Many times, people often overlook the importance of a good posture. Either it`s because they don`t understand the importance of a good posture or think that incorrect posture is genetically wired to them and they cannot change.
It`s a mistake to adopt either view, as bad posture, including the sway back, can be corrected.
What is the Sway Back?
The Sway Back, also known as hyperlordosis is a type of posture that exaggerates the curve of the lower back. It pushed the pelvis towards the front to the center of gravity and makes the belly appear to sag forward when standing.
Can Saw Back be Corrected?
Absolutely, yes. Most of the posture conditions can be corrected, and the sway back is no different.
Let`s look at some of the effective ways of fixing the sway back.
- Awareness
An effective way of fixing sway back is being conscious of your body and posture.
When standing upright, it`s essential that your entire weight is balanced between your heels and the balls of your feet.
To allow relaxing of your abdominals, you’re required to tuck in your chin, and stand upright without hanging forward or slouching.
It`s crucial to ensure that you find the balance for the spine: your shoulder should be aligned with the hip, and this should prevent back arching. And if at any one time you catch yourself with all your entire weight hanging forward, you`ll need shifting your body back and ensure that you feel your core engage slightly.
- Control Muscle Tension
Alongside muscle weakness, muscle tension also contributes to the formation of swaybacks; muscle tension also contributes to the formation of swayback. It`s not uncommon for individuals with the sway back to experience tight hip flexors. In most cases, tightening of these muscles is associated with a sharp pain in the upper groin where the thighs meet the pelvis. So, what can you do to relieve the tension in these muscles?
Also read – How to Fix a Dowager’s Hump
For a start, using magnesium supplements can help to improve the condition by relaxing the muscles and improving the tilt.
More importantly, engaging in flexibility programs like yoga can go a long way to getting your body back into position.
To lunge the hip flexor with a stretch, you`ll need to;
• Kneel on one of your knees
• Place the other foot flat in front of you with the knee bent
• Lean forward and stretch your back left leg as far as possible
• Thrust your hips forward while squeezing your butt. This will allow for maximum hip flexor stretch
• Hold for 30 seconds to 2 minutes
• Switch side and repeat
- Correct your Sleep Positioning
If you`re always inclined to sleep on your stomach, then you may well be contributing to your sway back throughout the night. When you sleep on your stomach, the gravity pulls your hips and stomach down, in effect, this makes your belly to tend to stay that way even when you wake up 7 hours later. Therefore, to overcome this condition, it`s crucial that you swap your sleeping position. Instead of sleeping on your stomach, you can sleep on your side, and better yet on your back.
Exercises to Fix Sway Back
Exercises are among the effective remedies for sway back.
Here are some of the exercises that will help you out;
• Practice breathing sessions- When your lower back gets arched, it misaligns the diaphragm, and this makes it hard to achieve smooth, deep breaths. Subsequently, when you cannot breathe properly, it makes it difficult to maintain a proper posture, and this is why it`s essential that you practice breathing exercises to strengthen and stretch your muscles.
• Planking- Planking is effective at strengthening the external obliques and at the same time maintaining length in the internal obliques.
Here, you`ll need to support your body using your elbows and the tips of your toes. Hold the body into a horizontal dimension, parallel to the ground for as long as you can. You need to ensure that your rump doesn`t pull up and keep your back straight.
• Crunches- Crunches are necessary to maintain good posture and provide you with the necessary strength for optimal support. More importantly, crunches are ideal for building endurance in the muscles of the abdomen.
To perform the crunches, you`ll need to lie on your back and bring your ankles up to the level of your knees. Gently pull your abdominals inward by sucking in your gut and pulling your shoulders off the ground-this should bring the opposite shoulder to the opposite knee. When getting up, it`s crucial that you use your ab muscles instead of your neck muscles.
Conclusion
Fixing swayback is not a one-time affair. Remember that you didn`t wake up with this condition. It took time to develop. So don`t expect a quick fix. Ideally, you should give it much time to fix as it took to develop. Hopefully, with the above home remedies, you can fix sway back much faster.