It is financial year end for many of us and that means more time in front of the computer. When the pain sets in from hours of sitting with a curved spine, you suddenly remember those threats of ‘sit up straight or else’.
My question to you…so how comfortable is it to sit up as straight as a rod and pretend to be a soldier? Pretty uncomfortable and it is actually not that good for your spine.
Correcting your posture can feel like astrophysics when you don’t know how and your only frame of reference is your yoga instructor’s perfect balance.
Well, it is actually as easy as ABC or 123 and not #@!^#$
Here are the 3 areas to conquer in mastering posture:
1. The Pelvis
Sitting upright on the edge of your chair, place your hands on the sides of your hips. Now imagine that your buttocks magically transformed into a set of headlights. Moving only the pelvis (don’t lean backwards and forwards) shine the lights up as high as you can, then down as low as you can. Once you have established the extent of your light shining, find a position between the two…this is a neutral pelvis.
This position requires the least amount of muscle power to remain upright so if you feel your muscles straining, you are most likely trying to shine your headlights up too far and creating a hollow back. When the pelvis is in neutral, you should also feel like you are sitting on top of the sharp bones in your bottom.
2. The Shoulders
Now let us move a bit further up the body. At this stage you already feel like your shoulders and neck have changed position without consciously trying to correct anything.
Whatever you do with one shoulder, repeat with the other. Using your right hand, feel in the front of the left shoulder for a rounded bone below the collar bone. Pull your shoulder (the bone) back by a half to a full centimeter from your finger. Make sure you do not pull the shoulder upwards.
Now feel for the breastbone with your right hand. Lift the breastbone up at an angle towards where the celing and the wall meet. This is not a big movement and can hardly be detected so don’t suddenly now hollow your back. It is more about opening up your chest.
Now feel the bottom edge or corner of the shoulder blade with your right hand. Is it flush against the chest cage/ribs? If not, take a deep breath and try pull the bottom angles slightly outwards whilst maintaining the other two corrections.
All small corrections, never overdo it.
3. The Head
Now the head is a bit tricky. Think of it as a rugby ball on a mound of sand. In order to get it in the right position, one side will appear to grow taller, the other shorter…a gentle chin tuck. If you had to lean back against a wall, the part touching the wall must slide up (taller) and the nose slides down (shorter).
It is never meant to create a double chin and you should definitely nor be poking your chin forward…that’s what started the trouble in the first place, chin forward and eyes getting closer and closer to the screen.
And there you have it. Now you just need to practice it. It takes time and you will without a doubt not be able to maintain it for long before you get caught up in that tax. Just correct it every time you remember and count it as 1 rep closer to guru-dom.
Correcting your posture – the guru’s cheat video