Posture Changes From Sitting To Standing

The key to independence in old age is being able to stand up. It’s no more complicated than that. Start practicing now so you will be able to stand up and sit down without help for as long as you live. Research indicates it would take at least 32 posture changes from sitting to standing and back again to maintain healthy blood pressure regulation. I know this for a fact from my studies with volunteers lying in bed continuously, 24 hours a day for four days. It took standing up from bed 16 times a day to prevent the tendency to faint when they got up. That means it took that many changes in posture to maintain the blood pressure that the sensors measured. It would take as many as 32+ times of standing from sitting, since that is a smaller change in the gravity stimulus than it is from lying down to standing. Consider 32 your lowest goal. More will not hurt you, though less may not produce the desired effect. How do you get out of your chair? Do you lean on the arms of the chair? Do you lean on your knees? Keep your mobile phone at a distance, or dock it so you have to get up to answer it. Drink plenty of water so that you must get up to use the bathroom often.

A Long Way From Home

Aspire to stand up without leaning on anything. However, even if at first you do use furniture for support, you are strengthening the arms. Once standing up without support is mastered, do it very slowly to perfect it. Then try getting up from a low armchair or sofa without the help of the firm seat. That adds challenge to this habit. When I recommended frequent standing up at one of my talks, a man in the audience complained he could not do that because he worked all day with a computer. If he stood up too often, his boss would fire him. Asked whether he drank water, he replied, Yes, of course. I have a bottle on my desk. Put it on a shelf just far enough so that you have to stand up to reach it! All you have to do is give in to it, and presto! Maintain good posture, and the more slowly you sit down, the more benefit your muscles get. That is a great leg strengthening exercise. Are you getting the idea? Your knees are bent at an acute angle and your buttocks are near the floor.

Watching The Wheels

For everyone, it is the most efficient position for going to the bathroom, as it allows gravity to help the rectum expel waste. Holding a squat position strengthens the large thigh muscles. Our head weighs about 15 pounds and sits on top of the spine. The head is the only weight the upper spine carries. It serves to keep the bone density of the spine strong. Many of us tend to drop our head forward when we sit or walk. However, doing this reduces our spine’s work against gravity, and so it weakens, can become frail, our back muscles hurt, and we lose height. When you stand and sit, practice good posture, with a strong back, shoulders down, and back and abdominal muscles slightly flexed. Scrunching up your shoulders will put tension onto your neck muscles. My yoga teacher says, Imagine a string pulling straight up from the top of your head. Raising your shoulders does no good, so keep them down and stretch your head upward toward the string. I once had a hairdresser who used to pull my hair when she washed it.

Can You Hear Me

I would catch myself squirming up toward her to avoid the pain. Make sure you are not dropping it forward. Bend your left arm behind your back to grab the elbow of the right arm held straight downward beside you. You will immediately feel your shoulder blades come together, your shoulders move downward, and your chest rise. Hold as long as you can. This stretch releases shoulder tension, as well as strengthening the good posture habit. Grasping your hands behind your back can also help you relieve the tension in your back. Sitting in armchairs does no good to your posture because your elbows are raised and rest forward. I found an easy way to train the shoulder blades back is to sit with your hands resting high up on your thighs. Holding this position naturally presses the shoulder blades together. Keeping both arms against your sides and bent at the elbow, move the elbows backward, bringing your shoulder blades together. When you become good at it, you can work on your keyboard in this position. This stretch is also great on long flights or when waiting at traffic lights. If you make this move often while you work at your desk and while you sit at traffic lights holding your shoulders down, you will greatly reduce your risk of suffering from a stiff neck and shoulders. Keep your sense of balance strong and move like a runway model by walking with your legs and feet close together. Aim to keep your gaze focused straight ahead rather than at your feet. This will help you walk taller and keep your spine strong. A brisk walk in a park or other pleasant surroundings can be emotionally rewarding, too. On the other hand, a brisk or power walk of two miles in 40 minutes burns 192 to 222 calories, depending on your weight. If you want to burn twice as many calories for the same distance in the same time, try carrying a backpack. But whatever you do, be sure to walk tall! The emphasis is on moving briskly and with purpose. Walking is a series of intermittent steps, each one generating a vertical gravity stimulus by its impact. The faster you take those steps, the higher the frequency. And he works with weights three times a week. As I write this, John Glenn is 90 and still going strong. He must be doing something right!