Cultivating Healthy Posture with a Simple Restorative Pose Rerun

by Timothy

Poor posture is a common problem that people of any age can have but it is one that tends to worsen over time. Particularly common is the rounding of the upper back into a C-shaped curve, aka Slumpasana. People often hold their heads several inches forward of the body’s plumb line, which can lead to neck and upper back discomfort, among other problems. I’m just back from teaching workshops on therapeutic yoga at Kripalu and the Himalayan Institute and several of the people I worked with—some despite years of yoga practice—still had this postural habit. So I thought today I’d share with you a simple technique that in a number of cases has proved helpful for improving posture.

You might not think poor posture would be a factor is serious health problems, and we certainly weren’t taught much about it in medical school. But if you read medical textbooks and search out relevant studies, you will see that poor posture can contribute such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoporotic fractures, and even heart disease and depression. From a yogic perspective, this combination of slumping posture and the less-than-ideal breathing that accompanies it is also believed to contribute to anxiety, insomnia, digestive difficulties, etc.

When your back rounds, your lower ribs compress the top of the abdomen so it’s not possible to fully move your diaphragm, the major muscle of breathing, and take a full breath. As a result, people take shallow breaths, primarily bringing air into the upper parts of the lungs. Such a breathing pattern is not as efficient in bringing oxygen into the body, and more importantly for many health concerns, is agitating to the nervous system. I won’t go into the physiology here, but suffice it to say that I have repeatedly seen that improving your posture in a way that allows you to take slower, deeper breaths can lead to an improvement in overall health and well-being.

When you’ve had a long-term habit of slouching, however, it may not just be as simple as remembering to sit up straight or to pull you shoulders back when standing. Long-term slouching leads to shortening of muscles in the front of the upper body, as well as of the fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds and interpenetrates the muscles, and which can limit movement. It’s said that longer holds of poses are necessary to help lengthen the fascia, and while people differ on what the ideal holding time is, I believe staying in a pose for a few minutes may be ideal. That’s hard to do in most regular asana, particularly the backbends, which open up the back. The pose described below is a supported backbend, which like a regular backbend helps correct the postural problem, but because it’s restorative, it’s easy to stay long enough to have the desired effect on the fascia.

To do the pose, you’ll need one blanket and something to place under your head. Take a standard folded yoga blanket and unfold it once, so that you’ve got a long rectangle. Roll the blanket from the longer edge into a thin cylinder. Place the cylinder sideways on your mat a couple of feet from the head of the mat, sit in front of the blanket, and lie back so that rounded edge comes to your mid-thoracic spine.

Thoracic Spine, the portion of your spine to which your ribs attach—
between your cervical spine (neck) and lumbar spine

You can play with the placement, maybe a little higher or lower to get the region of your upper back that seems the most stubborn. Most people, particularly those who tend to slouch, need a pillow or folded blanket under the back of their heads, so that the chin can be more or less at the level of the forehead or slightly lower.

This photo uses a bolster in place of a rolled blanket, but you get the idea...

Once you’ve got your props in place, come to a supine Mountain pose with your back on the blanket roll, your head on the head support, and the tops of your shoulders on floor between the head support and the blanket roll. Now, take your arms out to your sides in a T-position, externally rotating your upper arms so your palms face the ceiling, which will help counteract the tendency of most slouchers to internally rotate them. Engage your leg muscles and lightly flex your feet. After  you’ve established your alignment, let go of all effort and lie back into this restorative backbend and let the blanket do all the work. Your only job is to remain mindful, trying to breathe slowly and deeply for the next several minutes. Titrate the time you stay to your comfort levels and schedule. For most people, I’d recommend starting with a minute or so then working up to 5-15 minutes a day. The longer you hold it (as long as you remain comfortable), and the more regularly you do it, the better the results!

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Get Fit Fast With These Simple Tips

By Yandy Roman

A fit individual is usually a very happy person and leading a well-rounded life can be gratifying in a number of ways. If you're prepared to get in better shape but aren't sure about how to approach fitness, read the tips below. They'll help you get on track and assist you in leading a healthy, active, and fit way of life.

When using weight lifting to build fitness, be careful of your form. If you use good form while lifting, you can strengthen the muscles around your joints and reduce daily discomfort. Using poor form won't only not harm your aching joints, it can basically lead straight to bad injuries.

When you are doing cardio work-outs on equipment like a treadmill or elliptical, don't lean too much on the handrails. This reduces the quantity of weight you're putting on your legs while you work out and means you'll burn fewer calories. It also implies you will not get the full muscle building effect from the work out since your muscles won't be working as hard.

A very good method to get fit is to buy a pool. Swimming is one of the best exercises you can do when talking about getting fit. With your own swimming pool, you could do as many laps as you wanted and you'd get fit in no time.

Remember that your fitness desires change as you get older, especially per pliability. When you reach middle age, you need to give far more time to stretching before and after your session. This helps keep your muscles moldable and forestalls cramping after exercise programs as well as helping reduce the risk of injury.

A great way to help you get fit is to start incorporating intervals into your cardiovascular. Going all out for 30 seconds and then resting for thirty seconds, is much more effective than if you were to just perform at a steady rate. Cardio with intervals also needs less time.

A good, and straightforward exercise to try when getting into better physical shape is walking. Walking at a good speed for fifteen to twenty minutes a day can speedily impact your health targets. If you stroll for thirty minutes, you may have a similar impact to your body, it'll just be more gradual.

Don't exercise on a day when you aren't feeling well, or haven't had much sleep. If you do, you may find that your workout isn't as gratifying as you will not be well placed to put 100% of yourself into your routine. Take a break and return to exercise when you are feeling better.

If you're employed at a job that has many floors, one thing that you should do is to take the steps rather than the lift. This can give you some exercise that you will need during the day, and can help to break down lots of fat over the course of the year.

As you read up top, fitness is amongst the keys to happiness. Overall wellbeing in mind , body and spirit, definitely starts with having a fit, active body. Following the tips you've read throughout the article above, you should have no trouble transforming your lifestyle and becoming a fit person.

About the Author:

If you are looking for the best Crossfit Fort Lauderdale has to offer then you need to stop by Crossfit Muscle Farm. Our location is also convenient for those in search of Crossfit Pompano Beach, Crossfit Wilton Manors, Crossfit Deerfield Beach, or Crossfit Plantation. Come by today and see what you have been missing!