Go take a look in the mirror. Don’t change anything, don’t fix anything, just look in the mirror. Are your shoulders slumped forward? Now stand sideways. Do you have an exaggerated upper back curve? Is your head really far ahead of your shoulders? In the past, have you actively tried to correct your bad posture, but failed miserably?
Good Posture is for More Than Just Looks
Your posture affects more than just your aesthetics. The farther forward your head travels, the less the blood flow to your brain, the greater the risk of migraines and even strokes. Never mind poor concentration, watery eyes, bags under your eyes, and other problems.
Bad posture also zaps your endurance. In a person with good posture, you are using minimal muscle force to get around. When you are out of alignment, you start using a lot of muscle force just to live. And you wonder why you don’t have any energy the rest of the day.
I could go on and on about the effects of bad posture and good posture on your digestion, on your reproductive organs, on your joints, and even more, but let’s get to the good stuff: fixing it.
Good Posture: Where Most People Go Wrong
The biggest mistake people make when trying to correct their bad posture is not doing enough. When most people try to correct their bad posture, they actively think about their bad posture, and hold a steady, good posture. But how long can you maintain your attention on one thing? Pretty much just until you see something shiny.
So the few seconds a day spent in good posture are far outweighed by the many hours you spend with bad posture.
Good Posture: The Solution
There are 2 keys to improving your posture:
- Frequency
- Force
Frequency is an absolute must for good posture. In other words, you must do posture exercises with extremely high frequency. We’re talking 15-30 times per day or more. The nice thing is that these exercises take 60 seconds or less, and don’t require any equipment. Want to know a very easy way to fit in that much exercise into a day?
Do it when you’re driving and you’re at a red light. Red lights last 60 seconds or more, and that’s a perfect opportunity to practice your posture exercises.
Assuming it takes you 30 minutes to get to work and back, you can easily fit in 20 or more minutes of exercise. And if you have the “pleasure” of “driving” during rush hour, you’re standing more than you’re driving, which is an excellent opportunity to get even more work in without really taking time out of your day.
Force is the other key to improving posture. Even if you end up doing 30 minutes of exercise, spread throughout the day, that’s still 23.5 hours spent not doing those exercises. How then, do you change your posture? You have to make those 30 minutes have substantially higher force than the other 23.5 hours. Let’s do some math.
At rest, most muscles contract with 1-2% of their maximal force. This is an involuntary state of contraction, and you need it just to give you structure.
To counterbalance that, those 30 minutes of posture training you do must have substantially higher force. We know from sport science that you can hold a contraction with 50-60% of your maximal force for 60-120 seconds (depending on the muscle group).
So the lesson is whenever you do your posture exercises, squeeze your muscles with 50-60% of your maximal force to counterbalance the other 23.5 hours of low force.
You’ll notice that I haven’t talked about specific exercises to do for posture. That’s on purpose. The reason is that “bad posture” can be many different things (you can have a hunchback or a swayback. You can have scoliosis. You can have rotation). Giving blanket exercises would improve some people’s posture, and make others’ worse.
But if you’d like an examination of your particular posture and a specific exercise recommendation for your body, that’s certainly a service that our trainers offer. To reach us, you can either respond to this email or call us at 647-271-8672.
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What Are the Adrenals And Why Should You Care?
Dr. John Dempster, ND talks about what the adrenal glands are, and how these small organs are incredibly important to your health. Check it out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb2F2WoNscs
Until next week,
Igor
647-271-8672
PS
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