Why is something so important so hard?
My grandmother had perfect posture. I remember thinking as a child how odd it was. However, I also remember how beautiful and elegant she carried herself. Every time I was around her, I naturally stood up straighter just by watching her; but it’s so hard to stay that way. As soon as we left, I went back to my teen posture with my mother yelling at me to sit up straight!
Perfect posture is when the spine is properly aligned. This is not something that comes easily, rather it is earned through hard work. There are many posture disorders, such as scoliosis swayback, flatback, and forward head, which is when the head is positioned with the ears in front of the vertical midline of the body. These posture disorders are often caused by inflammatory and degenerative diseases characterized by the presence of musculoskeletal symptoms; such as back and neck pain, compensatory posture changes and functional disabilities. But when you spend a long time leaning over a small screen, slouching in a chair, carrying heavy bags or doing repetitive motions at work, these factors can lead to poor posture. It can also result from feeling self conscious about being too tall or breasts seem too large, causing the shoulders to round, making the breast appear smaller. This action shortens the muscles in the chest and lengthens the muscles in the back. Eventually, the body adapts in this way and creates a curvature in the spine. Unless the person begins to open the chest, via flexibility exercises and strengthens their back, while spending repetitive and frequent time correcting the posture, the bones in the spine can become malformed. This makes it much harder to correct the condition, which in turn begins to develop all kinds of issues in the body. Other factors that contribute to poor posture are being overweight or pregnant, or wearing poor quality shoes or high heels.
Muscle balancing is essential for a strong body. Strength training the back is extremely important because of the million ways we mistreat our bodies. By strengthening the back, the chest will open and lengthen, helping to stabilize the shoulders. There are numerous exercises that can help reverse poor posture to proper posture. Proper posture, looks more confident and reduces unwanted lines in the back, belly and neck. Proper posture can reduce pain. Pain is debilitating and reduces longevity and mental health. Once depression sets in, motivation is lost, and the ability to make improvements becomes that much more challenging.
The most amazing thing about the body is in time, it adapts to how it is treated. Through learning some essential exercises and focusing on better posture the body will begin to improve over time.
Let’s begin by looking at your alignment. How are you standing? Pull the belly button into the spine, squeeze the butt so the pelvis aligns with the spine, this also supports the low back. Then lift the chest, squeeze the shoulder blades towards each other and down towards the floor, and relax the shoulders to lengthen the neck. How does that feel? Is it challenging to stay in that position for a long time and does it take work to maintain? When you relax, does the body naturally want to hunch forward, pelvic tilt back and let out a breath, signaling that when you stand up straight you hold your breath.
If so, don’t worry, it’s more common than you may think. That’s why there are millions of gimmicks online to help correct posture. It’s no secret that poor posture destroys your back and our lifestyles do not support strong posture. This is something we need to work on. We do that in four ways:
- Consciously practice proper posture as much as you possibly can, the more you remember to correct your posture the easier it becomes.
- Increase flexibility in the chest and shoulders.
- Stabilize the shoulders in proper alignment.
- Strengthen the back and core.
None of these improvements are accomplished overnight, they take time and patience; just like everything else in life.
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