Thoughts on "Bad" Posture

How important is having “good” posture? What is good posture and how much does it matter for how we feel in our bodies?

I’ve had so many people over the years tell me how “bad” their posture is. Pilates is known as exercise that promotes good posture, and when I was in my training program there was a lot of focus on assessing and cueing for better posture with the idea that the “good” posture is better and also prevents or heals injuries. 

The more I learn, there are aspects of this that aren’t really so black and white. We do ourselves a disservice in labeling one posture as good and another as bad. There aren’t any bad postures. Your body isn’t bad. You might have developed patterns and ways of sitting, standing and moving that feel set in place, sure. But I don’t think there is some magical perfect posture to obtain. I do think it is interesting to be aware of what changes your posture (hint, often it is your emotional and nervous system state!) and what your awareness of comfort, discomfort, tension and ease are in different postures. 

Our bodies are designed to move and to explore different ranges of motion and different ways of being in our bodies. When we explore different ways of moving, and different postural alignments, we are bringing more options and more choice to our bodies, which is a wonderful thing. I think it’s fun to explore posture and movement from this perspective, instead of feeling that we are bad and need to be fixed.

How does your experience of your posture change when you approach changes from a place of curiosity and playfulness, instead of feeling like something is wrong with you? Questions or thoughts let me know!