How you typically position your body when going through your day defines your posture. Posture is a key, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of general good health and chronic pain management. Our bodies are designed to move. Our muscles tense and stiffen if we don’t move them enough. Similarly, we can get caught in the grip of poor posture, which can create problems throughout our whole body.

Poor posture can lead to back or shoulder pain, as well as tightness in the hips, and it can strain the muscles and the nerves of the spinal cord. Ultimately, tension on any part of the spinal system can result in neck pain.

Neck pain is a common complaint, and impacts more than 80% of Americans at one time or another. While there are many reasons for neck pain, one of most frequent causes of neck pain is poor posture.

Luckily, poor posture is also something that most of us can control. So it makes sense that if we try to improve our posture, we might be able to reduce or eliminate our neck pain.

When we have good posture, we are using all the muscles of our lumbar spine and pelvis to support our body weight, and, additionally, when sit or stand straight, our neck is able to support our head without stress.