Posture Perfect
Who here has tight shoulders?
Maybe headaches?
..... Backpain?
.............. Just plain tired?
(Who doesn't)
Now ...
FREEZE!
…….yep just hold still, don’t move for a moment. I want you to cast your mind around your body and notice where your head is relative to your neck. From there, note where your back is, shoulders forward?, spine shape maybe curled, tummy out (ooops bet it went in just then!).
So take note of these areas and lets move one.
Whether you are reading this, sitting or standing, position you are currently in is one you would be revisiting dozens and dozens of times during the day. Day in day out, month, year in and out. This is your natural, go to, learned position. Our body tis such an amazing machine that it will accept being pout in any position pretty much and try to work with that. Even if the spine is being compressed in an awkward way that stops the fluids passing through well. Even if we are hunched over and putting pressure on the internal organs that isn’t best for them to work perfectly in keeping the body alive and thriving. If stressed, and the above causes stress, the body will just focus on survival and sacrifice what it needs to to ensure that. Its pretty impressive really, but unfortunately we can cause the body angst in its normal functions and not even realise we are.
Posture affects everything:
Digestion (the organs are not squashed in a hunched seated position and are able to freely move the food through the digestion pathways)
Deeper breathing ( as the diaphragm is not squashed in)
Blood and oxygen circulation and most of us are less than optimal with it. Fortunately its a simple thing to adjust, and it all starts with the head. Place that in the right position and it will start straightening the entire body immediately.
Less wear and tear (=pain) on the muscles, ligaments and joints, when pressure is paced on them in a sub-optimal position. This doesn't just mean weight lifting poorly, this means carrying shopping, picking up kids, gardening, housework. All those things place weight strain on the body, which is fine when the body is in alignment.
Less depression and fatigue. Not only does good posture take away a huge amount of pain you may think is just normal everyday aches you suffer through but it also gives a psychological benefit. Positive, happy people stand straighter, sadder ones slump. Sit or stand straight, breathe deeply and see how you feel. Good huh!? In fact just that simple change is one of the recommendations made for people who are depressed to help alleviate their mood. It works.
You can cope with pain better. This study showed that a good posture helps cope with pain. So chin up when you are feel physical or emotional pain. It also showed that if we coddle and dominate people too much it reinforces a submissive "curled in" posture which did not help the recipient deal with their issues better, it made it worse for them. So uncurl and stand tall with a deep breath.
More energy. Because you are in a better position the body doesn't have to work as hard to support you with your everyday movements. The result is less fatigue and more energy.
You look better. You really do :-)
Do you have any weights?
Pick up a 5 kilo weight (11lbs)
Thats how much your head weighs on average. Thats how much weight this slender rod called our spine, has to hold. You can understand why the spine is curved can’t you, as a curved structure holds weight easier than a straight one. So we want curves in the spine, but not over done 🙂
Now not only is it 5 kg’s when sat directly on top, but when we lean the head forward, the angle of the lean markedly increases the load, it can from your neck feeling 5 kgs of weight to a huge 25kg (60lbs).
Wow….
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/11/this-is-what-looking-down-at-your-mobile-phone-does-to-your-spine/
Remember the old, book on the head and ruler down your back to sit and stand tall? Not so silly really….
Case Study
Have a look at my photos below. A bit amateurish but I think you can see, first with the straightened one, How the head is stacked on top of the neck, which stacks on the tailbone and the line continues down (ideally pretty straight), to my feet. Now Its still not perfect. I had hoped to show you the perfect posture but I can see my mid back is not activated properly as my shoulders are slightly forward and palms are not forward facing.
I'm still working out how to edit photos!
Now have a look at my other posture, here I feel relaxed and pretty normal, but look at how bent I am. Head is forward, the yellow lines show the angles, turtle neck is starting, shoulders forward, chest caved, belly sticking out, hands are in a forward position with the palms facing back and my back is swayed naturally, and now even more so. I was impressed that my legs were fairly well stacked under, but what you can’t see is my knees are compensating naturally by becoming more knocked. The body responds to being put in this posture daily by tightening areas and weakening others from our neck, back, hips, thighs, calves and feet
A recipe for chronic pain if I ever saw one!
Just standing straight is terrific, BUT your muscles have had to compensate for so long they don’t know what to do anymore. They need to be reminded and retrained, stretch the over tightened muscles and strengthen the postural lax ones, otherwise you have nothing solid holding you in a better position, just sheer willpower.... until you are distracted, ....... oh look, a facebook message……..
…..hmmm mmm...
…..ooops…….where was I?
A recent study of adults aged 60-89 showed poor posture correlated closely with poor balance and falls....
“This research shows, though, that posture does in fact seem to hold great significance in terms of healthy living especially for geriatrics. Increased thoracic kyphosis leads to numerous problems including a higher risk for falls.”
... and that ....
... posture correction strategies worked to stop it!
A study first, in 2016, showed a direct link to the effect poor posture had on decreased cognitive function in older adults (50-89). They found that a forward head and neck lean was associated with decreased verbal memory function and high BMI with low ‘get up and go’ was associated with poor movement and visual coordination.
“Upright posture and mobility were associated with different cognitive processes, suggesting different underlying neural mechanisms. These results provide the first evidence for a link between postural alignment and cognitive functioning in healthy older adults.”
The American Posture Institute (theres actually and institute for it!) lists the following consequences of poor posture:
- Decreased Life Span (up to 14 years).
- Headaches.
- Chronic Fatigue.
- Neck & Back Pain.
- Increased blood pressure.
- Digestive Problems.
- Problems Sleeping.
- Circulatory Problems.
- Respiratory Issues.
- Increase in Falls.
- Vertigo/dizziness.
- Attention/concentration problems.
- Muscle fatigue.
- Decrease in overall health.
- Spinal degeneration.
- Arthritis.
- Herniated discs.
- Sciatica.
- Knee and ankle problems.
- Carpal Tunnel.
- Plantar fasciitis.
- and a partridge in a pear tree
Takeaways
Try Dancing
Recently the Queensland Union Technology and Queensland Ballet did a study showing, amongst a variety of benefits that dancing greatly benefited posture. Have a look at the study here.
Incorporate Yoga and Pilates
Add yoga AND pilates moves in your everyday routine. Your body needs the strength and flexibility it will gain from these types of exercises, plus you get fantastic body awareness from any exercise.
Lift Weights
OK I'm biased but weight lifting will lock in your new posture so well and works beautifully with yoga, dancing, pilates, anything. Just please have your form checked. No point doing the weights with poor form, thats a disaster!
At Home
- Pull your chin in, not up (triple chin at least)
- Shoulders are lowered and tensed around the shoulder blades
- Chest gently elevated
- Belly button pulls into spine with the pelvic floor tightened
- Bottom is tucked under after the above
- Feel the hips open, this widens the knees
- Place each foot under the corresponding hip bone
- Take a deep breath through the abdomen
- Check yourself in the mirror
OR
Have a look at the couple of videos I have linked below, they give a few examples of what to look at and try. If you have a trainer, get them to have a look and they can advise you exactly what you need to do to align properly.
If all else fails.....
grab a thick book, pop it on your head and walk around for a while.
Is my pony tail helping me?