[Vickie]

Physioguy is right on the money,as usual, the best way to correct your posture is by putting yourself in postures that "allow" your muscles to "remember" the way they are supposed to support the spine in action. Exercise is not natural and when you are doing a stretch or a strength movement your body is your machine. But you're right when the workout is over you don't want to feel that rigid.

If you stand facing a mirror and the back of your palms are mostly flat then you are probably rounding in the shoulders and your neck is probably protruding forward. If you look at the vitruvian man (think Leonard di Vinci's naked man in the circle) and you will see palms open, this is an over corrected posture, the one you use to workout. People with good posture will have their shoulders back, their ears up and back over their shoulder bones and the web of their hand (between the thyumb and index finger) will be reflected in the mirror instead of the hand surfaces.

Your body has a priority protocol to keep the atlas, the first cervical vertebrae (that your head sits on) and your sacrum in positive alignment. The extent to which your body can maintain this healthy aligment is a function of your repetative movements in your lifestyle. If you keep your body in alignment it will repeat that mechanical behavior, if you misalign throughout the day and don't correct then, you guessed it, it will move to the aligned postures you create most often; even to it's own detrement An easy example: The reason most golfers have a high shoulder is that they put their body in that posture frequently and repetitively to hit a golf ball without following up with a request, a correction in the alignment, to come back to a more balanced posture.

See your bones go where your muscles take them. So if the weight of your head is forward and your shoulders are rounding then the muscles will create a tension to maintain this posture. Your stretching program and your strength training program are critical to remind your body of the proper relationships of the muscles to the spine. The body has a preference for balance but can only comply with the physiclal movements to which it is exposed.

Reversing misalignment, bad posture, can take some time. Remember, when you start a program your body isn't performing the complete stretch so you can't get frustrated and say the workouts aren't working until you have been able to perform the movements perfectly and repeatedly. There aren't a lot of people who can do that. Everyday, when I stretch, yes everyday, I give my body an opportunity to revisit the appropriate balance of tension on my right side relative to my left side throughout the length of my spine, from my head to hips. As a consequence I don't have any back pain (I spent most of my young life in continuous but not too much crippling pain) If I feel my low back tightening up because of the activity of my life (whether it's golf, tennis, gardening, sitting at the computer) I will drop right down on the floor and do the torso twist at my first opportunity.

I start every day with about six stretches;that takes about ten minutes. I do almost the same thing at night but add or take out movements and substitute stretches that 'feel right'. Three times a week I have a stretch workout that lasts about 30 minutes where I am really working on a lot of different movements and I hold the positions for up to 90 seconds. This is usually on a shorter strength workout day immediately after my workout or later in the day in front of the news.

One of the reasons I like dumbbell work in strength training programs is that it really forces you to see your bilateral strengths and weaknesses. That is, you can see if you have a stronger side that helps out the weaker side. If you are holding a weight in each hand you can see when the weaker side is strugging. This tells you what you should be doing in your workout more accurately than following any single program someone else suggests. With every client I walk into their home with an idea of the specific work I want to accomplish and then as I see their body work realize I need to change adjust the focus of the work.

If it sounds like a lot to do just think how much the dentist could inflict if you didn't brush and floss appropriately. Your body requires the same consistent maintenance your teeth do especially since we like to use or bodies in a very aligned sport. It is a great fix for keeping your body usable, pain free and the best preventative for arthritis. You're not going to stop eating so you keep flossing.

Do your stretches, don't think about it, just treat yourself well. Be easy in your daily work when you are beginning and enjoy the relaxation. Never stretch to the point of grimmicing but make sure you really feel the stretch and be very strict in your technique. I figure there are enough threads about strength.

Gee physioguy, I may be making your thread look short.

Vik