Slouch backwards

[Lauxa]

I have been trying something new for only a few days now, but I am so excited about the results I am getting that I wanted to share!

For at least 15 years I have been a sloucher, hunching my shoulders forward. Some video of me on a vacation about 8 years ago made me want to change because I literally looked like a hunchback. So ever since I have been trying to improve, be more mindful, and stretch. I have made improvements, but not as much as I want and I still have the tendency to slouch when I am tired.

Recently, I remembered a tip that a yoga instructor gave me, that if you catch yourself standing on one leg, then shift your weight to stand on the other leg for a while to balance it out, even though the ideal is to balance evenly on both legs. And I had the epiphany that since I have been slouched forward for 15 years, that if I want to even out and achieve good posture, I should try slouching backwards.



Recently I have been adopting posture #2 in the above picture whenever I am feeling tired and wanting to slouch or if I catch myself in posture #1. And the results are amazing! I feel like my brain is being rewired, so many attitudes and mannerisms that I took for granted are coming to my conscious attention. For instance, I found that I have a tendency to flinch into a more hunched position when a person approaches. Can't do this with posture #2! I feel like an idiot walking around with my chest thrust forward, but it is really teaching me something about different ways of projecting myself through my body language. When I do stand straight, I feel straighter and more even than before.

The downside is that my back is hurting in all new places, but my back was hurting with my old posture as well, just in a more familiar way. I'll try to post an update in a month or two with more results.

[Kaspian]

Why not just aim for #3 and spare your back the strain of being over-stretched in one direction or the other?

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Kaspian

Why not just aim for #3 and spare your back the strain of being over-stretched in one direction or the other?

I'm no doctor, but I believe overcompensating can bring your skeletal alignment back to (near) normal functioning. Of course, if you're alignment is normal, you don't need to compensate at all.

When I went to a physiotherapist about my neck, he got me to do neck exercises that stretched my muscles in an unnatural position, using the logic I explained above. Of course, you also need to correct the underlying issue. Exercises will only help so much.

[Kaspian]

When we slouch, we've got over shortened muscles in front and over stretched muscles in back. When you go for the posture in photo #2, you get the reverse: over shortened, tight muscles in back, and over lengthened in front. Although stretching into an unnatural position to "correct" the effects of a long-time bad habit may seem like a shortcut to improve a slouch, I believe that it results in layering one bad habit (too much tension) on top of another (too much collapse).

I believe we are better off choosing to be upright without adding extra muscular tension. Allow upright, but don't force upright. It might seem like it takes longer for things to change, but I'd rather remove bad habits and unnecessary tension than add them.

[Lauxa]

Kaspian,

I guess the reason is that I have been trying to get to #3 for YEARS without the degree of success that I would like. I can do it when I am thinking about it, but my posture always reverts when I am not making an effort. Also when I am tired it seems like too much trouble to make the effort. By adopting posture #2 I am training my body to exercise another option when I am tired. Usually posture #2 is so tiring for me that I revert to #3 after a while.

Before trying this experiment, I didn't realize how strongly my thought patterns are tied to my posture. There are certain negative thought patterns that are almost inaccessable to me in posture #2. Also, it combats my habitual triggers to slouch around people, as if I will be invisible if I just keep my head down.

This experiment is still going REALLY WELL and I feel I am making great progress, not only in posture, but in opening up some new ways of thinking that are apparently tied to body positioning.

[SmartAlx]

There is an exercise called back extensions. Google it. Some people mistakenly call the exercise hyperextensions, but this is wrong because hyper (over) extensions are dangerous. It's important when doing the exercise that to do no go too far.

Your posture #2 is a hyperextension.

My recommendation to combatting a hunchback is to take up dancing as a hobby, especially one that encourages good balance/posture like salsa or ballroom. A lot of dancers have that good posture #3. I used to look like #1, and in the 4+ years that I've been dancing I have achieved a noticeable improvement in my posture. I'm not posture #3 yet, but I'm getting there.

[Lauxa]

After trying this for 6 weeks, I had a huge breakthrough and energy shift. I am calling this experiment a monumental success.

Of course, there's no "proof" that adjusting my posture triggered the mental shift, but I suspect that it did. Emotions and physiology are so closely tied together, and when I was slouched forward all the time it sent a constant signal to my brain that I was depressed. Adopting posture #2 sent different signals to my brain. I felt more arrogant and my anger felt more outward-directed than inward-directed when I used this posture. It shifted me from my habitual thought patterns just enough to allow me to transcend them completely.

I no longer use posture #2 very often and am pretty solid on maintaining posture #3 most of the time.