I really hope that you don’t have the posture of SpongeBob in the above image. Even I stand or sit in weird positions sometimes, but I have a good posture in general. It’s not really serious if you’re like me whose posture is weird sometimes but if you have a bad posture in general, then you might have a postural deformity. In this blog, I’ll discuss postural deformities concerning spinal curvature. So, let’s get started!
Natural shape of the spine.
A normal spine looks straight when viewed from the front and has a S shape when viewed from the side. It has four curves along its length which are shown in the picture above. The green ones are the major ones and purple ones are minor curves. The postural deformities are most visible in the green curves. Let’s name them Upper C and Lower C for convenience for future use. Now that we know the natural shape of spine, let’s look at the postural deformities.
Kyphosis.
Kyphosis is increased curvature of the Upper C (refer to natural shape of the spine) of spine. It is also known as hunchback. Depression of chest is common in kyphosis. It can be caused by many factors like malnutrition, illness, rickets, carrying heavy loads, weak muscles etc. An honorary mention would be ‘shyness among girls’ as one of the reasons for kyphosis as listed in the book which I’m using for reference. I would like it very much if any one of you can explain to me how it works at all.
Here are the ways to fix kyphosis:
- Always keep a pillow under your back while sleeping. I do this even when I sit for a long time and then lay down to rest.
- Bend your head backward in standing position. Don’t rotate your head backwards, just pull it backwards.
- Perform Dhanurasana, the yoga position regularly.
- Do exercises which include bending your upper body backwards.
Lordosis.
Lordosis is increased curvature of the Lower C of spine. It is also known as swayback. It can be caused by many factors such as imbalanced diet, improper environment, obesity, improper development of muscles etc.
Some precautions are listed below:
- Take a balanced diet.
- Don’t eat excessively.
- Keep your body straight while carrying weight.
Here are the ways to fix lordosis:
- Perform sit-ups.
- Perform Halasana regularly.
- Do toe touching exercises.
- Do exercises that involve lying down on your back and raising your legs.
Scoliosis
Spine should look straight when viewed from the front. When it doesn’t look straight and has some curves, it is Scoliosis. In scoliosis, the spine can look like a ‘C’ or even ‘S’ when viewed from the front. It can be caused due to various reasons such as under-developed legs, infantile paralysis, rickets etc.
Here are ways to fix Scoliosis:
- Take a balanced diet.
- Do bending exercises on the opposite side of the ‘C’ curve of the spine.
- Hold the horizontal bar (found in gym and parks) with hands and let your body hang for some time or swing sideways.
- Swim using breaststroke technique.
I really hope you don’t have any postural deformity but if you do have then this blog ought to be useful for you. In general, eat a balanced diet and keep exercising regularly. Don’t think of exercising as a chore. Going to gym or doing regular exercise is really fun with friends. Stay tuned for my next blog and thank you for reading my blogs.
References:
Health and Physical Education by Dr. V K Sharma (Saraswati publication)