Reach New Heights

Good posture not only helps you look taller and slimmer, but it can improve everything from your breathing to digestion. And it’s easier than you think, says sara bunny

Posture. It’s the sort of thing you might not have thought about since you were told off at school for slouching, but when it comes to health benefits, paying more attention to your alignment can have a big impact on both body and mind.

And if you believe it’s just about standing up straight or balancing a book on your head, Sydney-based biomechanics expert Dell-Maree Day says think again. “There’s that classic line we heard from our grandmothers, ‘Sit straight, pull your shoulders back’,” she says. “But immediately when we hear the word ‘straight’, we overcorrect, and this is why a lot of people who try to improve their posture end up feeling like they are exacerbating aches and pains, as they are pulling themselves up with the wrong muscles.”

So instead of getting stuck on the word ‘straight’, Day recommends thinking ‘tall’ for an instant posture boost. “Focus on being tall and relaxed, and you’ll immediately notice that your body will start to stack the vertebrae of the spine,” she says. “As soon as that happens, your shoulder blades know to instantly slide into the correct position. This isn’t really about exercise; it’s about working with all of the natural, innate intelligence that’s in our bodies.”

Muscle and bone basics

When it comes to working the right muscles for posture, Day says it’s the ones you can’t see that make all the difference, rather than the main muscles we typically try to tone with exercise. Out of the 639 muscles that work hard to get us through the day, more than three quarters are part of an invisible network that keep our skeleton in place.