"Posture Matters"
Posture Matters! – Matters of Posture.
Looking through some old photographs I came upon the most beautiful upright seated posture of my son at three years old, totally unsupported. I also have a photograph of my nephew at the age of fourteen slumped with a handheld games console seemingly unable to support himself without elbows on knees. How did the mantra ‘sit up straight’ fail?
As parents we are bombarded with advice on how to parent our children and what really matters. The ‘should do this’, the ‘must have’, the ‘essential’: the implication being, without which, your child is deprived and disadvantaged. Such pressure can be overwhelming. Without wanting to add to this barrage (which may sound a little like “I don’t mean to be rude but…) I’d like to shout about posture, to reach all children with the good posture message, which will have to start with parenting. So here I have the opportunity to persuade you that posture matters…and here is the post script, sorry for the contradiction: What you should do as parents is lead by example!
“The message from all corners of science is coming through loud and clear: this is no time to be sitting around.” Caroline Williams
Mother nature does a fabulous job of creating beautiful bodies through baby and child development stages. From the c-curve that we are born with, all the right curves for all the right functions develop; space for our spinal nerve function, ability to stand against gravity, weight bearing and efficient use of our amazing bio mechanical system. We learn about our environment through sensory exploration and we adapt. We move, We feel, we think. Yet we do not maintain well what mother nature started, ignoring the importance of this basic primary element of ourselves. Our adaptations, heading towards sedentary lifestyles with hours of inactivity, are distortions of what nature intended. Bad posture? That’s a problem worth solving.
Attending to posture brings wellbeing of mind and body. Attending to posture teaches the mind what the body instinctively knows. Our all too comfortable lifestyles have masked the fact that it is a vital communication channel to the brain. The brain feeds on sensory information, information provided by the body. Body + Brain = Mind state.
Vital then, that we address it at an early age, avoiding the ‘if only’ moment in later years when poor posture is a lifetime habit.
Posture is more than standing up straight. It is a preparedness for action and reaction. Good posture is a full body workout developing and maintaining core strength and fine-tuning deep stabilising musculature throughout the body. Posture is embedded with attitude, an unconscious vocabulary. It is hard to think before you speak with your body as reactions are so fast.
“Thought is reflected in muscle behavior” Elizabeth Langford
I have a theory, informed through professional experience and observation. After more riffling through the old photographs, I came across my boys playing rugby and was reminded of the injuries they incurred. My theory is that if good posture had been practiced throughout their young childhood then, when it came to being selected for higher intensity coaching and conditioning for some very physical demands, they would have been better prepared. When young teens are talent spotted for sport and the coaching demand dramatically increases, problems of weak deep stabilisers become apparent through recurring injuries.
Habits of old would once have developed and easily engaged the deep postural stabilisers all day long, such as; children walking to school, those children being required to ‘stand up straight’ in line, marching to assembly, deportment classes, the frequent seated meal times with no question of elbows on the table or leaning back in the chair, and less screen time (the options were just not there). It is not being suggested that the reintroduction of the ‘sit up straight’ rule book is the simple solution, society has changed and progressed, and anyway the tension created by forcing a military type stance is excessive and cannot easily be maintained. Having said that, it is interesting (a useful discussion topic at the very least) to look at how some of the seemingly old-fashioned discipline advocated by Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of the Michaela Community School in Wembley, is directly related to good posture.
Perhaps all that has happened is a loss of attending to posture, which gladly is returning with a focus on how important good upright postures are for self-esteem, confidence, and healthy functioning.
Practice is important. Consider the fact that a tennis forehand is only perfected after some 10,000 repetitions and accomplished pianists never need to search the keyboard. These are learned and practiced moves becoming second nature through many hours of practice. Good posture needs to be second nature. The great thing about practicing posture is that the many hours between awake and asleep can all be utilised.
So apart from leading by example, what can be done without a large stick and a carrot?
Encourage children to become aware and curious about how they stand up. Get them to use their imagination…if all their joints were tennis balls how would they all relate to each other? (Where are your body parts?), what keeps them apart (the spaces on the inside) and what stabilises them? Encourage thinking about dynamic posture, the shapes and space. What shape do you make? (Make it bigger). What space do you take up? (Take up a little more). Observe how the body expresses the mood and attitude in your child and get them to notice this too. It is my opinion that it will be the most important relationship in their lives.
We all end up with the body we practice.
Emma Rhys Thomas
Director/Instructor at Art of Confidence