“Stand up straight!” It’s what my grandmother always said as she poked her finger between my shoulder blades. But I thought I was standing straight……If our grandmothers and the etiquette teachers of long ago could only see us now…

With so many of us sitting in front of computer screens and looking at our phones all day, straightening our spine and maintaining good posture has become more challenging than ever. And then there’s gravity that’s always weighing on us. Rounded shoulders, our head forward of our torso instead of balanced nicely on top of it, and a loss of the natural curves of our spine is becoming our new normal, and it’s detrimental to our health.

Now that I’ve laid that on you - go ahead and sit or stand up straight! You’ll soon notice as you quickly return to your default posture, that it’s easier said than done. So, what is good posture and how do I achieve and maintain it, and why does it matter so much anyway? Glad you asked…

Normal posture is essentially the posture that optimizes the functioning of the body and minimizes wear and tear of daily living. Normal posture enables the body to move with minimal stress on the joints, muscles and ligaments. (Eva Norlyk Smith, PhD, creator of Healthy Back, Healthy body).

By normalizing our posture, we improve the health of our back, which in turn has a positive effect on our breathing (as the rib cage expands), the flow of nerve information in the body, (when nerve flow is impeded, blood flow throughout the body is compromised), the health of our organs, the digestive process, and pain reduction-especially the back and our joints. Our overall energy, mood, self-confidence and standing in the world (literally and figuratively) is elevated.

The best time to start paying attention to our posture is now! When you’re young you’ll develop the awareness and skills to prevent poor posture and the adverse effects on long-term health and vitality. If you’re older and already dealing with the effects of poor posture, it’s never too late to begin to reshape the body, slow the aging process, and stand with confidence in your life.

Our 8-session course “Yoga for Better Aging: Good Posture and Why It Matters”, lays out, step by step, what’s needed and how to retrain the body so that we can improve our posture and sustain good posture. Each session provides an educational component and targeted yoga practice which builds on the previous lesson. Our instruction is live online with limited class size so the instructor can watch you move and offer feedback. You will have access to the recordings to continue practicing on your own.

 Here’s how to enroll. Visit www.janetwenger.com/offerings and choose the AM or PM posture course. Please feel free to reach out with any questions to yoga@janetwenger.com.