Pull back your Shoulders, Lift your Head

Admittedly, I have terrible posture.

I didn't realize how bad it was until just a few years ago, which means I've spent most of my life slouching around like an idiot. It's not like I wasn't told, either. Much of my childhood consists of my mother accosting me at random intervals and yelling "pull back your shoulders and lift your head!" in Chinese at me. Ironically, she also insisted that I sit in front of a piano, in the exact opposite position, for hours at a time, so who's really to blame? Anyway, I went on my merry way, head jutted forward, shoulders rounded, never thinking this would come back to bite me someday. 

The result ​is that I have what's called "upper crossed syndrome". It's an extremely common postural distortion seen in modern society today, caused by hunching over desks and computers for hours at a time. 

To understand why this position is so bad for you, try this. Stand up and raise one arm out in front of you parallel to the ground. Have someone attempt to push your arm down while you try to hold your position. Assuming you're not a postural trainwreck like me, you should be pretty strong here. Now, push your head forward a little and round your shoulders, and try it again. See how much weaker those little tweaks made you? And that's my default position!

But it's okay. My view on health and fitness is that you can always be better. You can always improve, even after 30 years of sucking at something. And that includes learning how to carry yourself the way your body was meant to work.

An instructor in my Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) class said that posture is the foundation for everything you do physically. If your posture is off, you're automatically introducing risk of injury and muscle imbalances. The lightbulb went on for me when I heard that - I'm imbalanced because of posture, duh! It's not because I played tennis with my right hand but I'm actually left-hand dominant.

One of the things I learned in my CPT class is how integrated everything in your body is - if one small thing is off, it has the potential to throw everything off. For example, did you know that your big toe was connected to your butt muscles? Try wriggling them around and feel your glutes firing.

Now imagine doing one of my favorite exercises - the squat. I love the squat; it's efficient, simple in concept (though not always in execution), and about as total-body as it gets in strength training. If you want to get strong and put on muscle (yes, even women), you have to squat. But imagine if you have posture like mine, which is sadly not atypical in this day and age. My instructor coaches high school athletes and he remarked that up until a few years ago, all the teens he saw had great posture. Now, because of technology - smartphones and computers - even teens are coming in looking like desk jockeys.

During a squat, someone with tight hip flexors and underactive glute muscles, like the typical office worker, ends up caving in their knees and flattening their feet. To compensate, maybe they end up arching their lower back or hunching forward - generally it's a mess. And it can lead to all kinds of injuries like knee and back issues and shin splints. See this helpful article on how to correct your squat form.

But I'm not just concerned about my squat form. I'm concerned about staying pain and injury-free so I can keep improving my fitness, not wasting time waiting for my body to heal. I'm concerned about being able to do all the things I love, like playing tennis, traveling, hiking, and yes, squatting, even when I'm old and grey. Apparently, that means that after all my years of working out, I need to go back to the foundation - good posture - and work myself back up.

So next time you see me and I'm slouching, do me a favor and say "pull back your shoulders and lift your head!" Just not in front of my mom though...be cool.

Articles to consider:

The Importance of Good Posture

Why is Posture Important?

Ultimate Guide to Good Posture at Work

Four Ways to Correct Muscle Imbalances

10-Minute Workout to Fix Bad Posture