I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED

Jim is a GREAT example of how much posture tells us about our environment. His posture physically hints at the destruction of healthy communal family structures in favor of the confusing, sterilized nuclear family model that we see driving a lot of teen angst (and back pain!) in 1950s America!

It all comes down to this tucked tailbone:

When you tuck your tailbone, it's easy for the back muscles to be overstretched and not strong, which leads to excess pressure being put on the vertebrae of your spine. In the US, baseline back muscle strength and spine straightness was pretty good up until the 1920s, when the fashion industry started convincing people that upright backs are stuffy and old-fashioned and slouching (with the pelvis tilted up and forward) is sexy. (Slouching is unfortunately not sexy because it shortens your hamstrings, weakens your back muscles, interferes with proper shoulder movement, and damages your spine, let alone your internal organs.)

Around the 1950s, we start seeing a HUGE rise in back pain where there didn't used to be any before. You get kids like Jim Stark who are still under the media influence that slouched posture looks cooler, and who grew up with parents who have never provided helpful examples of good posture to mimic. Children learn by mimicking their parents and by being guided by touch. In 20th century America, you get a bunch of contraptions being invented to replace familial touch, so instead of being manually held into a spinal stretch as babies are when being carried hands-on by parents/grandparents/caretakers who know what they're doing, babies are left to slouch in shapeless or even slouch-encouraging seats. It sounds silly to say babies shouldn't slouch, but it's amazing how that stuff trickles down into adulthood.

And with the post-war zealotry for the nuclear family, you get kids cut off from ancestral knowledge of healthy posture and/or how to raise kids with healthy posture. These parents are just kind of making it up as they go along, and you can obviously see Jim's frustration with that in the movie as he struggles with his family's confused gender roles. [For the record, I'm gay and all for dads wearing aprons, but symbolically speaking it's important that Jim doesn't know what to model in society because there's no stability in his role models. On a related note, there's also something gender-ishly interesting about Jim Stark (and other male 1950s sex symbols like Marlon Brando, Elvis, etc.) in that their posture (pelvis up and forward, shoulders rolled in) is just like those 1920s women's fashion ads that made slouching look cool.]

So yeah, the dissolution of ancestral familial connections to healthy living and the explosion of new family structures/roles makes for a lot of Jim Stark's angst and his need to create his own family out of the pieces he collects. And you can see that all in his posture!

What is posture analysis

Posture analysis is for any imbalances in a person’s posture that could cause body pain. When a person is in correct posture, the body weight will be distributed evenly and appropriately, which allows the person’s muscles, joints and spine to work together effectively.

Why is posture so important?

Incorrect posture could cause injury and body pain, because incorrect…

I think I probably get more questions about downward facing dog than any other yoga posture. It makes an appearance in nearly every yoga class, and if you take a vinyasa class, you will probably do a thousand of them. (OK maybe not a thousand but it feels like it!) Lots of teachers will say something to the effect of "ok now exhale to downward facing dog" without any other specific instruction, assuming students know what they are supposed to be doing. This leads to a lot of "Am I doing this right?" and/or complaints about wrist or shoulder pain after class. Downward facing dog is often included in a beginner's class or early in a yoga practice, and it's often described as "a resting pose" even though it's kind of complex and can stress multiple joints.

So let's take some time to examine downward facing dog to see how we can make it feel better.

Here's an analysis of the posture, and a few things to do to prepare:

In general, it's important to do some simple preparation for the spine, stretch the legs a little bit, and prepare the wrists and shoulders for weight bearing.

Then, find your specific alignment. The general guideline for downward facing dog is hands shoulder width apart. In the video, you can see that's way too narrow for me! Follow along to find out how to figure out what is the best placement for YOU.

Dear reader: I must warn you the content of this blog post is incredibly important to your health! I must also warn you that its charisma-factor is probably the equivalent to your dentist telling you that you need to floss more. 

Still reading? Good for you. Let's proceed. 

This isn't the glamorous side of personal training, but it's one of the most important aspects. Flashing pictures of six-pack abs and promising extreme fat loss in a bootcamp- now that's glamorous. Telling a client they need to take it easy for a few weeks and do a series of stretching and back strengthening exercises- not so much. 

This is currently only common sense in the personal training realm, but I'm here to say this is something you should look into if you workout on your own. Let's make it common knowledge and help decrease unnecessary aches and pains and prevent injuries! Here we go:

It's extremely important to straighten out your body and balance your muscles before you start to lift and get stronger. When I say straighten you out, I'm referring to correcting your posture and any muscular asymmetries. A typical posture program can last anywhere from 1 to 8 weeks, and I recommend you meet with a personal trainer to assess and design a personalized program for you.

You need to correct your posture because if you start to strength train with imbalances, you increase the risk of injury later on in life. Your asymmetries will increase, which means certain muscles will start taking over responsibilities they were never designed to do, and other muscles will decrease activity entirely. This is a big concern especially if you sit all day.

I am in the process of figuring out how to help members of The Fit Tutor (which will be launched in DAYS!) with postural imbalances and designing programs for common posture problems, but I still believe nothing can substitute some one-on-one time with a trainer who knows their stuff! 

This is really only the tip of the iceberg on this topic. Below you'll see a few resources if you want to research further, but this is something for which I recommend seeing a professional! If you aren't excited about paying the $$ for a trainer, see if they will design a posture program for you to do at home for a flat fee, and then you can sign up for The Fit Tutor!

I believe that this is really important to good muscular health! Taking the time to do this now will save you a lot of trouble later- maybe from just an achy neck or from an injury that takes you out of commission for months. 

Best of Luck!

Allison

Resources:

Tao Fitness: This has an ahhhmazing series on posture but it's really in depth. If you want your posture corrected but refuse to see a trainer, check out this site!  

Taylored Nutrition- good article about adjusting pelvic tilts

Men's Health- Exercises you should do every day