Evaluating about our posture is usually the last thing from our minds on a day to day basis. However, this lack of self awareness can leave us experiencing chronic neck, shoulder, or head aches.

For many American?s hours are spent glued to our computers, either at work or at home, resulting in the head being held in an unusual forward position. Body neutral position provides for optimal support, which is with the head located directly atop your neck between your shoulders. When your head is in this location position, your neck and shoulder muscles experience the least stress and strain as your strong vertebrae support your head. If you constantly hold your head outside of this neutral position often headaches, neck pain, and shoulder pain often ensue.

Luckily, you do not have to continue suffering, as there are solutions to the difficulty problem.

To tackle this issue, understanding, education, and evaluation are key. If you discover that your posture might be the culprit of some of your issues a chiropractor may be able to help you. The chiropractor can easily spot some of your problems and may even save you time and money.

You can do a quick posture check on yourself using a wall. Stand approximately 6 inches from the wall and back up, noting which body part reaches the wall first. Ideally your head, shoulders, derriere and heels touch at the same time, if they do not you could profit from some straightforward stretching and strengthening!

If your check showed that your shoulders did not touch first, some loosening of your chest or pectoral muscles might help this rounded and slouched posture. Again, this can be done almost anywhere in your home. Stand in your chosen doorway, stretch your right arm out so that the doorframe is touching your elbow joint, slowly step forward until you notice a stretch across your chest, hold for a few seconds. Repeat with your other arm. This stretch will open your chest and should result in less slouching and slumping of your shoulders.

Or if your head did not touch first, you can lengthen the muscles in the front portion of your neck and strengthen the muscles in the back of your neck with the chin tuck. While sitting or standing straight up, use your neck to pull your chin straight back. Hold for 5-15 seconds and return to the initial position.

These two movements may be able to correct your alignment issues and may even decrease your discomfort.

Step one was to identify the issue with the guidance of a chiropractor; step number two is to perform the exercises that are suggested. Most often, these will fix the problem, however, conditions that are long term may require an individualized plan of care that can be determined by your chiropractic provider. This plan of care might contain some established techniques that reduce or remove built up scar tissue that affect your muscles. These two techniques are the Active Release and the Graston technique.

Although you might have good posture that you were able to identify with the wall test, you may be experiencing pain for a variety of, such as your muscles working over time to maintain the correct posture. The best action to take is to inquire about an evaluation from a chiropractor who can assess your posture more thoroughly. This evaluation might reveal underlying spinal alignment issues that are resulting in your muscles working extra hard and a chiropractic adjustment can lead to pain relief.

Fortunately you are not alone when it comes to assessing and rectifying your postural issues, because seeing a chiropractor can lead you down the path to pain free days.