How important is our body posture for a healthy lifestyle?
Did you ever think about this question?
What strikes your mind when body posture comes into your mind? Please take 1 min & try to reflect on it?
Yes, body posture includes every joint & its positioning in harmony with the purpose for which it is designed. It includes :
1.How we position our Spine, Neck so that it causes the least stress on our spinal & neck muscles.
2.How we walk, run so that we cause minimum stress on our joints & ligaments with minimal wear & tear.
3.How we sit, so it helps us for better circulation of blood across our lower limbs.
Though back & neck posture is important its also important to consider How we walk, run, sit & sleep. We will discuss each one briefly:
Let us watch this short video before going ahead :
Thus the Spine posture affects our lungs vital capacity; thus, better posture improves our lung capacity. Did you find anyone in these days having a straight spine? In case you find, please let me know. The straight spine also elevates your mood by releasing Dopamine hormone & also makes one look confident. It also reduces the problems of low backache.
The straight neck may become a rarity because of excessive screen time on mobile. It may lead to excessive usage of neck flexors & reduced usage of extensors. Thus causing cervical problems as time passes.
Our feet are designed to walk or run with the ball of feet hitting the ground, then the heel, so the impact does not transfer to the leg & hip joints. We now got used to modern footwear where heel touches first, because of the design. The barefoot running Tarahumara tribe are one of the healthiest people & best marathon runners. They run with their ball of the foot touching flat on the ground, not with the heel.
Even modern shoes change the anatomy of the most beautifully crafted part responsible for human evolution, the feet.
Thus barefoot or flat foot has many scientifically proven benefits, as the human body is designed to move & movement is the basic reason for human evolution. So it is the feet that executed the orders of the brain, so we evolved to become Homosapiens.
Finally, the modern man changed his healthy moving lifestyle to sedentary sitting lifestyle, especially in the cities. Now sitting has become a part & parcel of our lifestyle.
How do we sit, so we can be fit? Can you guess?
Yes, The Crossed legged position is best for long hours of sitting. It has multiple benefits scientifically proven. It is called Padmasana in Indian Yogic texts.
We will discuss each of these spinal, walking & sitting postures in separate posts. As posture indeed affects our mental & physical health in the long run.
So let us build better habits for the posture by aligning our spine, neck and feet when we move & sit for better health.
Are you ready?
SOURCES :
1.12 Rules for Life: Jordan Peterson
Jordan Bernt Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto
2.Hatha Yoga Pradipika: Swami swatmarama.
The Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma,
3.Born to run : Chris McDougall.
Christopher McDougall is an American author and journalist. He is best known for his 2009 book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.
4.Research by Daniel Lieberman.
Daniel E. Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, where he is the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology.