Posture and stress
The author David Sedaris was on TV a few weeks ago. The topic of revisiting his old writing came up and Sederaris shuddered. He wasn’t a fan of his old work; and insisted he’d gotten better.
Don’t we all look back on our careers like that? Don’t you shudder when you think about what you wrote, how you acted, what you wore?
Me neither. Moving on.
Joking aside we all know more now than when we started. When I began training a common request was to work on posture. I trained clients to have stronger mid back muscles to pull their chest forward and shoulders back.
I look back and I shudder. I wish I’d seen the vid below when programming for posture.
What does this vid illustrate about posture?
Look at almost everyone save the Father of the year and his clueless son. What do they have in common?
They are all ducking their heads and shielding their faces with their forearms. Not shown as clearly: they're flexing their hip flexors so their knees and shins can cover their torso.
Your body is wired for survival. The programmed response to attack, or even stress, is to go fetal. Forearms cover the face and brain, shins and thighs cover the heart and organs. Our strongest bones protect our vital organs.
As this happens the shoulders round forward to allow the arms to fully cover the face and neck. The hips flex so the thighs can protect the mid section. The chin tucks and the neck flexes forward.
Rounded shoulders, tight hips, forward head… this is bad posture.
Where else do we see this kind of posture?
Look familiar?
Your physical posture affects your mind set and vice versa. As the Buddhists say ‘Am I smiling because I’m happy, or am I happy because I’m smiling.’
‘Am I stressed because I’m stooped, or am I stooped because I’m stressed?’
There are simple stretches and yoga poses that combat poor posture; Bridging being the most effective imho (all the muscles causing poor posture are opened while in bridge).
That, my dear clients, is why I have you all bridge so often. You're welcome.
But training muscles is only so effective. Our posture is an output of the nervous system, so to improve posture we must retrain the nervous system. That means retraining your eyes and your vestibular system.
And then there's stress. I can personally link bouts of back pain and sciatica to stress; I’ve seen it wreak havoc on a number of clients as well. Stress is a major contributing factor to your posture; any form of stress will effect your body like the baseball bat hurtling towards you. No matter if it’s work or family or bats hurtling towards you, it causes you to flex, abduct, and go fetal.
What are the best ways to combat stress? Eat well, sleep well, meditate, laugh…
and Exercise (preferably with us at Train)!
Do I work out because I feel better, or do I feel better because I work out?