We all know the current image on the street... Almost everyone is looking down at his/her phone. And when working at home and studying in this day and age, we sit in the same posture at our computer for long periods of time. Postures that are not so good for us. This can be a cause of back pain. But how do you prevent back pain due to bad posture? In this latest blog by physiotherapist Bas read more.

Poor attitude among young people, what is it due to?

We are all used to using a mobile phone, computer or tablet by now. We have also started using it much more intensively in recent years. But how does this affect your body? What we come across a lot in our practice are people (especially many young people) who have to spend 8 hours daily in front of a computer for school or work. Unfortunately, they often don't move much between classes and work and pick up their mobile phone at that time. This causes the back and neck to be put in the same position for 8 hours. In the short term, not much is noticed of the poor posture and the back can still cope, but after a while, many people still suffer from back pain.

So what is a bad attitude?

Did you know that your head contains about 7% of your entire body weight? If you constantly adopt the wrong posture while working or looking at your phone, a lot is asked of the muscles in your back to compensate for your posture. If that compensation were not there, you would fall over. So what is bad posture? Actually, when you look in the mirror, you should be able to draw a straight line down from your crown to your heels. That way, your body is balanced. Do you see more of a hollow or bulge somewhere in there? Then the muscles of that body part may have to work harder to simply keep you from falling over.

What can you do yourself?

Check your posture in the mirror. You should see a line from your heels, knees, hips, shoulders to your ear. Now you are standing straight!
Get moving! Stretch out fully every now and then. Stand up and elongate your whole body, from your toes to the tip of your fingers. Rotate your shoulders a few rounds, spin your head around and stretch your back briefly over the back of your chair.
After a maximum of 20 minutes, put your phone away for a while. This is not only beneficial for your posture, but also for your eyes!
Adjust your desk and chair to the right height. Some pillars here are: Make sure your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Sit at the very back of your chair and lean against your chair. Now slide your chair at your desk so that you can lean on your elbows with your arms without pulling your shoulders up. Set your screen at a height so that when looking straight ahead, you are looking exactly at the top edge of your screen.