I talked about learning “better” breathing before. Closely relating to that, posture is almost equally important for our daily lives and health. Actually, getting the breathing down will depend on having better posture. Several factors together prompted me and helped me to fix my own postures: back pain from sitting in office (major), gym’ing, playing piano, and singing. Not only will better postures improve our health and make us feel better in general, with better posture, there will certainly be improvement in all activities/exercise.

By no means am I an health expert, but here are some pointers that I follow personally and have great results:

• Spread and relax the shoulders so they’re slightly angle downward
• Arms on the side of the body
• Straighten up the neck and tuck the chin in, so the head does not stick forward
• Push the sternum outward slightly so the rib cage is opened

These last 4 will help you not to slouch.

• Don’t lock the knees while standing
• Spreading your legs to shoulder width apart while standing
• Feet pointed forward, not diagonally. To allow the hips to relax and consequently, the spine also
• While sitting at a desk or in front of computer, maintain a straight back do not lean your body forward or backward
• Relax muscles around the buttocks when sitting
• Balance the weight of the body more towards the balls of the feet instead of the heels

These last 6 steps will help to reduce the strain on th back tremendously.

• Finally, together with everything, try to feel and monitor the body so you know when your body is tense and try to relax. Deep breathing will help to do that. Drinking more water will also help.

Those are the things I do, and I am noticing how it has helped me in everything. It’s the fundamental in all the things we do, be it piano, dancing, working out, singing, basketball. Fix and improve your posture, then keep it consistently to live a better life :)