Your posture tells the story of your life.
Your posture tells the story of your life. What obstacles you may have overcome, which ones you’re currently dealing with, and which ones you may have to conquer in the future. Your posture is yours, and there is nothing WRONG or BAD about it. I know this might sound contradictory as I’ve built my career on posture, but I really believe that no one has bad posture.
There are anatomical charts and images of what an ideal posture and alignment should look like, but this only reflects a body that has been untouched. Untested. Un-lived. How is that useful? Not very, in my opinion.
Your posture is yours. It’s your body now, and how it lives and breathes today.
When we start to experience symptoms, whether it is arthritis, shoulder pain, a muscle tear, or anything, that’s when we start to think “oh, I have bad posture”. This is when we take a look at our bodies and investigate what can be causing these symptoms. And to be honest, 99% of the time we will find areas that are “less than ideal”; I’ve never once assessed a client and haven’t found anything that isn’t “ideal”. Unfortunately, this is when we label it as BAD POSTURE. But, this isn’t the case. Your posture is your posture, and rather than giving it a label of BAD, let’s just think how we can improve that area so that it functions better for YOU. This doesn’t mean that we have to get you back into the anatomically perfect position according to ancient text books. It means finding a good position for you. Whatever posture that may be, it is a posture that works best for you.
I like to generalise with my clients to start with, educating them on ideal positions for their bodies, but then also showcase how each body is unique to the individual. What works best for your body is best for YOUR body. What works best for another person’s body, is just that. Best for THEM.
Your body is meant to move, push, pull, lift, carry, rest, and do whatever it needs to do in order for you to live life, play sport, and be human. It is a very smart machine and will find a way to keep you working through whatever injuries and issues life throws at it.
That is why we must work WITH it, not against it.
Yes, we all want to improve our posture in order to maximize our body’s capabilities with as little pain and discomfort as possible. But we don’t need to try and achieve a “perfect” posture. Or “good” posture. We just need to achieve what works best for our own body.
I have some clients with structural scoliosis, some with missing digits, some with a history of shoulder dislocations from their youth, some with frozen shoulder, some are avid golfers, some have 4 kids, some are nursing babies, some are approaching 80 years of age, some have had bilateral knee replacement, some have Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s, some were in a car accident years ago, and some are just busy people.
With such a variety of people and demographics, each with a body that has a story to tell… why would we tell them they have bad posture ?
They have THEIR OWN posture, with nothing BAD about it.
Better Posture. Better Life.
Questions? Please reach out with a comment or email joanna@balancedpostureonline.com
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