Bad Posture

While reading Core Performance, a book about a workout program developed by Mark Verstegen, I saw a section written by Mia Hamm in which she commented on how the workout helped her improve her posture. This made me feel a little bit better about myself, if an amazing athlete like Mia Hamm slouches, how bad can it really be. I got to thinking a little more in depth about my own posture.

When I was in middle school, or maybe early high school, my grandmother paid for modeling classes for me in hope that it would improve my posture. Just imagine me, slightly chunky for my age, in a modeling class at our local cultural center, learning how to walk in high heels and fancy dresses with all the pretty girls from my school. As I’m sure you expected, this horrifying experience did little to perfect my posture.

Every day that I see my mom, she comments on my posture. “Stand up straight. Stop slouching. Put your shoulders back.” It never ends with her. In high school I blamed in on my heavy backpack, but now that I go to an average of 1.2 classes per day, I can’t really use that excuse any more.

But what is my bad posture really doing to me? I don’t just mean physically or medically; what is it doing for my appearance? Does it affect the way I represent myself to other people? As a student of the great University of Florida and a member of various organizations I am a representative of lots of different people, and if I’m slouching I might be giving off a negative impression. Am I visibly slouching when I talk to people? Probably. Does it affect these people’s opinion of me?

My posture is something I’ve always wanted to change, and reading about how Core Performance helped athletes like Mia Hamm and baseball player Vernon Wells inspired me to try some of the exercises. I’ll keep you posted (that’s a little blogger humor right there) on how it goes.