Principles of Posture
or
Harmonizing With Gravity's Pull
Long ago
and far away, a fourth-grade teacher told a student to "stand up straight
- you look like a pretzel". The unthinking adult only offered criticism.
The child was left to try to un-kink himself in the ways that probably caused more
structural damage.
Most of
us think good posture involves thrusting out the chest and pulling back the
shoulders. Informing a person that he needs to improve his posture usually
results in a sudden, robot-like increase in stature, the person stiffly incorporating
most or all of these muscular stresses.
As a
direct result of our weak relationship to sound concepts of what good posture
actually is, most people have protruding stomachs, slumped shoulders, and necks
that protrude far in front of their body's center. Aside from perpetually
unattractive aesthetics, such chronically inefficient posture places ongoing
strain on back and neck muscles. Poor posture interferes with normal
functioning of your heart and lungs. Metabolic processes deteriorate owing to
lack of normal oxygen supply. Poor posture not only leads to musculoskeletal
problems like chronic back and neck pain, but also is implicated in
gastrointestinal and endocrine diseases and many other disorders.
The
welcome news is that achieving good posture is not that difficult. Work is
required, of course, as well as consistent attention. But the work is not hard
- it is merely new and different, for most of us. As we can guess, the key
element in good posture is a straight spine. Importantly, straight doesn’t mean
rigid.
The main
consideration here is how to get your spine straight without tightening all
your muscles and holding your breath. The solution requires a little imagination.
Picture in your mind a string dangling from the sky and attaching it to your
sternum - your breastbone. You can name this image “hitching your sternum to a
star”. You dangle from the string like a puppet.
Also, you
imagine that the string is supporting all your weight. As a result, your chest
lifts up easily and your spine straightens naturally and smoothly.
Another
piece to the posture puzzle is to allow your shoulder girdles to rest on your
rib cage. You don’t have to press your shoulders down to do this - just don’t
hold them up. Most of us unconsciously tighten our neck and shoulder girdle
muscles all day long. By starting to be conscious of what’s going on, we can
start letting go of tight shoulder girdle muscles. The shoulders will then
gently descend and come to rest on top of the rib cage, where they belong.
By paying
attention to these basic postural corrections, over time we can develop a
posture that is fluid and efficient. We will appear taller, comfortably
reaching our full height with grace and ease. Tension and anxiety begin to
reduce and we sleep more restfully at night. Good posture is good health. Always remember that the spinal river of life must be free to move and transmit millions of signals to keep everything in health. Posture is truly underrated!