Body Awareness

There are a few things you can do to maintain great health and they all have to do with your body awareness.  So whether you are standing in line at the grocery store or moving your house, here are three things you can remember to protect your posture:

1)  When picking up boxes or babies, bend your knees and keep your spine long as you pick up anything that requires even the littlest bit of strength.  While making your bed, kneel down on the floor and tuck the sheets under.  These adjustments will place the load on your largest muscles in the legs and not the low back.

2)  While standing in line at the grocery store – or anywhere else – notice your posture. If you lift your shoulders up a little (lengthening the side body) and then slide the shoulder blades down the back, you will have elongated your spine, creating better back health.

3)  Notice if you stand with a sway back.  So many of us do.  Gently move your thighs back and apart and then soften the tailbone towards the floor.  Now your low back is long and you can take some of the pressure off those disks.

Remind yourself to notice these common misalignments and then make those subtle shifts for a healthier body.

Compliments of yoga instructor, Lisa Kneller