     
Simple is best so here is an tried and true- and as easy as it is effective– posture correction. Look down at your ankles.
That’s the whole of it.
Here’s how this posture correction works:
- Stand up straight
- Look down at your ankles without locking your knees
- Lift your chin back up without elevating the front of the rib cage
Your head might be further forward than you would like but from the neck down you will be better aligned. Which is a good place to start.
Now let’s break this posture correction down piece by piece.
Stand Up Straight
The stand up straight part is the most interesting because even though your brain is telling you that you are straight I can pretty much promise you that you are not.
The majority of people I work with think their shoulders round forward when they fall behind the hips. And the same people think their legs are under the hips when they are actually pushing forward.
These two postural misalignments lead to a problem in the spine, usually at the juncture of T12/L1, where the middle and lower back meet.
It often seems as if my work it mainly intended to open up some space in that exact area.
Look Down at Your Ankles Without Locking Your Knees
The act of dropping your gaze to look towards your ankles without hyperextending the knees will both take the leg bones back to a better place, it will also create all important space where the middle and lower back meet.
Lift Your Chin Back Up Without Elevating the Front of The Rib Cage
This is the interesting part because most people will return to an old pattern when the chin lifts up. You have to rotate the head only and not allow the ribcage to move as the chin evelates.
The result is often a head that is way too far forward. While we don’t want a forward head, we also don’t want to allow the spine to collapse where the middle and lower back meets. What a conundrum.
Getting the head on straight is no easy task for anyone, especially someone tight in their musculature. I have written before about how I think that most people are sacrificing good body posture to have a sense that their head is on straight.
What is comes down to more than anything for me is developing an awareness of where we are in space. We need to be honest about what our postural problems are in order to change them.
This simple posture correction can help you to understand both the nature of your posture and the relationship your head has to the rest of your body.
***