“Sit up straight!” “Push your chin back!” “Pull your shoulder back!” These are the first statements we have heard about posture growing up. Posture isn’t just about how you look, or how well you sit, but how well you move and go about your daily life. Our posture refers to how our spine curves and how our muscles and ligaments engage when we are sitting or standing. It involves your vertebrae, ligaments, and muscles working together to keep you correctly aligned.
Posture today, or lack thereof, is a major contributing factor to the back and neck pain millions of Americans experience on a daily basis. Sitting at a computer or on the couch for hours on end with a tilted pelvis, slumped shoulders, and forward head carriage is a reality for so many of us.
The question is, why pain? “I haven’t done anything!” Poor posture causes imbalances in the body. The muscles and ligaments are getting stretched and weakened, while others are becoming shortened and tight. Over time, our bodies fatigue and wear down, causing pain. This means your muscles and ligaments are not working efficiently. In this weakened position, your body is using increased energy just to stay upright.
The fact that posture, good or bad, can have a direct impact on your overall health. Let’s take a look at the causes of bad posture, the benefits of good posture, and the negative effects that poor posture can have on your health.
There are several reasons someone may have poor posture, including:
- Repetitive motion/poor biomechanics
- Weak muscles
- Genetic conditions
- Injuries
- Workstations that aren’t set up correctly/poor ergonomics
- Looking down at your phone or tablet for long periods of time
- Fatigue
- Carrying heavy bags/purses (especially over the shoulder)
- Carrying extra body weight
The Benefits of Good Posture
It may seem unlikely, but how you sit and stand can have a direct link to your health in a variety of ways.
- Mood- Standing straight and tall can give you more self-confidence and help you feel better mentally.
- Bone, ligament, joint, and muscle health- Good posture means less stress on the body because your structural components are all working together.
- Better breathing- When you sit or stand correctly, there is less pressure on the diaphragm, which makes it easier to take deep breaths.
- Fewer to no headaches- Poor posture/ forward head can increase the shoulder tension, which can lead to headaches, but adjusting your posture can reduce them.
- Stronger back and core muscles- Good posture is a workout, engaging muscles of the core, back, and chest. Strength in these muscles can improve stability and balance.
- Improved range of motion- Proper posture will result in more balanced musculature, allowing for a fuller range of motion.
- Injury prevention: Improved strength and flexibility allow proper lifting techniques to be easily applied, decreasing the risk of injury.
- Less Fatigue- Proper posture reduces muscular imbalances, allowing the body to move more efficiently.
The Negative Health Effects of Poor Posture
Bad posture can cause the following:
- Increase compressive loading in the cervical spine, particularly the facet joints and ligaments.
- Neck pain and headaches
- Temporomandibular pain (jaw pain)
- Weakening the respiratory muscles
- Balance
- Shoulder pain and dysfunction
- Higher potential of disc herniation or bulge
- Early disc degeneration
- Upper back kyphosis
- Decrease height
How to Improve Your Posture
Most people start treating it on their own with self-care before seeking professional help, by improving their sitting ergonomics at their work or home desk, consciously sitting up in the most upright posture, and performing basic back exercises. If the posture persists or worsens, treatment may progress to medication, injections, physical therapy, or even surgery. While these approaches can be helpful, the pain relief they provide is often temporary.
When seeking professional help, start with corrective chiropractic first. Corrective chiropractic focuses on the root cause, the subluxation, the whole joint complex, not just the individual components that make up the joint complex. Studies show patients are more than twice as likely to experience complete relief of pain compared to those using medication.
Here at Meridian Health Center, we focus on the root cause. Our care specializes in spinal correction, and it’s the only healthcare approach for correcting postural distortions. We are trained to assess and analyze posture. We use cutting-edge techniques to correct and balance posture, improve joint mobility, rehab ligaments, and balance muscles to reduce nerve stress. This not only reinforces your posture but also improves your health.
$99 New Patient Special
– Day 1: History review, consultation, nerve scan, exam, and x-rays –
– Day 2: Review exam and x-rays, and adjustment –
– Day 3: Dr’s report of findings, review recommended treatment plan –
How Our Care Plan Works
1. Finally Be Heard
We dedicate time to listen, ensuring we understand the complete picture of your health struggles, lifestyle history, specific goals, and the challenges that have left you feeling limited. We move past the limitations of rushed appointments and generic solutions to build a genuine connection, making sure your unique needs and experiences are the central focus of your entire care plan.
2. Get To The Root Cause Of The Problem
Our team moves beyond temporary symptom management to systematically identify and correct the underlying interferences affecting your body’s ability to heal. We use our three-pillar system—Specific Spinal Correction, Customized Nutrition and Neuro-Feedback Principles—to target the physical, chemical, and neurological issues that are preventing you from thriving and limiting your life.
3. Take Back Control Of Your Health
This step is about implementing the personalized plan and teaching you the principles of lifelong wellness. Through corrective care and educational guidance, we give you the knowledge, tools, and lasting body changes needed to maintain optimal function. This comprehensive approach ensures you feel great now and have the foundation for sustained health and vitality, allowing you to live a full life without limits.
How We Improve Posture In Southwest Denver, CO
We offers a conservative, non-invasive approach to addressing the poor posture by focusing on exactly where the problem is, how it affecting your quality of life, and a detailed plan designed to get to the core issue.
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
Our new patient process takes place over three visits, so we can fully understand your current posture and how it is affecting your overall health, and create the right plan for you.
Visit 1 (Day 1): Getting to Know You
During your first visit, we take the time to learn about you, your health history, and your postural deviations. This visit includes:
- A complete consultation and health history
- A physical examination
- Surface EMG (sEMG) scan to assess muscle and nerve activity
- Orthopedic testing
- X-rays, if needed
- Once we have gathered all the necessary information, we will schedule your second visit.
Visit 2 (Day 2): Understanding the Cause
At your second visit, we review all of your results with you, including exam findings, sEMG results, orthopedic tests, and X-rays. We explain what is causing your poor posture and any related symptoms in a clear, easy-to-understand way. Once we identify the source of your lower back pain, we begin care with:
- Specific spinal warm-up exercises
- Your first chiropractic adjustment to start the healing process
- Any additional postural correction imaging, if needed
- We will then schedule your third visit.
Visit 3 (Day 3): Your Care Plan
At your third visit, we review any additional X-rays and go over your personalized care plan. This plan is designed to help correct spinal issues and maintain long-term spinal health so you can move and feel your best.
Digital X-rays
X-rays show us things we can’t see or feel in you physical examination. X-rays give us information on bone alignment, abnormal wear on the cartilage and bones creating bone spurs and narrowing, spinal curvature, and signs of long-term stress or degeneration, all of which influence poor posture. Here at Meridian Health Center, x-rays are a vital tool in accurately diagnosing and addressing poor posture and any other abnormalities we can’t see from the history or exam. The information gained from X-rays helps create a personalized treatment plan by allowing us to tailor adjustments, exercises, and corrective strategies to your specific spinal care. Having the most accurate information gives us the opportunity to give you the best form of treatment for your poor posture.
Specific Chiropractic Care in Southwest Denver, CO
At Meridian Health Center, we focus on the subluxation(s) that are causing your poor posture and providing corrective chiropractic care to fix the problem. Let define what a subluxation is: It is a misalignment or stuck vertebra in the spine that interferes with normal spinal mechanics or movement and nerve function. If left uncorrected, lumbar subluxations can contribute to compensation patterns, poor posture, nerve irritation, and even effect symptoms in the lower extremities. Specific corrective chiropractic adjustment helps to restore the body’s proper spinal alignment, improve joint mobility, and reduce nerve interference. All this results in decreased pain, improved function, and enhanced overall well-being. Corrective Chiropractic care is far more superior for care then conventional treatment for poor posture because it addresses the root cause of dysfunction rather than masking the symptoms.
Custom Spinal Correction Exercise Plan
We believe that, in addition to your corrective spinal adjustments, specific corrective spinal exercises are designed to restore your proper alignment and improve your posture by retraining the body to move and bear weight correctly. These exercises use controlled movements, postural cues, and weighted exercises to gently engage the ligaments and muscles that support the lumbar spine and hips, helping to correct imbalances caused by poor posture, subluxations, or pain. Your specific exercises will promote and maintain its natural curves, reducing the stress on discs, joints, and ligaments. Many of our patients notice improved stability, decreased discomfort, and better movement, which complements the chiropractic adjustments
Read Our Online Reviews
Common Causes of Poor Posture in Southwest Denver, CO
Tech Neck
Tech neck is what happens when you spend a lot of time looking down at your phone or computer, causing your head to lean forward, losing its normal curve. It often looks like your head protruding forward, rounded shoulders, and a slouched upper back. It’s so prevalent because most people spend hours every day on screens at school, work, and at home, often without thinking about posture. An altered cervical curve is bad because your head gets heavier the farther it moves from midline, putting pressure and extra stress on your muscles, joints, disc, and nerves. Over time, this can lead to neck pain, headaches, shoulder tension, poor posture, and even numbness and tingling down the arms.
Specific corrective chiropractic adjustments and exercises counteract that forward position into its proper posture.
Sedentary Lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is where a person spends most of their waking hours sitting or being physically inactive, with very little movement or exercise. Examples of people who work at a desk, drive, watch TV,/playing video games, or work from home at a computer for a long period of time.
Why is a sedentary lifestyle so harmful? Because we are designed for regular movement, spinal loading and unloading, and muscular activation. When movement is removed for long periods, multiple body systems begin to deteriorate.
Research has shown an increased risk with prolonged sitting:
- Poor posture
- Cardiovascular disease
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Degenerative Disc Disease
- Obesity
What is so bad about sitting? The problem is not simply sitting; it’s prolonged static sitting.
Here is what happens with prolonged sitting:
- Ligament creep and spinal instability
- Increased disc pressure
- Muscle imbalances
- Reduced circulation and metabolism
- Postural Distortion
How can people who work at a desk prevent postural problems?
- Move every 30-45 min
- Optimize workstation Ergonomics
- Strengthen postural muscles
- Maintain spinal mobility
- Stand and move breaks
Maintaining proper spinal alignment, movement, and strengthening exercises reduce the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Stress
When it comes to poor posture and spinal health, stress is the biggest component. Clinical physiology divides stress into three major categories that influence the nervous system, muscles, ligaments, and posture.
Physical Stress: Refers to the mechanical strain placed on the body’s structure. Over time, repetitive strain leads to muscle imbalance and ligament creep, which contribute to postural distortions like forward head posture and rounded shoulders.
Chemical Stress: Refers to substances that alter normal physiology or create inflammation in the body. Inflammatory chemicals can make muscles tight and reactive, which contribute to poor posture and chronic tension patterns.
Emotional/Mental Stress: Is the body’s response to psychological pressure, anxiety, or perceived threats. When stress levels rise, the brain activates the fight or flight response, releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
One of the most noticeable physical responses is muscle guarding in the neck, shoulders, and upper back. When multiple stressors combine, they overload the body’s ability to adapt.
For example, desk work is physical stress, a poor diet is chemical stress, and work pressure is emotional stress. This combination results in muscle tightening and fatigue, weakened postural stabilizers, joint restrictions, and altered nervous system control.
Here are some natural ways to manage stress:
- Movement and exercise (remember the body is designed to move)
- Proper sleep 7-9 hours
- Breathing and Relaxation Techniques – increase parasympathetic to reduce stress
- Health Nutrition – reducing inflammation with whole foods and good fats
- Spinal Health – When the spine moves properly, and the nervous system is functioning optimally, the body adapts to stress more efficiently.
Here at Meridian Health Center, we can help you manage and reduce your stress through spinal correction care, customized nutrition, and neurofeedback.
Muscle and Ligament Weakness
Proper posture depends on the combined support of the ligaments and muscles, which work together to stabilize the spine. Ligaments hold the spine in position while muscles provide active control. When either system weakens or becomes dysfunctional, the spine loses its ability to maintain proper alignment.
The role of the ligament is to limit excessive motion, support spinal curves, and provide joint stability. The role of the muscle is to activate spinal stabilization through the involuntary muscle group and counteract gravity.
A sedentary lifestyle, poor postural habits, repetitive stress, injury or trauma, degeneration, and lack of strength training will cause ligament and muscle weakness. The most at risk are desk or remote workers, students, heavy phone users, kids, older adults, individuals with chronic spinal pain, and individuals recovering from injury.
Improving posture requires supporting ligaments and strengthening muscles. Here at Meridian Health Center, this is exactly what we do. We assess your current spinal health and provide the appropriate spinal correction and rehabilitation for your body.
Scoliosis
The spine is designed to support and protect the spinal cord. It is made up of 24 movable vertebrae, along with the sacrum and coccyx. It is divided into three main regions: cervical, thoracic, and lumbar. When viewed from the side, the spine has three major curves that help distribute weight and absorb shock.
These curves allow the spine to function like a spring, helping the body maintain balance and reducing stress on the discs and joints. When viewed from the front or back, the spine should appear straight.
Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine develops an abnormal sideways curvature, often accompanied by rotation of the vertebrae, resulting in a “C”- or “S”- shaped curve. These curvatures can occur in the thoracic spine, lumbar spine, or both. A curvature of 10 degrees or greater is considered scoliosis.
The severity of symptoms varies with the degree of curvature and the individual’s age.
Common effects are:
- Postural changes or visible postural asymmetries
- Muscle imbalances, this can lead to chronic muscular fatigue and discomfort
- Joint and disc stress, uneven spinal loading, can cause accelerated degeneration
- Reduced lung capacity and larger curves in the thoracic spine can distort or deform the ribs, decreasing lung expansion in severe cases.
There are several groups of people more likely to develop scoliosis.
- The most common is female adolescent between ages 7-15.
- Family history or genetic
- Rapid growth spurts
- Neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy
- Degenerative changes in adults
Early detection is important because treatment is more effective when the spine is still developing. Common postural observations include uneven shoulders, pelvis, or a prominent rib cage on one side. The Adams forward bend test can show rib or spinal asymmetry. But the definitive diagnosis is usually confirmed with spinal X-rays.
Not all scoliosis can be prevented, particularly idiopathic scoliosis. However, early management can help reduce progression and improve function. The key is early detection. Getting your child evaluated by a spinal corrective chiropractor early can help prevent or slow down the progression of the curves.
Doing specific spinal correction adjustments and neurological rehab has been shown to reduce the severity and even correct early stages of scoliosis. Not all scolioses are correctable by chiropractic, but correctional chiropractic and even braces are better than surgery in most cases.
Check Out Our Location Near You
2750 S Wadsworth Blvd suite c 109, Denver, CO 80227
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a chiropractor in Southwest Denver, CO, help with posture?
Yes! That is exactly what we do here at Meridian Health Center. Your posture determines how you are functioning and is the first thing that changes before expressing any other pain or symptoms.
Can a chiropractor permanently fix posture?
Yes again! Correcting someone’s posture is a two-way street. We provide correct adjustment, and you have to do the specific spinal rehab provided. When working together for a common goal, the end results are miraculous, and maintaining it is easier to do.
How long does it take a chiropractor to fix bad posture?
It depends on the severity of your condition. The more abnormal curves you have, the longer it takes. Getting your spine as close to normal will depend on how much work you want to put into it. The longer you wait, the older you get, the longer it takes to correct.
Can chiropractors fix a hunchback?
A hunchback is due to a severe forward head, rolled shoulders, and a rolled upper back. Correcting your spinal curves and promoting more extension exercises and movements in your lifestyle over time can reduce your hunchback dramatically.
Can you resign your own spine?
NO! Joints just don’t pop in or out. Joints get fixated or subluxated due to abnormal stress on the joints for a long period of time. Chiropractors are trained to find and locate the subluxations and move them in the proper position with specific forces and lines of drive to optimize the mobility of the joint. When you pop or align yourself, you are moving a hypermobile joint, causing more damage in that area.
How can I fix my posture?
The best way is to get evaluated by a corrective chiropractic office. Let us evaluate and show you how off your posture may be and how we can correct it. Once we have established what is going on with your posture, we will work together to reach your goals and maintain the work you put into maintaining good posture.
How do you know if your body is out of alignment?
Alignment problems often develop slowly due to poor posture, receptive movements, injuries, and long periods of sitting. Early detection allows for corrective adjustment, exercises, and spinal care to help restore balance and prevent long-term stress on joints and muscles.
What causes poor posture?
Poor posture rarely develops from a single cause. It usually results from a combination of prolonged sitting, muscle weakness, ligament strain, repetitive habits, stress, and poor ergonomics. Over time, these factors change the way the body holds itself against gravity.
What muscles are best for posture?
Posture is not controlled by one muscle but by a group of stabilizing muscles, working together, such as deep neck stabilizers, upper back muscles, spinal stabilizers, and core muscles.
Can chiropractic help with slouching?
Corrective chiropractic care can help with slouching by improving joint function, reducing muscle tension, and supporting proper alignment. However, lasting improvements usually occur when adjustments are combined with corrective exercises and better posture habits.
$99 New Patient Special
– Day 1: History review, consultation, nerve scan, exam, and x-rays –
– Day 2: Review exam and x-rays, and adjustment –
– Day 3: Dr’s report of findings, review recommended treatment plan –
