Take a trip down memory lane and think about your mom telling you to stand up straight.
How annoyed were you? Did you roll your eyes and storm out of the room like I did? I have to be honest and say that I thought my mom was full of you know what and had no idea what she was talking about until a boy I liked, Noah, told me I had bad posture. Now that was my eye-opening day! So how to get the posture your mother wanted you to have?
I started to wonder, why can’t I stand up straight? Why is it so much more comfortable to slouch? So now that Noah said I had bad posture, I suddenly had the motivation I needed to stand up straight and I started trying, but it wasn’t easy and it was darn annoying.
Here are the problem folks – Be on high alert. It’s not so easy because we spend most of our days leaning forward, day after day, week after week.
Man sitting in a slouched position with head protruding forward.
So our chest muscles become very short and tight and our back muscles become weak and overstretched. Our abdominals, now a pooch, get soft and mushy and our derriere gets wiggly. Then, we go to the gym and take that bad posture into our exercise session. Don’t believe me? Watch a class doing squats. How many people are bent forward in bad posture trying to keep up with an instructor that is yelling out orders?
Can you relate? Are you finally motivated to have better posture like I was because someone called you out or are you starting to have aches and pains because of your poor posture? Either way, at Functional Fitness Guru, our programs include a posture component so you will always get the maximum benefit from your workouts.
So, what are we to do?
Are we to be stubborn as a buffalo and keep doing what we have been doing?
Or, are we going to figure out how to practice what our mothers were preaching and finally get that model like posture?
Well now that we are ready to listen to our mothers’ long lost advice how do we get there?
Keep reading and I will teach you some secrets that will help a lot! Now, that being said, improving posture is not a one size fits all answer, and at Functional Fitness Guru we analyze your posture, assess your lifestyle and habits and then develop a plan that will improve your posture for the rest of your life.
But since we don’t know each other yet, I will tell you a few simple secrets that will take you at least 50% of the way.
- When you feel yourself slouching, and you will no matter how hard you try, stand up for 15 seconds, place your hands on your hips, and lean slightly backward. Do this several times a day!
- Stand up at least every hour. Walk up to a wall and place your heels, hips, shoulder blades and head against the wall keeping your eyes facing forward. It may take practice for your head to touch the wall with your eyes facing forward. Remember, our posture goal is to keep our head between our shoulders and not protruded forward.
- Bring your phone to you, rather than leaning forward to it.
- Imagine yourself as a dancer, with your feet firmly planted in the ground, your thighs and buttock tight, your abdominals in, your shoulders down and your neck long.
- Stretch your chest muscles in a doorway as often as possible. This is as simple as placing your forearms on the door jam, with your upper arms parallel to the ground. Place one foot forward and lean in until you feel a stretch in your chest. Repeat with the other leg and hold for 30 seconds.
If this becomes a daily routine, you will start to understand how it feels to stand up straight. And you will likely take a better posture with you to the gym.
Your mothers will be proud of how your posture looks as you benefit from the Functional Fitness Guru program. At Functional Fitness Guru we analyze your posture and take your specific needs and lifestyle into consideration as we design your personalized program.
Marilyn Moss
813-748-7777
