Improve your studying posture

Let me guess. You are an aspirant preparing for an entrance exam. You study for long hours peering over notes or study videos. You spend ages sitting at your desk or lying on your bed studying.

Am I right?

If you are anything like me, or my friends while we were preparing for entrance exams, you probably have a stiff body and an occasional bout of backache every now and then. Someday, you might realise that the body ache is too much for you to study, or in worse conditions, like a friend of mine has faced, the back problem may become chronic and irreversible.

This article is to make sure that never, ever happens.

But before we start talking about good and bad posture tips, let us look into more details as to why this small nuance in your life is important. After all, you have a hundred topics to study. Why waste your time reading this article as well?

Here goes.

Why is a proper studying posture important?

Many exams and courses not only need you to be knowledgeable in order for you to start the course or job, but also require physical fitness. Imagine clearing your entrance exam, and then failing the medical! Or clearing the entrance exam and then failing to sit long enough to study for the course classes. How terrible would that be?

Not only after the exam, but poor posture can cause problems before the exam and even during it. It can hamper your preparation and also cause you to give a poor attempt due to discomfort during the exam. Here is how:

1. Chronic Pain: Poor posture leads to continuous, nagging pain. The pain would be so continuous that you will not even notice it until it gets too bad!
2. Tiredness and Fatigue: The continuous mental torture of bearing the pain and constant body inflammation will tire down the body 
3. Head, muscle, back and shoulder pain: You name it, and bad posture will make it pain!
4. Serious musculoskeletal disorders: Long term improper posture can lead to serious problems like spinal misalignment, osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, spinal disc problems, tendonitis and even cardiovascular diseases!

Does that sound bad enough? Well, then let us take a look at some tips to ensure we do not face any of the above.

Good posture makes good grades

1. Sit!: Do not lie down and study for long durations. It puts a lot of pressure on your back and causes backache.
2. Sit at a desk: Do not sit on the bed and study. It makes one slouch and leads to backache again. 
3. Choose a proper chair: A proper chair should have armrests where you can rest your elbows at a right angle and not squeeze them towards your body while typing. It should also have good back support.
4. Keep your legs on the ground: This is not a lesson in modesty! 🙂 Make sure your chair height is such that your feet are neither bent, nor floating in the air. They should be resting on the ground, which will save you a lot of knee pain. Ideally, your knees should be at a ninety degrees angle and at the same level as your hips.
5. Do not cross your legs: Don’t cross your legs and sit. Not only is it bad for blood circulation in your legs (hello numbness!), but it also puts unwarranted pressure on your hips and spine.  
6. Study material at eye level: Whatever you are reading should be at eye level so as to avoid neck strain
7. Lean Back: That back support of the chair is there for a reason! Lean against it fully and do not lean forward to maintain proper posture. You can also use a cushion or pillow if needed.
8. Arms Length away: Keep the study material, laptop and keyboard at arm’s length, to avoid straining your elbows.
9. Move around: Take a break every now and then! Use our Pomodoro technique to not only rest your mind, but also to rest your body every thirty-forty minutes. This will stop it from becoming too stiff.
10. Stretch: And lastly, relaaaaax and stretch. Take a stretch break every thirty minutes. Or at least, take ten minutes during the end of the day to stretch each and every part of your body. Particularly the shoulders, neck, back and legs- the poor body parts which face the biggest brunt of our prep.Use some common yoga poses to stretch these body parts and relax muscular tension.

That’s it. Usually we ask you to try out our tips and make them optional. But for this article, we insist you follow these tips, and not treat your good health as optional. Just remember, health is wealth. And in our case, it is also the wealth of success.