Posture and body mechanics

Good posture and body mechanics are very important because the stress and strain you put your muscles through can affect not only your back, but your body as a whole.  Likewise, proper body mechanics allows the body to move and maintain balance while using your muscles efficiently. Correcting these habits early on can prevent future pain, injury, nerve damage, and surgeries. Practicing good posture and body mechanics can decrease the risk of injury and progressive deformities of the spine and allow muscles and organs to function properly. Having postural control gives us the ability to conserve the relationship between our body and it's parts as well as our body with the environment. Allowing your posture and body mechanics to decrease over time can lead to a flat back or a sway back depending on your postural position habits when sitting down, standing up, and even lying down. Correcting these habits before they get too bad can hugely impact a person's overall well-being and happiness.

When working with clients who may be struggling with back problems it is important to look at all occupations of the client. If the client has a desk job that requires them to sit most of the day, a beneficial method would be to have the client put a pillow behind their back,  put a cushion under their bottom, and to be aware of the position they are sitting in to help decrease the strain put on their spine while sitting. This client could also make it a point to get up every hour for a few minutes at a time to walk and stretch their back to take some of the pressure off. 

For a client who is experiencing sleep deprivation at night because they cannot get comfortable due to back and neck pain, could implicate the use of a pillow between their knees when lying on their side, placing the pillow behind their knees when lying on their back, and try removing the pillow under their head to allow their neck to rest in a neutral position throughput the night.