The importance of good posture

From the book - A Manual for a contemporary Body  - By Ivana Daniell Postural alignment is the key to a strong, healthy, and fully efficient body. Poise and good posture are the marks of a healthy, well-balanced body. Mentally, we may still stand and move with the grace of our youth, however, insidiously, without our consciously noticing, our poise may have softened; our posture melted a little or completely dissolved away. A lifestyle that has required a significant amount of time sitting will have taken its toll. Our posture, and consequently our spine, will have suffered. In order to maintain a healthy body, we should encourage it to move the way it was designed to move. We can keep our bodies in alignment and operating at optimum efficiency. Unfortunately, we do not. In our lifestyle, the long hours sitting at a desk, or in a car, and the lack of exercise are factors that conspire to bend our body out of alignment. And for those who do lead an active life, not all types of activities promote proper alignment or good posture. Finally, not all physical activities are suitable for all people. Good posture is the result of an efficient body; a body that moves intelligently in movement. There are many benefits when maintaining a GOOD POSTURE:

• Ÿ  Prevents backache and muscular pain.
• Ÿ  Prevents the spine from being in abnormal positions.
• Ÿ  Prevents fatigue because muscles are being used more efficiently.
• Ÿ  Helps decrease the wearing of joint surfaces that could result in arthritis.
• Ÿ  Contributes to a good appearance.
• Ÿ  Will give you poise and confidence.

As we grow more mature, we begin to realize that bad habits, lifestyle choices, injuries, or congenital/structural problems, all affect our efforts to achieve POSTURE PERFECTION. Technically, the key for good posture is a HEALTHY SPINE, and the key to a healthy spine is good CORE SUPPORT. These two conditions go hand in hand, each dependent on the other! Poor posture, can develop as a result of:

• Ÿ  A sedentary lifestyle
• Ÿ  Lack of posture awareness
• Ÿ  Weak core muscles
• Ÿ  An injury
• Ÿ  A person’s congenital/structural problem

If you are following any exercise programme your instructor must make sure that you are performing these exercises in a proper postural alignment. If not, most probably you will not get the right results or even worse you will risk being injured. Remember that you will be driving your beautiful car out of alignment and inefficiently, with no results and with energy waste. So, if you wish to have more energy, learn to drive your vehicle, your body, more efficiently. The 3 steps FOR FIXING the problem are:

• To be aware of your postural imbalance
• To understand what needs to be worked on
• To find the solution with an appropriate plan for your body

[caption id="attachment_94838" align="alignleft" width="300"] Ivana Daniell, Movement and Posture Expert[/caption] Ivana Daniell, Movement and Posture Expert. Taken from A Manual for A Contemporary Body Ivana is a Movement and Posture expert, whose mission it is to educate and guide people to make the right choices when concerning their bodies and when choosing specific activities or exercise programmes. Over the past 30 years, Ivana has looked after people from all over the world, including royalty, athletes, film and music personalities, and anyone who wishes to move more intelligently. A graduate of the Laban Center in Paris, in her 30’s she lived in London, met her husband and had two children. Life was great but then she moved to Singapore with her husband. It was there she pioneered the first ever Pilates studio in Singapore in 1998. She was presented with the opportunity to work for Aman Resorts and was responsible for developing Aman Pilates Studios all around the world. Life was divided between being a mother, a business woman and a consultant to Aman Resorts. It was back in 2011 she moved back to London and to start over – opening her own Posture Clinic in October and creating her new Body ID Method.