Importance of Anatomical Position

Serena Cuoghi
Title of Professor of Biology

Knowing the correct anatomical position of our body allows us to reduce physical stress and fatigue, as well as to increase productivity by giving us the ability to perform our activities in a more efficient way. Plus, it can help reduce the risk of developing musculoskeletal problems – and even organic – long-term, due to poor posture, either temporary or sustained over time dragged on.

By understanding and adopting the anatomical position that our body needs to perform any type of activity, we can ensure that we also work in a more safe and comfortable for the benefit of health, managing to reach old age with better physical and motor conditions and reducing the risks of also suffering injuries due to possible accidents.

Take regular breaks during work to give your body freedom and movement, as well as perform brief intermittent exercise routines with which to release the tension in muscles, tendons and joints, restoring its natural flexibility to our body, will allow us to stay more productive and healthy for much longer.

the bipedal gait

Some of the main evolutionary advantages that having an upright anatomical posture has given us have been: 1) achieving a bipedal gait, thanks to which it was also possible to develop completely different abilities between the lower extremities and the superiors; 2) possessing a complex system to maintain body balance and much more complex mobility; 3) greater alignment and flexibility of the spine and therefore of the rest of the body; 4) optimization of muscular mobility, reducing the excessive workload in each of these; 5) greater energy savings, allowing the body to do the same work with less effort, a principle known as ergonomics; and 6) promote muscle coordination by allowing the body to achieve a wide range of motion.

Even with all these graceful comforts, little attention is paid to the correct anatomical position in which it should be maintained. each of the parts of our body, especially the spine, tending to adopt highly counterproductive postures and for periods long enough to end up causing a wide variety of vertebral deviations and thus painful injuries limitations.

Alterations in health due to posture

Joints, muscles and tendons can also suffer severe injuries due to an incorrect anatomical position, since an incorrect posture can cause them to be placed in abnormal positions that generate tension and even deformations. Knowing how to correctly align the body in its natural anatomical position is therefore the best strategy to avoid injuries such as deviations from the spine, whether they are siphosis, lordosis and scoliosis, with the subsequent generation of compression on the nerves that can end in very long neuritis. treatment or even the much feared herniated discs and all as a consequence of bad habits when sitting or doing work that requires effort physical.

The importance of the anatomical position cannot in any case be underestimated. Maintaining good posture while working at a desk is essential, especially when sitting for long periods of time. Poor posture can cause neck tension, hand fatigue and other organic health problems such as intestinal obstruction, making sitting essential. correctly, learn to feel and evaluate the posture of the hands when writing, either with the keyboard or with the pencil, to also avoid developing tunnel syndrome carpal, as well as keeping the back straight as well as the legs so as not to generate tension in the joints of the extremities, their potential wear and tear of osteoarthritis.

postural awareness

The more aware we are about the position we adopt when carrying out the various activities, especially those that require a greater effort or in which we spend long periods of time, we will be able to solve the bad postures that we usually adopt more easily and quickly, thus avoiding the anatomical injuries that we cause ourselves and that we usually do not detect until the pain tells us that we have been doing something evil.

Most of the time, these bodily ailments end up being the reason to go to an emergency room, causing an extensive list of analysis and reviews by various specialists, who focus on finding the possible pathologies that produce them, but in many cases, the specialists may not consider the anatomical position as the causative factor of the ailment, treating only the symptoms which generates momentary relief, since the picture usually recurs after continuing to adopt the wrong posture, as for example often happens with many cases of swelling, problems circulatory disorders and even lymphagitis in the lower extremities due to the pressure that some seats generate against the lymph nodes and the system circulation of our legs.

References

Latarjet, M., & Liard, A. R. (2004). Human anatomy. Pan American Medical Ed.

Balthazard, P., Currat, D., & Degache, F. (2015). Ffundamentals of biomechanics. EMC-Kinesitherapy-Physical Medicine, 36(4), 1-8.

Otero, E. AND. P., Betancourt, B. M., & Pedrosa, M. R. (2019). A correct posture guarantees high levels of health. University & Science, 8, 742-751.