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Posture and Core Strength
Posture and Core Strength
What is posture? It’s how we hold our body, there’s two types. Dynamic posture is how we hold ourselves when we’re moving, for example, walking, running or bending over to pick something up. Static posture is when we’re not moving, so standing still, sitting down or sleeping.
Good posture keeps our core and upper back muscles active and engaged. Our core muscles, or postural muscles, are the deep muscles in our abdomen, pelvis and back, linking our upper and lower body. Think of them as the scaffolding holding us together.
So what happens when our core muscles are weak?
Our postural muscles can only work correctly when the body is in correct alignment, or good posture. If not, it can create a vicious cycle where weakness through injury or lack of use leads to the core muscles being less efficient and imbalanced. These then become longer and weaker, requiring more energy to move, reducing our balance which can lead to fatigue.
Our opposing muscles (which do the opposite motion) moving the other parts of our body have to work harder, becoming shorter and tighter, often resulting in pain.
Having weak core muscles gives us an unstable foundation. To stabilise our body we need a strong foundation, otherwise we may experience pain and fatigue, experiencing trouble with balance and co-ordination.
We’re often told to ‘stand up straight’, but what does that mean?
As we age we often find ourselves slouching our necks forward and rounding our shoulders, this can cause the vertebrae in our neck to re-arrange in an unnatural curve, leading to pain and pushing the bones against area of our body where they shouldn’t be. This increases the amount of weight on our discs, compressing them.
Imagine you’ve got a piece of string attached to the top of your head and it’s being pulled up so it’s taut. Your feet should be shoulder width apart, balancing your weight evenly across your feet. Your knees are soft (not straight or locked and not bent). Pull in your abdomen, keep your shoulders relaxed and back (that part is harder than you think as we often tense without knowing it!). This allows you to maintain your spine’s natural curvature, keeping good alignment.
How do we move from this position?
Our movements should originate from our core, not our limbs. Children tend to spring forward from their core propelling their limbs, as we get older we tend to rely on our extremities, shoulders, hip joints to do this, which places unnecessary stress on those areas.
Pull in your abdominal muscles up and towards your spine, move with slow, controlled movements, breathing evenly. May sound daft but when we’re concentrating on our movements we forget to breathe!
Bonsai Chi exercises to follow
This Bonsai Chi exercise encourages good posture by standing straight. Keep your shoulders relaxed, don’t overstretch the arm movements, it’s your natural reach. Soften the knees slightly, don’t bend them too far (and don’t do if you experience any knee pain).
Bonsai Chi kata #10 encourages good posture whilst moving sideways and forwards. When you step out with your left leg ensure your weight is balanced evenly across your feet, don’t lean over your left leg.
When you step forward ensure both feet are on the floor, feet shoulder width apart (walking on train tracks).
If you've enjoyed reading this blog and following the exercises please click here to read 'Why we should all practise kata'