Posture is the window into your spine. Given that your spine has a powerful relationship with your brain and spinal cord – as well as overall organ function – proper posture is key to health and wellness. Therefore, unbeknownst to most people, poor posture is a modern-day health epidemic!

Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Roger Sperry calls the spine the motor that drives the brain. According to his research “Ninety percent of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by the movement of the spine.” That is, 90% of brain energy goes into processing and maintaining the body’s relationship with gravity. (Did you know that standing requires the use of 640 muscles to balance 206 bones in a way that does not pinch 45 miles of nerves or 60,000 miles of blood vessels?!) This means only 10% of our brain’s energy goes into thinking, metabolism, immunity, and healing! Furthermore, the worse the posture, the more energy that’s required for the brain to maintain posture, leaving us with less and less brain power for thinking, metabolism, immunity, and healing.

See, your parents and grandparents were right when they told you to sit up straight – they just didn’t know why it was so important! Another way you may intuitively know that posture is important is how you may wake up with muscle stiffness, aches, and pains after you’ve slept in, or even sat for too long in, an unnatural posture. These uncomfortable symptoms are your body’s way of telling you: “Don’t do that!”

But even though posture is the foundation for everything we do in life, we traditional Americans think we “know better,” and fail to focus on the simple basics of good posture habits. Our lazy posture then creates hard to treat, chronic muscle and joint pain. Ultimately, the intimate connection between your spine and your body’s systems means that poor posture will lead to an overall decrease in brain and organ function and therefore overall health.

These are the top ten reasons to make it a priority in your life to regain good posture. People with good posture enjoy:

  • Pain-free movement and flexibility
  • Better coordination and balance
  • Higher energy levels
  • Reduced stress and anxiety
  • Peak athletic performance
  • The ability to breathe deeply
  • Staying active longer
  • Fewer Injuries
  • Sounder Sleep
  • Improved mental focus

Take action now to become more aware of, gain control over, and adjust your posture environment at work, at home, and at play!

How do you know if you have poor posture? I examine for a short leg, un-level hips and shoulders, twisting of the body framework, and head tilt. Over 90% of these posture defects can be corrected by an Upper Cervical Spinal Correction, and the remainder are corrected thru stretches and strengthening.

Other indicators of posture are the ears sitting forward of the midpoint of the shoulders (forward head translation), rounding of the shoulders, forward pelvic tilt, knees pointing in, and feet pointing in or out. These posture types of defects must be fixed through stretching and strengthening exercises.

I love helping people to improve their quality of life, and improving posture is a key path to better health. Because of this and in honor of Posture Month, I’ve made special arrangements with our training partner, Lou at No Bounty Fitness, to host a special Posture Awareness Workshop! At this session, you will receive a posture assessment and critiques of posture habits at home and at work, plus you will learn corrective stretches and strengthening exercises. I think you’ll find this workshop extremely valuable, as Lou and I can spend quality time with you, ensuring you learn these posture exercises correctly so you feel confident to immediately use them to self-correct your posture, and answering questions you want to ask.

Please don’t be one of the 65 million people that will develop spinal pain in 2017 that leads to disability and results in loss of income and job security, inability of participate in normal activity, and diminished enjoyment of life. I do not want you to be one of the 7.6 million Americans that are permanently disabled with back pain.

Join us at No Bounty Fitness (211 Huff Avenue, Greensburg) on Friday May 19th at 6:00PM. It will be a fun night of learning new things that can change your life. See you there – call our office or CLICK HERE to register. (The $10 workshop fee will be collected at the door.)