What Does It Mean To Be Standing Up Straight?

When is standing up straight not standing up straight?

Or, what if standing with good posture is not exactly what it seems?

What if you are actually leaning backward when you think you are standing up straight?

The truth of it is most people who think they are standing up straight are actually standing like the back end of parentheses:

)

Ask most people if they think they are standing up straight and they will say yes; at least that has been my experience.

If the answer is “no”, or “I doubt it”, and then I ask them to stand up straight— most everyone will elevate the ribcage and shorten the lower back in an effort to feel more upright.

Or in other words, lean backward.

There is an easy way to know if you habitually lean backward when you think you are standing up straight.

Stand with your back against a wall and feel how much of your back is against the wall.

A good thing to check in on is how much of your spine and back does or doesn’t touch the wall.

If you have to work to get the middle back against the wall, it is likely that the back of your body is tighter than the front.

And this is probably from leaning habitually backward when you actually think you are standing up straight.

This presents an interesting conundrum.

When I teach yoga or a workshop almost everyone assumes a similar position when I ask them to stand in Tadasana— the yoga version of good posture.

I think most people lean their thighs forward and lean their upper body slightly backward like the parentheses— )

Then I walk around and change everyone’s posture, hingeing the upper body forward and moving the legs back.

When I make my way back to the front of the room and ask everybody to return to their original position, the whole room leans backward.

Conditioned patterns are exactly that, patterns created and reinforced through repetition.

If you are told your whole life to stand up straight and you are commended for doing so when you are actually leaning backward, why in the world would you think it is incorrect?

Or, for that matter, feel the need to change?