Congrats on making it to the midpoint of my 50th Birthday Bounce Back Bootcamp. I hope you’re enjoying the journey as much as I am celebrating it. Speaking of our bounce back journey, I can’t get over these week 3 results. I am wowed! The weight loss and lean muscle gains are amazing, but I must give a shout out to one of my older clients whose posture has improved. She didn’t even realize how poor her posture was when she started the bootcamp but check out these impressive results in just 3 weeks. She not only lost weight and feels better, she has also improved her quality of life greatly. Don’t believe me? See why your posture matters.
Maintaining good posture is vital to your overall health. Unknown to many, good posture is just as essential as a healthy diet, adequate sleep, and exercise. It ensures that your body is poised to undertake daily tasks with more vigor and energy, all the while keeping away fatigue. It’s a core pillar to your overall physical health and y’all know how much I love to work our core…” What time is it? Plank Time!”
So, what is posture, and how can one maintain it? Posture is basically the position we hold our bodies in while standing, sitting and even when lying down. Sustaining good posture ought to be easy, right? If it was, then everyone would have perfect posture, however for many it can be difficult.
Before we get into how to improve and maintain it, let’s talk about why posture is important?
Sustaining good posture is a big part of your health, I can’t say that enough! It ensures that your bones are well aligned with the rest of the body, while the tension in your muscles and ligaments is properly distributed. Moreover, it keeps the body parts in their rightful positions with minimal stress. Sitting and standing with proper alignment improves blood flow, helps keep your nerves and blood vessels healthy, and supports your muscles, ligaments, and tendons. People who make a habit of having correct posture are less likely to experience related back and neck pain. Here are some other benefits of good posture:
- Enables muscles to coordinate in a more-efficient manner, ensuring the body utilizes less energy, thus eliminating muscle fatigue. This allows one to undertake tasks for longer periods with minimal exhaustion. Wouldn’t you like to last longer in your workouts with better form?
- Holds the spinal joints in place, which is essential in maintaining good posture. With less stress on the ligaments, coupled with aligned spinal joints, the possibility of injury is greatly minimized. Many people wonder why they get so many injuries from everyday activities, more than likely poor posture is a contributing factor.
- Aids in preventing back and muscular pain, all which are signs of a poorly relaxed body. Thus, eliminating a myriad of other ailments that may accompany such issues.
- Decreases the abnormal wearing of joints by keeping them and the bones properly aligned. By ensuring our muscles are used correctly and that no wear or tear occurs, chronic risks like arthritis are duly eliminated.
What constitutes “Good Posture”? Sustaining good posture should not be a constant bother. Although one ought to be aware of their posture to a given degree, the body is designed to maintain normal posture unconsciously via certain muscles. Outlined below are some tips to help you out.
- Sitting Properly: ensure that your feet are on the floor, or on a footrest rather than hanging mid-air, keep your knees at or below your hip level, maintain relaxed shoulders with your forearms at a parallel position to the ground, and have your backrest support your entire back.
- Standing Properly: ensure that your weight is borne by the soles of your feet, with your feet placed 4-5 inches apart, tuck your stomach in, and have your hands hanging naturally from the sides of your body. All the while maintaining a straight and tall structure.
- Preferable Lying Position: A major secret to sleeping right is having a good and comfortable mattress. If you prefer a hard one, that’s okay, and if you feel comfy on a softer one, then that’s fine. Always support your head with a pillow that elevates it compared to the rest of your body to aid in blood circulation. And avoid lying on your stomach.
One of the biggest questions I get is, can you correct years of bad posture? Even if your posture has been a problem for years, it's possible to make improvements. Rounded shoulders and a hunched stance may seem like they're set in stone by the time we reach a certain age, and you may feel you've missed the boat for better posture. But there's a good chance you can still stand up taller. The proof is in my client above.
Adding core exercises to your workouts will improve your posture greatly. If you need to see a chiropractor or physical therapist to help improve your posture you may do that as well. Don’t know where to start, then come join me.
Not only do we work your core almost daily, at TFC we offer the ability to measure your progress as evidenced by the pictures above. These were taken with the Fit3D Body Scan. The Fit3D Body Scan uses 3D imaging to track health metrics over time. And as I have already noted, good posture is an important part of your overall health. The initial baseline is where you start and as your fitness improves so do your future scans.
What happens if you don't fix your posture? Correct posture puts the least amount of strain on your muscles and joints. Slouching, slumping, and other types of poor posture can cause muscle tension, as well as back pain, joint pain, and reduced circulation. Poor posture can even lead to breathing issues, fatigue, use of walkers or canes. If you are vain, you will look older than you really are, and we don’t have time for that at TFC.
How we hold and move our bodies every day, even while doing something as simple as sitting at a desk or standing in place, can have an impact on our posture. So, be aware, make small changes and be No Mess!
