What is optimal Posture?

 
 

No one has “Perfect Posture” and although each person’s individual appearance can vary greatly, it doesn’t really change what matters the most when it comes to maintaining Optimal Posture. Optimal Posture should include:

  • Little muscular support. (You don’t want to spend so much energy and force just to maintain an upright posture, right?)

  • Minimal loads on supporting ligaments and muscles. (Although these structures are made to handle the physical demands, you don’t want them to have to bear high loads for prolonged periods.)

  • Minimize joint stresses and torques. (Your body’s capability to perform physical activities are dependent how much stress your joints can handle)

 

How can you begin to improve your own posture?

 

It starts with performing a Posture Check to determine if anything is not optimal. This is an important first step to Retrain and Strengthen your posture.

The great news is that you can perform a simple Posture Check yourself in the comfort of your home! You just need to use your phone to take some pictures of yourself. 

 
 

How To Perform A Posture Check Yourself

 

  1. Set up your camera on a tripod or a stable surface, or just ask someone else to take the pictures for you. Make sure to take them in different points of viewed (PICTURES DOWN BELOW)

  2. Stand straight and look forward, but NATURAL :) Don’t worry about how you look, relax and just stand as you normally would. You want to get the most accurate picture of yourself.

  3. Now, you’re going to be drawing some straight lines. For the Front & Back view, start from a point in between your feet and go straight up. For the Side view, start from a point just slightly in front of your outside ankle (PICTURES DOWN BELOW)

  4. Now is the fun part, you get to check yourself. Don’t be shy while looking at these pictures, we need to figure out what needs to be improved in order to improve, right???

 
 

THINGS TO LOOK AT 

FRONT & BACK VIEW

  • Does the line divide your body in 2 “perfect” halves?

  • Are your shoulders leveled?

  • Does one shoulder blade look a lot different than the other?

  • Is your pelvic at the hip leveled?

  • Do the knees look even?

  • What else do you see that you think is “a little off”

 
 
Post.png
 
 

Side View

  • Do your kneecaps look too far forward or backwards?

  • Is your pelvis leaning forward too much? 

  • How is your head positioned in relation to the line? Is the ear in front or behind the line?

 
Side.png
 

Now, you have a pretty good picture of your posture! If you’re happy with your posture, then great! Keep it up! If you think that there are areas where you want to improve and you’re not sure how, then please feel free to get in touch with us. We would love to help! We offer a FREE 15-minute consultation to help you figure out what works best for you. No commitment or credit card information is required, we just want to help guide you in the right direction. 

We do ask that you do your best to show up during the scheduled time, so a time slot that somebody else might need will not go to waste. 

Just telling yourself to “Sit Up Straight” is not enough. Your body needs to learn new movement patterns and train using them on a daily basis. Committing to a personalize Postural Retraining regimen (hyperlink this) will help your body create stronger mind and body connection and from then a better way of moving, even at a subconscious level.