How to regain good posture. Pulling-Up.

Poor posture causes imbalances in the body which will likely lead to chronic pain and other issues. When some muscles are overbuilt while others are ignored, there will be an imbalance in the muscles causing all sorts of problems. Good posture requires making a conscious effort of exercising regularly throughout our lives. This includes stretching and strengthening the entire torso, keeping the muscles healthy and well-nourished. (think blood flow and healthy fascia)

How do we end up with poor posture?

Most of us tend to sit for many hours at a time. We work at our computer, slouching over a screen, watch our favourite show curled up in a chair and/or stand hunched over our phones as we scroll through our news feed, text messages, etc.

Slouching is what causes poor posture. We drop the shoulders forward, over-stretching and underusing the upper body muscles. Our chest muscles cave in and our rib cage falls forward. This causes the pectorals, trapezius, rhomboids, and deltoids to shrink and atrophy creating a permanent slouch.

Also, since almost all our movements in daily life and in sports are forward moving, we end up with tight, weak, unbalanced upper body muscles. This leads to rounded shoulders, poor posture, and chronic neck and shoulder pain. (atrophy, reduced range of motion).

Re-train your body to good posture.

We can re-teach the body to use the muscle chains required for proper posture through Neutral Elongation and Pulling Up techniques.

To improve posture and support proper posture we need strong, flexile muscles. Every muscle of the spine, from the smallest to the largest, need to be engaged for this. This is why the Pulling-Up technique works. When we Pull-Up we are engaging those exact muscles while both lengthening and strengthening them, unlocking and rebalancing our posture muscles.

Here is short clip on how to do this technique.

Pulling-Up is tiring at first. This is because bones are heavy, and it is the bones that we are lifting as we Pull Up. Over time, once the body gets used to it, you will find that it will be more tiring to slouch than to hold proper posture.

Final Tips:

I had written another post on posture a while back. You can follow this link to learn more on ways to improve your posture.

Yours in health ~ Nancy Shimmy

Blogger / Educator / Essentrics Instructor. A Mom, a wife, a friend. A person who tries to see life through the eyes of her inner child. I have passion for life, for family, for learning, and for healing through movement. Finding happiness, health and success through authenticity and simplicity.

Originally published at https://nancyshimmy.com on March 9, 2020.