Be More Alpha

How To Improve Your Posture.Don’t be a hunchback!Building your body is a great idea; slouching isn’t. You don’t need to look likea marine but a straight spine radiates confidence and actually makes you feel better. This is because your physiology is directly linked to your emotions.If you’re going to spend all that time working out and eating right, you mightas well maximize your efforts by standing tall. Here’s 5 easy ways to improveyour posture.(1) The Balloon Method. My favorite technique and not very well known.Try this: If you don’t have great posture, stand up right now. Now imagine thatthere is a balloon on a string extending from the crown of your head. Imaginethat this balloon is pulling your head upwards towards the sky. You’llautomatically stand upright with your spine elongated. Doesn’t this little mindtrick work great? If you keep doing this for a few weeks, the habit will stickand you’ll have corrected your posture.(2) When Sitting – Get a chair with sufficient lumbar support! This means yourchair’s backrest should have natural curve that fits into the hollow of yourlower back. Basically when sitting down your spine should be in contact with thebackrest from your tailbone right up to your upper back.(3) Develop an awareness of your Posture – Keep the ears, shoulders and hips in alignment. Whether you’re standing or sitting keep these in a vertical line to improve your posture. Resist the temptation to push your head forward; start to notice if your ears are in line with your shoulders and correct if improve your posture necessary. When people try to consciously improve their posture, they can often go for hours with poor posture before even remembering to correct it. This is the power of bad habits. To increase your awareness of the problem it’s a great idea to keep a visual reminder at the place where you spend most of your time. For example, if you sit at a desk make a sketch of a stick figure man on a post-it note. Then every time you see this sketch you’ll ask yourself, “How is my posture? Are my ears in-line with my shoulders? Are my feet flat on the floor?”(4) Move! If your job or school life involves a lot of sitting around, you’remore likely to slouch. As your muscles tire of being in the same position you’llbegin to slump down. You need more movement. For office jobs I suggest you makea habit of getting up and moving, even if just for a minute, once every 30minutes.(5) Get confident! As stated previously, posture affects confidence butconfidence also affects posture. The more confident you are, the better yourposture will be. Confidence is nothing but a habit and can be learned. I maywrite an article on it in the near future.Don’t over-do it! If you try to stay poker-straight, you’ll feeluncomfortable and eventually give-up on great posture. Allow flexibility in yourneck and knees. Shift your body weight around often. A rigid body is not whatyou’re after! Your spine has a natural curve, you’re not aiming to be a robot.Simply remember the ear, shoulder and hip alignment – that’s sufficient for ahealthy posture.Stand Tall and Confident!