SKY HIGH ON HEALTH reports on nutritional, wellness, and green lyfe fads both crazy and helpful.
Good posture isn’t just for the long-term health benefits—it boosts your mood and can, apparently, get you laid. Remember this, ladies and guys—mood is a mirror for posture and posture is a mirror for mood. Maybe this is why Laura Ball, posture coach, gets hit on so much at bars, or so she tells me. Her back is always completely straight and, she says, it never fails to inspire pick up lines.
Last week, I had a session with Laura—posture and alignment specialist, holistic nutritionist, and wellness coach—at her apartment and studio in Williamsburg. She was recommended to me by friends as the go-to girl for getting red-carpet ready––a.k.a. who celebs turn to for problems no custom-made Spanx can fix. (A common VIP posture affliction, is, apparently, alignment ruined by workout crazes––and no, Laura won't name names). Even those of us more likely to hang out with
Chinese herbalISTS than private trainers know what it's like to feel... slouchy. It’s easy to remember alignment in yoga when the hot instructor is peering over in your direction, but when you're running to catch the 1 from the L and ten minutes late for work with 35 errands to run… you're not exactly focusing on how your vertebrae are stacked!
According to the Pilates-toned blonde, good posture can be contagious, and she’s right—as soon as I walked into her studio, I became immediately aware of the way I carry myself. Laura, who has been practicing for over a decade, uses yoga techniques to realign her clients but, she says, it’s not about yoga “fixing” someone. For her, the practice serves to reinform our habits in order to renovate the structure of the body that may be slowly collapsing or off-kilter with our organs, which in turn aren't functioning well because they suffer from a lack of oxygen. Improving posture creates more space in our bodies for our organs, more blood flow and hydration, and better conditions for any healing that may be necessary.
I got some at-home tips from Laura for helping to re-align your body (and get you picked up at the bar). You can do these at home, at your desk in your office, on the subway platform waiting for the train, in your Uber car, or even on a plane!
Exercise 1: Dome, baby, dome!
The best posture check for when you are standing is to make sure all the domes of your body are stacked on top of each other. First, come to standing. Your feet should be just slightly apart—about hips' width. Adjust your body and bring your ears over your shoulders, then adjust your shoulders over your hips, your hips over your knees, and your knees over your ankles. Finally, be sure your weight is distributed evenly through both feet. Then, roll your chest up and forward, lengthen tall, and bring your navel in. Concentrate on your breath. Consider every part of your body.
Exercise 2: Math is fun! Remember your right angles?
The body loves 90˚ degree angles and, Laura says, this is a great way to visualize what it means to have correct posture when you’re sitting. Consider the torso/back/shoulders as one line, and the bend from your hips to your legs the other line. That bend at your hips should look and feel like a 90˚ degree angle. Laura also stresses that your knees and hips should always be on the same plane. You never want your knees higher than your hips (which will cause your back to curve backwards) or your hips higher than your knees (whi
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Simon Collins
