Posture Should be Easy, Part Two: Standing

Ok, now we've covered some sitting posture basics, and we'll go into standing. Fortunately, healthy standing posture does not have to be a military exercise! It does take some awareness to get the hang of, and here are some things to get you started:

1) Don't be super tense. If standing straight is a matter of arching your back, stiffening your neck, and clamping your shoulders down and back, you're not going to be able to move very freely. So stay relaxed, and don't worry too much about getting exactly straight.

2) Pay attention to the weight on your feet. Is it more on your heels, balls, inner or outer arches? Shift yourself into a place where your whole foot is in comfortable contact with the ground. Imagine that the bottoms of your feet are soft, able to sink into the ground, or into your shoes. Your weight doesn't need to be precisely balanced for this, because it's more important to bring awareness into the whole bottom of your foot so it can work with the ground to support you.

3) Knees straight and relaxed. Yup, straight. Having slightly bent knees is good for some activities, but generally having straight legs maintains the health of your cartilage. To find your relaxed position, lock your knees by overstraightening, then relax the muscles around your knees.

4) Hips in neutral. Many people try to straighten their neck and shoulders, but have their hips pushed forward, which makes the whole thing really difficult. To find neutral, push your hips forward and back, rocking like a swing, a little less each time until you come to rest slowly. This gives you some idea of where neutral is, although it can take some bodywork therapy to allow you to get a true sense of it.

5) Head lifted up. To do this without adding tension, first put your index fingers right behind your ears, pointing upwards. Draw a line with both fingers across to the top of your head, where they meet together. Imagine a rope pulling slightly upwards at this point, which will slightly draw your chin in and lengthen the back of your neck. You may find you need to relax the front of your neck to do this- think about using as little energy as possible to keep your head up and see if this allows the muscles to release.

6) Shoulders soft. Let any tension in the shoulders flow down into the ground through your feet. Tension may be holding them up, forward, or in some cases back. It may take some serious bodywork or movement therapy to get your shoulders to really relax.

You can see from this that posture is a whole-body concept, beginning with your feet! So be wary of the temptation of thinking only of your head and shoulders when standing, as it can often make things worse.