Posture Check

Posture is one of the most important steps you can take for your overall well-being. This may sound a bit exaggerated but the fact is so much of our body depends on how we hold our posture.

I have worked for the last 20 years trying to teach how to find posture and how to help patients identify their own individual proper posture. Too often we seek an "ideal" posture that may not actually be our individual "ideal" posture. We all have different body types, different lifestyles, different life situations that influence how we use our bodies and specifically how we hold our posture.

The most recent trend in posture is about tucking the pelvis to "engage the core" which in my opinion is unnatural at best and counterproductive at worse. The core responds to the posture we hold ourselves and to think that the muscles will hold a posture when our attention is not on it is not reasonable.

Another pet peeve I have is when people are taught to pull their shoulder blades back and down to achieve proper posture. It is missing the key element that allows you to find and hold your proper posture...and that is your joints of the spine.

The solution is so easy to find and achieve that it will seem too easy.

Here is the solution:

Lift your sternum up towards the ceiling.

That's it...it is literally that simple.

The sternum is also known as your breast bone. When we slouch the sternum faces almost directly forward and is extreme cases it will point towards the ground. So the solution is to lift the sternum so it faces towards the sky/ceiling.

I recommend a simply overhead stretch where you interlace your hands together and reach them to the sky. Next look up at your hands. Really reach up as high as you can...then hold your body still as you lower your hands to the side first and finally lower your head until you are facing forward. Ease your body so you are not holding yourself rigidly.

Notice that when you lift your hands you naturally lift your sternum, which in turn pulls your shoulders back and lifts your head. Little to no effort is needed. In fact the muscles will automatically engage to hold the posture without you focusing on them. All you need to focus on is the sternum lifting.

I recommend checking your posture every time you go to the bathroom. This way you will check in several times a day. You can also perform this stretch each time you go into your car and when you get out. Link it to something you do daily...several times a day.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

OVERHEAD STRETCHING