You may have wondered, “How can the Chirp Wheel+ help correct poor posture?” or “Why is good posture even important?” Correct posture is actually very important for your spinal health. Maintaining correct posture can help ease back pain from muscle strain, help keep your bones in proper alignment, help reduce stress on your ligaments, and help your muscles work like they are meant to. Even though most of us know that maintaining good posture will reap many benefits, it is easy to slide back in your chair after a long day at work, or even during work. The Chirp Wheel+ was created to help remind us to maintain good posture and to help us get back to a healthy back. Here’s how it works:
How the Chirp Wheel+ helps correct poor posture:
- The Chirp Wheel+ loosens up tight muscles. If your don’t use your muscles enough or if you use them too much, your muscles will become stiff and unyielding. Stiff muscles often cause back pain and bad posture. The Chirp Wheel+ features a spinal canal™, a small groove to fit your spine in as you roll. The spinal canal does three things: it relieves bad and potentially damaging pressure that could be put on the spine from other back rollers; the ridges on the top of each side of the canal dig deeper into the lateral muscles that run up and down your spine, which provides a stretch that is horizontal and vertical to your spine; and the 4-way stretch from the spinal canal™ promotes a more aligned spine. The spinal canal helps to loosen up the tight muscles around your spine, hips, and shoulders so that when you retrain your muscles to maintain correct posture, your newly loosened muscles will take the correction much easier.
- You can use the Chirp Wheel+ to increase body awareness. One of the hardest things about maintaining proper posture is remembering to maintain it. You can use the Deep Tissue Chirp Wheel+ to remind you to maintain good posture. If you sit at a desk all day, you can slide the Deep Tissue Chirp Wheel+ in the small of your back. Doing this will keep your shoulders back and will help you remember to maintain correct posture throughout the day.
- Rolling on the Chirp Wheel+ strengthens your core. As you roll out on any size Chirp Wheel+, to keep your balance, you must engage your core muscles. Have you ever noticed that it is tiring to try and keep good posture for a long time? That’s why strengthening your core is one of the best things you can do to fix your posture. As you strengthen your core, your muscles will have an easier time holding your body up during the retraining process. There are a lot of exercises you can do with the Chirp Wheel+ to help strengthen your core muscles.
- The Chirp Wheel+ realigns your body’s joints. When most people are trying to get back to good posture, they see a chiropractor to realign their spine. The Chirp Wheel+ can help realign your joints so that maintaining correct posture isn’t painful. As you roll out on the wheel, you’ll notice a few relieving pops and cracks. That is your spine going back into place, which will help you maintain better posture.
- The Chirp Wheel+ helps reverse damage done from poor posture. Rolling out or leaning against the wheel helps reverse damage done or counteract incorrect posture. Poor posture is when your shoulders are slumped forward and your core isn’t engaged. Simply reversing poor posture for 10 to 15 minutes a day will help you start to maintain better posture.
What are common posture mistakes? And how to fix them using the Chirp Wheel+
- Slouching in a chair. Slouching in a chair usually feels better than maintaining correct posture in a chair, but slouching over a long period of time will increase muscle tension that can lead to back pain. To help yourself stop slouching, place the Deep Tissue Chirp Wheel+ is the small of your back when you sit down. Transitioning into good posture will not always feel good at first because your muscles are working hard to break away from bad habits, but in the long run, your back will thank you.
- Standing with a flat back. When you stand with your back flat, your pelvis is tucked in and your shoulders are rolled forward. This position can also lead to back pain. Using the Chirp Wheel+ daily will help you open up your hips and shoulders so that you can ease back into correct posture again.
- Leaning on one leg. Sometimes when you have to stand for a long period of time, we lean to one side or the other, place a hand on the hip, and stick our hip out. Doing this often can lead to muscle imbalances and, again, back pain. The key to a healthy back is to make sure you don’t stay in one position for too long, whether that means sitting or standing. The Chirp Wheel+ can help with the pain that comes from uneven muscles around your pelvis as you roll out on the wheel daily. The wheels are also easy to travel with so you can take a break from whatever you’re doing and take 10 minutes to roll out on a wheel.
- Poking your chin out or text neck. These two things are different, but the solution is the same. Poking your chin out often happens when you’re looking up at a screen or your workspace isn’t ergonomically correct. Text neck is when you have to look down at your phone or even down at your desk to write or type. Make sure your workspace helps with your back pain by raising or lowering your chair so your eyes are in line with your screen. When you’re texting, lift your phone to the level of your eyes so you don’t have to look down. To fix the pain that comes from incorrect posture like this, spend some time lying down and resting your neck on the Deep Tissue Chirp Wheel+. This will help reverse the damage done from incorrect neck posture. Chirp also has a lot of other products that can help with posture correction.
To find out more about how to maintain good posture read this blog post called “How Do I Fix My Bad Posture?”
References
ACA. (2019). Maintaining good posture. Retrieved from https://acatoday.org/content/posture-power-how-to-correct-your-body-alignment.
Kassel, G. (2018, August 22). Good Posture in 30 Days: Exercises, Calendar Plan, and More. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/guide-to-better-posture-exercises.
NHS. (2019, July 10). Common posture mistakes and fixes. Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/common-posture-mistakes-and-fixes/.