How To Get Better Posture & Keep It

Last week, I asked you to try LESS hard with your posture. Soften it and let it go a bit and see how your  body feels. By doing this your brain has to change it’s messages to your body to get you to live in a new and better place. “But I now feel I am slouching” I hear you cry and “I feel like I am now falling forwards”! Yes you may feel this but you are really more vertical. Your brain is playing tricks on you.

“Shoulders back, head up” posture tilts your ribcage backwards, engaging our spinal muscles, increasing tension and loading in your low back. When you live in this non-optimal posture for months / years, your brain thinks it is normal and you believe you are upright when actually you ribcage is more posteriorly tilted. Your “Virtual Vertical Spirit Level” has been in-correctly calibrated. Softening your chest and letting it go brings your ribcage to a more upright, optimal position and allows your shoulders to rest on your trunk in a better way. Your brain however now thinks you are going to fall forwards and are slouching because you have brought your centre of mass and shoulders forwards relative to where they were. Your virtual vertical spirit level needs recalibrating!

Training a new brain map for this new posture strategy is ABSOLUTELY possible and when we focus on the positive things we notice and feel in this new space it happens quicker.

This can occur in 7-10 days when we do it right. Learning any new skill requires lots of practice with focused attention in an achievable way. So focus on the how easy this new posture is, how it is low effort, more relaxed, light and balanced not tiring, achey, sore or painful.

Standing in this new way is not only altering how our brain is working and co-ordinating our body to achieve a more optimal, balanced position, it also causes different loading through our bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons. I commonly hear clients say how they feel their leg muscles working differently and shoulders are now more open, relaxed and arms easier to lift! They also say breathing feels more open, easier and deeper, not limited to the upper regions of the chest. They can even balance better on one leg! How cool is that! It is all due to the fact we are more balanced and optimal with our centre of gravity.

Just remember, these postural adjustments are low effort and small. If done in the right way, like a domino effect it can have a massive impact on how we move and feel throughout the body.

So your “One Thing” to think about this week is your virtual vertical spirit level and how even though adjusting your old beliefs about posture may feel odd, focus on the positive changes that have occurred in your body as a result.

Making these small adjustments should never be painful. If you are at all concerned or what to know more about your posture and how to change it FAST please get in touch on 01548 852355 or email [email protected].

With love,

Vic

Originally posted 24th February 2017