Posture and exercise programming

By Justin Moran - JustInTime PT Okay I will admit it, I am not your average 20 to 30-year-old crop-top, bum-bag wearing and cap back to front wearing personal trainer! Our clients are typically aged 35 to 75. As such I see so many people come to us to help either repair damage done through previous exercise modalities or we get many people wanting to improve their posture and function. The problem is that when we are 20, 30 and even sometimes 40, we think we are invincible. We can jump, skip, deadlift, do copious amounts of burpees and basically thrash our bodies any way we can in the pursuit of that elusive “perfect body”. The problem is that our bones, ligaments, joints, tendons and muscles do a great job, but they can’t withstand poor form, excessive weight and often un-controlled rapid movement. Sure, we can get away with it for a number of years, but rest assured it catches up with you and I see this with the vast majority of our clients. While group exercise is great for motivation and is vastly cheaper than personal training, please beware of its limitations. The reality is that three of the most popular forms of group exercise (in no particular order) – F45, CrossFit and boot camps – do not in any way factor in your posture and all exercises are of a generic nature with little or no attention given to the curvature of your spine and your resulting posture. So be warned! Our spine is made up of four of curves, namely: Cervical Thoracic Lumbar Sacral It is important to maintain good posture and as much as I wish we could “just stand up straight”, it is not that simple and requires concerted effort to have a balance of strength and flexibility. One simple test is to stand up straight and notice if your hands are closed over and your palms facing your outer thigh (a sign of a tight chest and weak upper back muscles) or are your palms facing the same way you are (a sign of a great balance between chest flexibility and good upper back strength). You see, we need to maintain our flexibility and mobility while also strengthening to keep our natural spine curvature and in doing so reducing the risk of injury and reducing strain on our muscles, ligaments and tendons. Have you ever had a posture assessment? Most people that I ask that to answer “no” and interestingly enough, for every client that I have ever trained in my 25 years and provided a posture assessment and accompanying education around improving it are fascinated with the insight and then buy in to the need to improve it. If you would like me to email you some simple postural exercises and accompanying “how to” exercise videos, please send an email to – [email protected]. Let me know that you read this article and I will only be too happy to send you some helpful exercises that you can do for as little as 7-8 minutes a day and they are exactly what we prescribe to all new clients in their first session! For more information, exercise guidance or if you have any questions feel free to contact me: [email protected] •