heels would be up in the air. This caused incredible pain in my knees. Posture affects my pain level still to this day. Posture is a constant learning process. We can’t just fix it overnight. It is a daily, ongoing process. I knew I had to fix the bad habit that was causing my knee pain. In order to do this, I raised my chair. This allowed me to comfortably keep my feet flat on the floor.
Low energy level is another big motivation for me to have good posture. The quicker we fall into poor posture, the more work our body has to do physically to support itself. Working at a computer for 8 hours is an endurance event. The longer I maintain good posture, the more energy I have throughout my day.
Poor posture affects my mood and mental clarity.
We are only allotted a certain amount of energy each day, both physical and mental. When I am stressed out, I tend to work in a compressed, poor posture position. While I’m in this vulnerable position, spending more physical energy to maintain my bad posture affects my mood and mental clarity negatively. Spending less physical energy to maintain good posture improves my mood and mental clarity.
My breathing quality is better when I maintain good posture. When my posture suffers, I tend to breathe less through my nose and more through my mouth. This decreases the amount of air in my lungs, which decreases my blood circulation while I’m working at a computer. Less blood circulation leads to bad posture quickly. I’ve read 2 really good books about breathing. I’ve also taken a couple classes on breath work. I wrote an article titled “Improve Your Posture by Breathing More Effectively“. You can check it out here if you’d like.
Poor posture used to cause painful headaches and neck pain for me.
Extending on the topic of breathing from a couple paragraphs before, bad posture caused chronic mouth breathing. This caused me to overuse my jaw muscles so much, that my mouth eventually just stayed open all the time. The tension of these overused jaw muscles affected the rest of the muscles in my head, face, and neck. It used to cause me an average of 2 bad headaches per month. Since I’ve taken full accountability for my bad posture, I rarely get headaches anymore.
How to Improve Your Posture
In summary, look at the ergonomic setup of your computer workstation to improve your posture. The 3 main variables I follow are:
- The top of the monitor screen should be eye level.
- The keyboard and mouse should be just below elbow level.
- Feet should always be flat on the floor (or a footrest).
These 3 variables apply regardless if I am working in a sitting or standing position. If you’d like to do a deeper dive on how to improve your posture while sitting at a computer, you can download my free Computer Posture Checklist.
Thanks for your interest in sitting posture. If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to improve your posture. That’s something to be proud of.
If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.
>>> Click here to pick up your copy
This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen
P.S. You can sign up for my free computer posture newsletter here.