Strike a pose! Make 2010 the year you improve your posture

Hey guys,

Happy new year :)

Posture probably isn't the hot topic everyone is thinking of at this time of year because it's not a fat burner is it?

That's what we all want after new year right...the latest greatest way of burning off the excesses of the festive period?

So changing how you sit, stand and move...that surely can't effect fat loss?

WRONG!

Granted if we take a narrow view of the acute variables then sitting that bit taller or standing without restriction isn't going to burn as many calories as say a 20 minute burst of interval training.

However, lets take that 20 minute interval training session as an example. If you wanted to maximise fatloss your higher intensity running, rowing or cross training speed wants to be as high as possible.

So what affects this speed and ability to maintain this speed?

Efficiency!

The more efficient your movement, the faster you will be able to perform, the longer you will be able to perform and therefore the more calories you will burn within any given session.

So how can you improve efficiency?

Through posture!

Posture doesn't just refer to whether we sit tall or slouch, there's far more to it. It refers to the balance between our joints and muscles within the musculoskeletal system.

The balance of these muscles and joints are refered to as the kinetic chain. If any part of the chain is unbalanced it has a knock on effect throughout the rest of the body leading to reduced mechanical efficiency...or put simply you just dont move as well as you should.

Ok, so we know that posture is important but what affects posture and how do we know if ours isn't as good as it should be?

The biggest affect on posture is your daily routine. The way you get in and out of the car, the way you sit at your desk, even the way you sleep. All of these things will affect the balance of your muscles and the stability/mobility of your joints.

For example, compared to even 10-15 years ago we are spending more time in a seated position. In a seated position the muscles across the the front of the hips, the hip flexors, are in a shortened position. Over time this adaptive shortening becomes permanent. Now when we are in a standing position our pelvis tilts forward causing instabilty and inefficiency of movement.

To see if this may be the case for you, look at how your belt sits. If the front of your beltline sits lower than the back there is a good chance that your pelvis is unecessarily tilted forward.

This is going to hinder movement and thus reduce our ability to burn fat through exercise, but in the grander scheme of things this is one contributing factor to low back pain...which IS guaranteed to put a halt in your exercise based fat burning.

So what can you do?

Without being able to assess your posture like I can with my personal training clients I can't give you individual guidance, however the following should help :)

- take a break: if you are in the same seated position every day at work, home or in the car, get up and move. Moving once an hour even to walk around the office will relax the muscles around the pelvis reducing the likelyhood of inbalances developing.

- stretch: often people will stretch after workouts as they have read that it's good for you. It is, but you should only be stretching muscles that are tight (see a good trainer to find out)! Again with much of our daily work in front of us, typing for example, our shoulders fall forward creating tightness in the pectoral (chest) muscles. So when you get up from that chair make sure to open out the arms, draw the shoulders back and relax the chest.

- set a reminder: it could be an alarm on your phone or a visual cue on your computer screen that reminds you to sit with good posture but whatever it takes make sure you have something that reminds you to sit naturally tall.

Ok guys it's over to you now, make the most of your posture and you will make the most of your exercise for fat burning whatever form it takes whilst also reducing your chances of musculoskeletal injuries.

to your health and happiness,

Nathan