Why good posture is important
Your posture affects how others see you
Your posture plays a major role in the critical "first impression" you will leave well before you start speaking.
Bad posture comes with so many negative associations: weakness, laziness, moodiness, illness, frailty, low confidence, lack of vitality, lack of motivation, etc.
Good posture, on the other hand, is mainly associated with : confidence, poise, dignity, strength, power, elegance, vitality, joyfulness, youthfulness, openness. Walk to someone with good posture and you are nearly sure to give them a positive first impression.
But posture can not only affect how others perceive you, but also your self-image.
Your posture affects how you see yourself
In a study conducted in 2009 at Ohio State University by professors of psychology Richard Petty, Benjamin Wagner and Pablo Brinol, the researchers held an experiment where some participants were told to slump over their desks, while others were told to sit up straight. Both were asked to write down their qualifications for a job. The participants then took a survey in which they were asked to rate themselves on how well they would do as a future employee. The study found that the participants who were sitting with bad posture were less likely to rate themselves in ways that were consistent with what they had previously written about their own qualifications. The participants who had been made to sit straight, on the other hand, appeared in average more confident about their own thoughts and were more likely to rate themselves in ways that showed acceptance for what they had previously written down.
This study seems to provide another proof that our posture can affect our self-confidence. You can experiment with the effects of good posture by forcing yourself to stand tall and proud when in a bad mood, tired, shy or nervous. You are likely to feel a near-instant mood boost.
What is good posture?
If you stand with your chin up and your chest out, you might appear
over-confident, but if you hold your head down and hunch your shoulders, you might look self-conscious and broken down. A good posture is somewhere in between both straight and relaxed. Good posture is about efficiency: all the joints of your body, from the ankle to the spine in the neck, should be aligned in a way that would allow you to stand and move with the less effort possible. Good posture is what allows ballerina to do complex movements in a way that appears nearly effortless. Good posture is required for sprinters to run as fast as humanly possible. It can allow you to stand or sit for hours at work without getting a sore neck or back, or to run further and faster with less effort. Below, I listed all the elements of a good posture taking a bottom-up approach.
Alignment
Do your hips, head, shoulders and ankles line up?
Imagine two lines going from the very top of your head on the sides down to between your feet: these lines should be straight and parallel to each other. Head, shoulders, hips, knees and should ankles line up, the muscles should be loose and in a neutral position. When standing in a good posture, there should not be any kind of tension in any muscle or joint. Feet
The weight of your body should be evenly distributed between your feet and on each foot between the forefoot and the heel. The feet should be hip width appart so that your legs form two vertical pillars and the feet should be parallel to each other.
Legs
The legs should be straight from the ankle to the hip, but not locked at the knee. The knees should be relaxed to avoid hyperextension (see drawing on the left). The knees should also be the same distance appart as the feet when standing with the feet pointing straight ahead.
Pelvis/Bottom
Your pelvis should be in neutral position whether standing, sitting or riding a horse (see picture above). Imagine your pelvis as a bucket filled with water to the top. When it is held parallel to the ground (in neutral position), no water would drop, but if it is in an anterior tilt (with your lower back arched and belly sticking out) the water would drop in front of your body. If it is in a posterior tilt (with your lower back flat and belly in), then the water would drop in the back.
Lower Back and Abdomen
When standing with good posture neither your bottom, nor your belly should stick out.
Chest
Stand tall with your chest up and take a deep breath in lifting your ribs away from your ribs, then relax, but keep that feeling of being pulled up by a string at the top of your head.Shoulders
Your shoulder should be low, away from your ears and back. You do not need to squeeze your shoulder blades together, just to keep your upper-back flat. When your arms are let hanging, they should be at your sides, not in front of you, and the palms of your hands should be facing eachother.Head/Neck
From the side, your ears should be above the middle of your shoulders, your jaw should be relaxed and parallel to the ground, and your neck slightly arched back. When standing with your back against a wall, the back of your head, your shoulders and your bottom should be touching the wall.
Training for good posture
Practicing good posture is rarely enough to correct habits years in the making. You might be able to hold that posture for a little while, but you would soon tire because of muscular tightness and weaknesses that do not allow you to hold that posture with ease.
In the next post, I will discuss what should be strengthened and what should be stretched in order to correct the most common postural issues and will share 8 exercises for good posture.
I also do free postural assessments in North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Vancouver and Burnaby.
