group of people exercising pilates

Have you ever noticed how you can guess someone’s age by their posture? Good posture can make you look younger. It’s not just about looking younger however good posture can improve pain levels, increase confidence and lessen fatigue.

As children we tend to have a naturally great posture. Then we become teenagers and we may start to slouch, stand leaning more onto one leg or develop other bad postural habits. Working long hours at a desk can also create rounded shoulders and weak back muscles. Over time our posture can become even more slumped or unbalanced.

Take a look in the mirror and then look at the chart below and see if any of the posture types looks familiar?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If your posture is less than ideal try:

  • Lengthening your whole body and see if you can grow a couple of inches. The crown of your head should feel as if it is floating to ceiling,
  • Check your rib cage isn’t sinking down or sticking out,
  • Open your shoulders they should feel relaxed and drawn down away from your ears,
  • When standing hands should be hanging by the side of your thighs,
  • Check the position of your pelvis – is it tilting too far forwards or backwards.
  • Your feet should be in line with your hip sockets and your toes gently spread.
  • Check to feel if your weight is distributed evenly throughout your feet.

 

If you need more motivation to improve your posture here are 4 other good reasons to make a change:

  1. A good posture can make you look half a stone lighter and more confident.
  2. It can help relieve pain. Having properly aligned bones, muscles and ligaments frees up your body. Misalignment can cause lower back pain, chronic neck tension, headaches, hamstrings strains… and all sorts of other ailments.
  3. Good joint alignment puts less stress through your joints and causes less wear and tear.
  4. With a great posture, your lungs and diaphragm have more room to expand and breathe properly.

If your posture needs a bit of work then exercise methods such as Pilates and Yoga can also help to improve your posture by re-balancing your muscles. Strengthening weaker muscles, lengthening overly tight muscles and building core strength makes it easier to hold a good posture.