Fix your Posture
Do you sometimes look in the mirror and think, “goddammit, why don’t I stand up straighter?” Or see a photo and are ashamed that you looked so hunched or slanted? Do you try to stand up straight but after a few seconds recur once again to that posture that is so bothering you, but you seem not to be able to get out of?
Fixing your posture is not just about standing up or sitting up straight for five seconds a day. Our posture changes when some muscles become too tight or too crunched, which can either cause them to pull bones out of position or cause them to lose strength, losing their capacity to hold the structure of that part of the body. Other muscles, usually the opposite ones, become lenghtened, losing strength and shape, and can’t hold the bones in their original position.
So fixing your posture is about loosening up some areas combined with strengthening others. If you only go get that massage or only go get released twenty minutes at the fysiotherapist or “get straightened up” at the chiropractor, in a few days or weeks it will all return to that posture you were running away from. Why? Because the right muscles are not strong enough to hold this new position. The steps I use for this trajectory are a combination of first injury recovery and then strength building. This is why the strengthening part of the process is so crucial.
Releasing and strengthening are the recovery phase of the process; the preventitive phase is to avoid the same posture from returning in the future, which involves looking into why you ended up in that position in the first place. Some common reasons for bad posture:
- Being in the same position for too many hours a day, like sitting or standing.
- Some sports that are too dominant on one side: like golf or tennis. These tend to be dominantly one-sided and cause that side and the rotations related to it to become overused and the opposite side, underused. This creates imbalances in the body that can lead to dysfuntional posture and maybe even to injury.
- Women that have a child, who carry the child all the time on the same side.
It’s really impressive how fast the body will accomodate these one-sided tendencies. Depending on how long you have done things in this way, might determine the time it will take you to get out of them. Although some people respond quicker, some might take longer. Patience and perserverance (and accountability to the trainer!) are crucial here. So this process is much more than just physical; it’s a process of learning and understanding yourself and working on other areas like emotions, patience, motivation. Having a personal trainer is much more than just doing a few physical movements together. It’s a process like any other in life, one of self-discovery, growth and improvement.
