And Everyone Else for that Matter 🙂

About 8 years ago, I was looking through my recent pictures on Facebook and found myself unhappy with my appearance.  It wasn’t my weight or physical attributes, but something else that I couldn’t exactly pinpoint.  One day I found myself hunched over my computer screen and felt my back starting to ache.  The epiphany – it was my posture.  In every picture, my shoulders were hunched over and down.   My mom sometimes made comments about my posture growing up, but as a kid you always ignore those things – good posture?  I wasn’t gonna be in no beauty pageant – who cares. But the photographs made me realize how much my posture contributed to my overall appearance.

I started to do some research and learned that posture wasn’t just linked to some old etiquette taught to debutantes in finishing school during the early 1900’s.  Our posture directly effects and correlates to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.   

Good posture improves your overall balance and body alignment.  I assumed that bad posture could lead to back and neck pain, but I didn’t realize the greater impact it had on the rest of the body.  When you slouch, your organs (think stomach, lungs) also collapse and can’t function at maximum capacity.  When your upright, organs function at their optimal state – which contribute to things like good digestion and improved breathing.  Scientific evidence shows that good posture improves memory and your cognitive state.   This is the result of your lungs taking in more air and providing more oxygen to your brain, which in turn, enhances your ability to focus and think more clearly. 

On top of those physical benefits, good posture improves your overall appearance.  A slouchy belly and hunched shoulders make you appear shorter and stockier than you really are.  Good posture can add up to 3 inches to your overall height as opposed to being in a slouched position.  Being petite at only 5’1, I’ll take any inch I can get!  

Despite all these benefits, What I learned about posture that resonated with me the most is what it communicates – both outwardly and inwardly.  Whether we like it or not, posture is an element of our body language. How we carry ourselves non-verbally communicates how we feel.  Good posture communicates confidence and power.  It commands respect and authority from others – and in turn makes us feel more confident and powerful.  And bad posture?  Well, there’s a reason the saying goes, “Don’t be a slouch!”

I didn’t want to be a slouch anymore, so I decided to take a vested interest and serious commitment to improving my posture.  I tried many different techniques and methods, but found these two to be the game-changers that helped get me upright for good.

Barre Classes

I don’t think I realized how bad my posture was until I took my first barre class. The classes are designed to help strength your core muscles and improve your posture.  At Exhale, the studio I go to and HIGHLY reccomend, the instructors emphasize proper body alignment and form to ensure you are strengthening the targeted muscle groups. As someone who’s worked out hard and consistently my entire life, I initially scoffed at the small ballet-like movements until I got into my first thigh exercise.  My legs and entire core burned and shook.  The instructor continuously came over to correct my body alignment and remind me to stop shrugging my shoulders.  I quickly learned I carried all my tension in my shoulders and had weak core muscles.  I had been using my larger, stronger muscle groups to overcompensate which contributed my inaccurate form and overall poor posture alignment (hence my sore lower back after workouts). 

My first few classes were awful.  I was terrible, and it burned, but I was determined to stick with it.  After a few months, I began to see a drastic difference in my core strength and overall posture.  In the beginning, I didn’t even recognize when I was shrugging my shoulders and unaligned in the positions -now I was in tune with my body positioning and could make my own adjustments.  My core got stronger and I realized I was standing taller – 5 years later I am still a slave to the barre – and better for it.

Upright GO Posture Trainer

I learned about the Upright GO Posture Trainer through and Instagram Ad and decided to give it a try -I’ve been a believer ever since.  The trainer is a little device you stick to your back that reads and tracks your postural alignment.  It small enough to hide under your shirt and go undetected.  If you begin to hunch or slouch it vibrates – a little reminder to readjust your alignment and sit/stand up straight.  It connects to an app that creates a personalized training program where you can track your progress over time.  After only a few weeks, I saw an improved mind/body connection and I began noticing myself sitting up straight without even realizing it. 

It’s important to note nobody has perfect posture and “good” posture doesn’t just happen overnight.  If you slouch as much as I did it can take months, if not years, to increase your core stability and improve your overall spinal alignment.  Mine posture is a continual work in progress, but if I look back on my overall posture then vs. now I see a WORLD of difference.  My shoulders have become naturally pulled down and open. I stand and sit in a natural upright position without even thinking about it.  I feel my core muscles activated and strengthened when I work out and no longer suffer from lower back pain.  I feel and look taller, too.  Most importantly I feel more confident – hopefully, a signal to those who I come in contact with, that even though I may be small and petite – I am a powerful force to be reckoned with 🙂

Have any of you guys also struggled with posture? Do you have any other tips and recommendations for posture improvements? Let me know in the comments below! xoxo