That's Fit

Just yesterday I wrote about the ill effects slouching at your desk can have on your cognitive ability. Leaning over restricts blood flow from certain arteries to your brain, thus making it a bit more difficult for you to ... to ... to think clearly (sorry, I was a bit too hunched over).

As a follow-up, I thought you might want to know about a recent Cornell University study on poor posture and long-term back problems. According to the study, about 30 percent of all workplace injuries are back-related -- and in most cases they comes as the result of sitting improperly at a desk.

The types of injuries to result from poor posture do not occur overnight; sometimes they can take years before showing signs. However, take this other Cornell University study into consideration, revealing the potential for musculoskeletal damage one faces by working on a desktop computer, as opposed to a more adjustable work station. This particular study was actually done using middle school students, showing that risk of injury can start this early. Now, factor in all the years most kids will spend at desktop computers, and then add them to the number of years they will later spend at similar workstations as adults, and it becomes quite obvious how these injuries can occur.

When I was younger, I used to have perfect posture. I had a choir director who just drilled posture into us. Through the years, my posture has changed. I'm a writer, so my job has me glued to my computer desk all day long. I try to maintain good posture but by the end of the day, I find my shoulders hunched forward and I end up with an aching back.

I found an article about this simple exercise designed to improve your posture. The exercise is dubbed "The Superman" because you start with your arms stretched straight out in front of you. There are no weights required and it works all the right muscles. I tried it and my back and shoulders feel loose and better than they did before. Whether it will improve my posture remains to be seen, but I'm willing to give it a try!

Want to try something different? Back in March, Jacki posted about a posture exercise she's been having luck with. Developing better posture is well worth the effort. Not only will your back and shoulders thank you for it, better posture can even help you look slimmer in your swimsuit.

On Monday, I graduated from my rehab stint. Physical therapy rehab, that is. There was no big ceremony or anything. Just me and my therapist reviewing my progress over the past five weeks. It was pretty enlightening, what we talked about, and I left the clinic feeling both successful and motivated.

When I first walked through my rehab clinic doors, I wasn't sure anything could be done to fix the tightness, the limited range of motion, the sometimes pain I felt in the area of my left arm. It had been three long years since I'd had surgery to remove a breast cancer tumor, after all, and almost that long since radiation zapped the whole cancerous area. Both are to blame for what I was experiencing and the way I considered it, if my problems weren't solved long ago, there was little that could be done now.

I was wrong.

My therapist took tons of measurements when we first started working together. I moved, bent, stretched, pushed, and pulled so she could record numbers of all sorts. Then we spent weeks on our tasks. She massaged and manipulated and broke down scar tissue, stiffness, knots. Armed with weekly exercises, I stretched and strengthened by body at home. Together, we achieved victory -- my improved numbers prove it. I'm responsible for 50 percent of the success, my therapist tells me. She takes credit for the other 50 percent.

Before I left my final appointment, my expert shared a few parting words. Here they are.

• My posture is better. She could tell the moment I walked in the door. Must be the exercise in standing tall she'd given me during one visit and my new awareness of the poor posture I'd been carrying with me all these years.

• I should be sleeping on my back, not on my side. Back sleepers enjoy better alignment and less rounding of the shoulders -- one of my posture problems. My assignment from this moment on is to sleep on my back with one relatively flat pillow under my head. I should make sure my pillow fills the gap between my neck and my bed. I should enjoy the benefits of this technique immensely, says my therapist.

• Keep at it, says this same gal who streamlined all my at-home exercises and told me precisely what I need to do to hang on to the results the two of us have achieved.

I turns out I'm perfect at something. I'm perfect at having poor posture. Not only do my shoulders round forward -- likely the result of typing on the computer all the time -- but my back sways pretty good, my stomach pushes out, and I look a few inches shorter than I really am. I'm a pro at this stuff and am making no great progress at actually standing up as erect as I can. Old habits die hard.

The physical therapist who is treating my radiation-damaged muscles is the one who noticed my tendencies and she keeps sending me home with tips and techniques for straightening up. I'm trying -- not as often as I should, I will admit -- and I hope one day to actually measure at the 5 foot, 7 inches I report as my height. All I need to do is practice this posture exercise, a new one she gave me today -- it involves a blue band thrown over a closed door and me pulling it towards my body with locked elbows and hands turned outward -- and everything else she's mentioned over the course of our last four sessions together.

One more therapy session remains. Then I'll be on my own, armed with the knowledge to become perfect at something new: Standing tall.

Stand up straight! No, that's not my impression of a military drill sergeant or a parochial school nun; rather, it's sound advice that can benefit your overall health.

Poor posture can, over time, can cause increased wearing of the joint surfaces, something that can potentially lead to arthritis. What's more, in cases where a person's posture is extremely poor, an actual change to the anatomical characteristics of the spine can occur. This, in turn, can wreak havoc on your muscles and nerves, as well as your lifestyle.

Does this mean that you should resort to walking around with a book on top of your head? Not unless you're the type who likes to get strange looks from people. Otherwise, being aware of how you are standing and sitting should be enough of a reminder to keep your back from rounding too much.

According to this website, proper posture includes:

• Keeping your head directly over your shoulders;
• Your shoulders should be directly over your pelvis;
• Tighten the core abdominal muscles;
• Tuck in the buttocks; and,
• Place the feet slightly apart with a slight bend at the knees

Hey moms, are you trying to lose that stubborn baby weight? Here's a tip: don't leave baby at home with dad or the babysitter the next time you go for a run. Recent studies show that running with a stroller provides you with a much more intense workout without compromising your form or posture. Running with a stroller not only gives you a place to put your iPod, keys and water bottle, but it helps instill healthy habits in your little one early on in their life.

The one catch? You need a stroller that can handle a run. Anyone have any stroller recommendations?

(Via Fitsugar)

I don't have good posture. The physical therapist charged with repairing my radiation-damaged arm told me so. She told me my shoulders round forward and so does my head. This makes my stomach stick out which in turn contributes to the obsession I have about my stomach which, well, sticks out.

My therapist cannot fully fix my tummy -- I think a plastic surgeon can, though -- but she can help. By standing more upright, she says, I can at least give the illusion that my gut does not protrude out as far as it actually does. Here's what she instructed me to do.

• Stand with feet slightly apart and knees slightly bent. This is the way nature intended for us to stand, by the way. We were never meant to stand with locked knees. This only makes our bones and joints do the work of our muscles, which are assigned the responsibility of supporting our stances.

• Put one hand on the heart and one hand on the stomach.

• Take a deep breath and notice the chest expand. Hold here for a moment and observe how the chest and abdomen are in line.

• Let the breath out but keep the chest in position.

• Remove hands and there you have it: Perfect posture.

I must admit my transformed posture feels a bit funny, kind of like I'm about to tip over. But if good posture, aside from all its other merits, keeps my tummy in proper alignment, I'm all for falling on my face.

We all know slouching is bad for the body, right? Did you know it's related to performance too? Yep. Slouch in your office chair and you won't just look like a slacker, says Men's Health magazine. You might actually become one.

How you sit in a chair can make or break your performance, according to a Colorado College research team. After studying a group of male students, researchers found that those with the best posture scored higher on logic exams than their sloucher counterparts. Upright posture seems to instill a sense of dominance and success which improves the ability to relax and focus on the tasks at hand.

To fine-tune your own posture, try this neat little trick: Sit and tie a string from your upper shirt button to your belt buckle so the string is taut when you sit tall. If you see any string slack, then you'll know you're slouching.

Every time I go to yoga class, I am sort of amazed at all the different yoga poses and how they suit different yogis. Everyone is flexible in different ways, and each participant of my class seems to have different yoga strengths.

My yoga strength also happens to be my favourite pose: Tree posture. It makes me feel grounded, and it also makes me feel accomplished--for years, I couldn't master it until one day, I realized that it had nothing to do with my yoga pants being slippery and everything to do with the strength in my legs. And though I'm typically very clumsy, I can hold that balance with the grace of ballerina.

So I'm curious about your favourite pose -- What is it, and why?

Scientists in Britain think so. According to them, the position in which you hold your body plays a major role in maintaining your blood pressure.

New Scientist magazine reports that the studies suggest that good posture could help keep blood pressure levels normal while bad posture could increase it.

Posture is the position in which a body is held upright against gravity while standing, sitting or lying down. And good posture involves training a body to stand, walk, sit and lie in positions where the least strain is placed on supporting muscles and spine during movement or weight-bearing activities.

Scientists had earlier suspected the link between the muscles in the neck, blood pressure and heart rate. Now, they have found a direct connection between these neck muscles and a part of the brain stem, which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure. Researchers also claim that their findings could explain why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured.

Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure.

The great thing about good posture is that it not only has health benefits, but it makes you look and feel more confident. Slouching is a common occurrence for a lot of people, especially those of us who spend our day in front of a computer screen. But it's a habit worth breaking!

Poor posture leads to sitting and standing incorrectly which can cause pain. Ever feel compelled to pop your neck or twist your back into shape? If you're like me, it could be a stance issue. However, here's an interesting article that addresses the causes and provides a few tips for better posture.

There are a bunch! One tip that I'm definitely going to implement is the suggestion regarding the strengthening of back muscles. By building up muscle endurance, you are enabling the body to keep better posture for longer periods of time. The Superman exercise is a simple way to beef up the torso which powers the limbs for better carriage. Lie on the floor face down and lift your right arm and left leg up several inches. Hold for about two seconds and then alternate limbs. Try for 10 repetitions. There are a couple other exercises to do, and many other tips, so check them out!

Here's an interesting piece of news: According to this article from The Daily Mail, the average woman's handbag now weighs as much as five bags of sugar -- 5.2lbs to be exact. Yowza! That's a lot of weight we're lugging around, and I'm sure it's not the best for the old posture.

But, thinking of my own purse, I'm not surprised. I always carry my huge wallet (filled with receipts, business cards and various points card. Not wads of cash -- I wish!), my day planner, my cell phone, my 25 keys, a 1L jug of water, an apple, whatever book I'm currently reading and various other tidbits. In addition, I often lug around my Digital SLR, which probably weighs about 2lbs. And occasionally my laptop too. Yikes!

In the interest of my posture and my sanity, I better pare it down a bit. Want some tips? Check out this post from Jacki.

Raking leaves doesn't seem like the kind of activity that can put you in harms way. But if you do it wrong, you could end up pulling a muscle or putting your back out, and then you'll have to explain how you injured yourself and man, how embarrassing would that be?

So here are some tips from the people at Everyday Health on protecting yourself while raking:

• Wear warm clothes to keep your muscles warm
• Do some gentle warm-ups before you start raking -- some twists, walking and leg stretches should do
• Maintain good posture while you rake
• Don't twist your back
• Alternate the side of your body that you hold the rake with
• Drink lots of water, and take a break if you're not used to exercise.
  

This is pretty good advice for any sort of active chore -- shovelling snow especially. Don't you think?

I've heard before that babies and young children naturally possess good posture. They don't slump their shoulders or round their back when sitting or standing. My own family observations reveal a kindergartener and preschooler with picture-perfect posture, although lately I've seen their shoulders sag when I'm angry at them!

According to Kathleen Porter's book, Ageless Spine, Lasting Health, maintaining alignment along the central axis of our skeleton keeps us flexible, strong, relaxed and pain-free. Those four words are enough to make me sit up straight and listen.

Porter contends all the body's systems are impacted by skeletal alignment, and how we age can be influenced by our posture. Her book shares the benefits of staying centrally balanced, provides a basic set of instructions to practice for pain-free living, and calls for more research on the relationship between natural postural alignment and healthy aging.

My grandma had osteoporosis. For her, it reared its ugly head in her back which became more and more rounded with each of her passing years. It caused her great pain. And it caused her to continually urge me to stand up straight and practice good posture -- which is important for young women like me who wish to maximize bone health. But even more critical for mostly Caucasian and Asian women is weight-bearing exercise and resistance training.

Walking, running, dancing, and playing tennis are just a few good weight-bearing activities. Biking and swimming don't count because they provide no impact of bones on the ground.

OK, so are you ready for your mission? Here's what you've gotta do: Start slow if you must and tackle 10 minutes of walking three times per week. Gradually build up to 30 minutes a day, five times per week. Do more if you can. Then add weights for resistance. Take on some strengthening exercises for 20 minutes, three times per week. If you don't feel very fit at the moment, begin walking with ankle weights and then tack on small amounts of weight, beginning with one pound and working your way up.

Personally, I hope to turn back the clock on osteoporosis. How about you?