How To Find Good Posture
If someone was to instruct you on how to find good posture they would probably say “stand up straight”.
From my perspective, the main problem with this instruction is that most people perceive themselves as standing up straight when they are actually leaning backward.
If you want to practice how to get good posture it can help to look in a mirror to see what you actually do.
- Untuck your pelvis and release your butt. The big butt muscles (gluteus maximus) should be completely turned off when standing.
- Let your thigh bones fall backward under the pelvis. There is a side seam in most pants. That seam should be perpendicular to the floor. The nature of pants can teach you how to find good posture. They are designed with the idea that you are standing correctly. Use the design well.
- Let the upper body hinge forward as the thighs go back. Think literally of a hinge with the pelvis as the pin.
- From the front, lower the bottom of the rib cage and the chin slightly allowing the middle rather than the upper back to round and broaden
- Lift the head slightly from the back of the neck. Gaze straight ahead keeping the eye sockets level.
Now because of our conditioned pattern to be short in the back of the body and long in the front (leaning backward), standing this way can feel really strange at first.
You will feel like you’re sticking your butt way out because you’re used to tucking it under.
You’ll feel like you’re rounding your shoulders because you’re used to throwing them back to compensate for the collapsed chest.
You won’t recognize how to open up the back of the rib cage or how to soften the front of the rib cage.
The effort to cultivate good posture is so so so worth it.