Turn your C into a T

How are you sitting right now? Think about it... are your shoulders rounded to the front? Is you belly hanging over the top of your pants? Are you slouching on your desk just zoning into the computer screen? Does your back make more of a C shape rather than a T shape? This week a thought has slowly crept into my mind and has really called forth my attention, and so thus I feel the need to address it. POSTURE! Such a simple word really. When most of us hear the word we may think of long ago girls balancing books on their head, or prim and proper gals eating lunch with fine silver. The truth is POSTURE is way more important than a social status or training tool, it is VITAL to our overall body performance in daily activities.

Activity:
Keep sitting slouched over ( I know you were because we all do!) now I want you to take a deep breath in through your nose and sit up as straight as you can. Pretend someone is pulling a string from the top of your head. Raise your shoulders to your ears and try to imagine picking up your shoulder blades and placing them directly over your hips and down your back. Notice how your chest rises and your tummy sinks in a little? POSTURE. INSTANT TUMMY SLIM!!! who doesn't want that?

I took a yoga class this morning and really the whole time the teacher kept drilling into our heads, "keep your shoulders relaxed, back straight and shoulder blades down". In my new found love of spinning, the teacher again " shoulders relaxed, back straight and shoulder blades down". same in all my gym classes really. If you really think about it, when you are working out and you sit straighter it makes that exercise a little harder doesn't it? So why if in the gym it is so important, why not in our day to day lives? IT IS! I clean homes for a living and I am usually on the floor, hands and knees scrubbing. I find myself out of breath easily and by the end of the day my back is screaming at me. Lately I have really been trying to focus on my posture and wouldn't you know it I was breathing better and started to have sore upper back and tummy muscles! A work out just making sure my posture was correct!

On top of the workout aspect, correct posture is an instant slimmer.
Activity:
Stand in front of your mirror and completely relax. if you have been practicing slouching (guilty), then you'll notice your shoulders roll forward and your back fold a little, and whelp, there's that belly......ugh. Now try the posture activity in the beginning of this monstrous post. Ah Ha, notice how the tummy flattens a little and you looks slimmer, taller, and lets face it ladies the girls look happier!

Something so simple can be a work out all its own and no one will even know your doing it! If your posture is up your chin and your confidence will be up to. Try it for a day, you will notice a difference. I will leave you with a few exercises I learned on The Revolution show today. Ways to improve upper body posture and tone up. tell me what you think and how posture affects your life. Thanks for reading and Happy Dropin'!

Exercise #1:
Stand with your feet hip distance appart. Bend at the waist so your back is flat, tummy pulled in tight. open your arms, really squeezing the shoulder blades together. Hold for 5 seconds and release. do 10-15 reps. make it harder by adding weights. This will work your upper back to help hold your shoulders back.

Exercise #2:
Lay flat on the floor with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. With some weight (howver much you can take), raise you arms directly above your head. Bending at the elbow, lower your hands to the ground and raise your hands back to the ceiling. this will work your triceps and upper back. do 10-15 reps.

Exercise #3:
Lay face down on the floor with arms stretched out infront of you. raise your arms, head and legs, leaving only your tummy touching the floor. Hold this postition for 10 seconds and slowly lower back to the ground. Do 10-15 reps. This will work your arms, upper back and lower back.