Best Way to Improve Your Posture

Having good posture instantly makes you appear more confident, inches taller and far more attractive. While the furthest slouching will get you is to the auditions for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Unless having a concave chest, Quasimodo hunched back and a chin angled like Concorde sounds attractive to you, then I suggest that you refrain from slouching or rounding your shoulders. For starters, poor posture is detrimental to your looks, while a good stance imparts both extra inches and self-confidence. Here are a few words of wisdom that were recounted to me by my osteopath, which have stuck since my teens: ‘If an unattractive woman holds herself well, regardless of her lack of good looks, she will appear more beautiful than the gorgeous woman who slouches.’

Bad deportment not only damages the spine but can also affect your general health, leading to back problems, headaches, poor circulation and indigestion. If you are hunched over, it is also unlikely that you are breathing correctly, so you are thus depriving your body of oxygen. What’s even more frightening is that continual slouching could permanantly alter your body shape.

You can discipline yourself to walk tall, but it takes a little more commitment than just sticking your shoulders back and your chest out. In the 1950s and 1960s, models used to balance books on their heads while practising their walk – you may giggle at the thought, but there’s still something to be said for this traditional method of deportment. Regular exercise – in particular those exercises which strengthen the abdominal and back muscles – will help you to hold yourself straighter. Be aware of your stance wherever you are, be it in the supermarket, at a party – and especially – at home, as this is where you are most likely to revert to any bad habits.

Improve your posture

• Self-help exercise: stand up straight and imagine that you have a piece of string attached to your chest that is lifting you towards the ceiling. While raising your chest, hold your stomach in and tuck in your bottom; refrain from tilting your pelvis. Now make sure that your chin is positioned correctly and that your shoulders are neither hunched up nor forced back, just relaxed.
• The Alexander Technique: having discovered a connection between the mind, emotions and posture, actor Frederick Alexander devised the technique over a century ago. Often practiced on a one-to-one basis, The Alexander Technique involves a therapist teaching you a series of gentle exercises with which to retrain your posture, working in particular on the neck area.

• Pilates: this excellent form of body-conditioning was pioneered by gymnast Joseph Pilates. By using certain movements, Pilates works on strengthening weak muscles (in particular the abdominals) and ultimately retrains you to stand well.
• The Feldenkrais Method: the brainchild of Moshe Feldenkrais, this method uses a series of floor exercises and manipulation (on a one-to-one basis) to correct bad posture.
• Yoga and t’ai chi: either of these, when practised regularly over time, will help you to improve your stance and balance, and regain your natural poise.
• Rolfing: through massage therapists realign the body.