Part 1: The secret to anti-aging… Sit up straight!

The secret to anti-aging… Sit up straight!

The quickest before and after you will ever see:

We’ve all seen the endearing old couple walking down the street, shuffling and hunched over; they are unable to lift their heads upright to see where they’re going let alone to embrace in a romantic kiss.  The explanation for this is not just do to old age; rather it is their inhibited posture that is actually impeding their once mobile, flexible young tissues.  In most cases this humpy, hunchy posture can be avoided by taking preventative measures in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

I first became curious about posture when I started massage therapy school but quickly put it on the back burner when 750 other things took precedence. My curiosity eventually resurfaced when I started my professional practice and had patients constantly quizzing me about how to properly hold their bodies.  It wasn’t until I started a regular yoga practice that I took a personal interest in how my bones stack on top each other and what it feels like to have good posture.

So what on earth is good posture and how can this keep you staying young?  

Firstly, I think its important to consider what causes us to age and degenerate in the first place.  To keep it simple; anything that causes stress on the body, or taxes a particular system in the body, can inevitably speed up the aging process.  Whether it be through physical stress, (caused by a poor diet or lack of exercise) or emotional stress, (such as an unhealthy relationship or excessive worry), on some level, our bodies are being taxed and the surplus of natural resources we need to be healthy are being depleted.  As our bodies age they have a harder time coping and managing stress.  So why not take action and support our bodies with good posture?  In doing so we can potentially decrease some of the stress that our bodies have to interpret on a daily basis. 

Benefits of Sitting up Straight

·      Spinal Alignment

·      Engagement through core, Pelvic floor and Transversus abdominus

·      Lengthened Hamstrings

·      C1 and Jaw (TMJ) alignment

·      Vertebral Disc, Membranous, Muscular, ligamentous, tendonous, fascial and joint health

·      More efficient circulation especially to the extremities

·      Efficient Lymphatic Flow

·      Energetic Flow

·      Increase in flow of Qi

·      Increased space for Lungs to breath

·      Increased space for the Heart to beat and pump

·      Diaphragm has space to expand and contract

·      Increased oxygen and blood to the brain

·      Ease on the organs because they have space to preform their function

·      Decrease in stress and anxiety

·      Feeling more alert, alive, present, awake, focused, productive

As you can see, sitting in a more vertical and upright posture can have all these enormous benefits on your body, causing less stress on the body as a whole, ultimately means your body has an easier time trying to achieve homeostasis and your sympathetic nervous system can stop firing.  Just by focusing on your posture everyday you are taking preventative measures in slowing down the aging process.

So before you start looking like the hunch back of Notre dame, here are some preventative measures that are essential to staying and looking young

Preventive Measures

·      Yoga

·      Mediation

·      Core Exercises

·      Massage

·      Chiropractic treatment

·      Physiotherapy

·      Regular exercise

·      Acupuncture