7 Ways to Straighten Your Back

If there is one thing that plagues modern man, it is back pain. It has become quite usual to find youths in their early 20s complaining about back problems and significant pain when they sit down for too long or lift things. Some might say it is because of our different lifestyle these days, with everyone either slouched over a laptop, bending their necks to fiddle with a smartphone or just sitting awkwardly on the couch watching that big-screen TV. In any case, you wouldn’t spend a day outside without coming across a person with an arched back, which is quite painful. 

These are different ways to help you straighten your back and alleviate the pain that comes from that arch. 

1. Practice Good Posture 

The reason why so many have arched backs is that most of us don’t even know what a good back posture is, and those that do are too lazy to practice it. Needless to say, the outcome is an arched back and a lot of pain. So, you need to make sure your posture is proper and aligns your spine correctly. Your shoulders need to be back, your stomach in, and your chest out. A trick to find out if your posture is good is to stand in front of a mirror sideways and see if you can draw a straight line from your earlobe to your ankle, going through your shoulder, hip, and knee. Don’t let your head lean forward, always pull it back.

2. Sit Properly 

While people’s posture standing up is bad, their posture sitting down is even much worse. If you want to straighten your back, you need to sit properly to keep your spine perfectly aligned. You can achieve good posture while sitting by keeping your feet flat, preferably resting them on a footrest or the floor. Don’t cross knees or ankles, place your ankles in front of your knees, relax your shoulders, don’t slouch when sitting to work at a computer, keep your forearms and knees parallel to the floor as much as you can, and sit up straight and look ahead without straining your neck. 

3. Braces 

If your teeth are misaligned, you will wear braces until they are set straight. The same can be applied to your back. In cases where the pain is severe, the reason can be a misalignment of the spine, which requires the patient to wear scoliosis braces to fix the problem. There are different models of such braces, and they won’t hold your movement back or anything. They will just work on adjusting the alignment of your spine or at least stopping the progression of scoliosis. 

4. Check Your Feet 

Sometimes the reason why your back is arched might actually be your feet. Over-pronated feet is when the arch of your foot is flat, which is problematic because your feet keep the balance of your body. This naturally messes with your whole posture and can cause a lot of back pain. Bad posture is also the reason why you might have flat feet, so you have to work on your posture and straighten your back, and you could improve your posture and shift your weight to the top of your heels as it should be.

5. Practice Yoga

One of the best things that you could do to improve your posture and straighten your back is to practice yoga. Positions like the cobra and child’s pose help straighten your back and correct your posture regularly. It is also a great sport to strengthen your back muscles, improving the posture in the process. 

6. Stretch 

If you are not going to practice yoga, then the least that you could do is stretch. There are a lot of specific exercises dedicated to improving your posture and straightening your back by working on the abdominal and back muscles. It is generally a good idea to stretch every half an hour or so when you’re seated so you could flex your muscles and keep your back straight. 

7. Improve Sleeping Posture 

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to straighten your back naturally is by improving your sleeping positions. If you sleep on your side, put a flat pillow between your legs and knees to keep the alignment of your spine and your back straight. If you’re sleeping on your back, you should put a pillow under your knees and one under your neck for the same reasons. 

Straightening your back requires commitment. You need to keep reminding yourself of the proper posture when standing, seated, and sleeping. If you keep doing these healthy practices, not only will your posture improve, but you will also feel that your back pain is significantly alleviated.