The correct posture that helps you in running (and in life)

• Keeping a straight back, open shoulders and proper sitting posture benefits overall body health and breathing.

• To accomplish this more easily, it helps to use special chairs or standing workstations.

• Practicing yoga, Pilates, and activities that improve proprioception and balance contributes to overall well-being, complementing efforts to maintain proper posture.

“Keep your back straight!”, “Open your shoulders!”, “Don’t bend too much while studying!”
Have you ever heard yourself saying these things while eating, studying, or just sitting? They were not and are not baseless orders or warnings, and they have nothing to do only with politeness or good posture.

Keeping the back straight and not arching it while sitting at the table and opening your shoulders as much as possible are in fact habits that we should all try to have because they allow our body not to assume positions that deform it and our respiratory system to be free to expand and contract. Because as you know, everything is connected.

Sitting well

Since you most likely spend more time sitting than standing or moving, standing in the best way can ensure that you benefit even when walking, running or just standing. In short, let’s say that focusing on a posture maintained percent longer is the most rational way to produce positive results.

That’s why getting a work chair with lumbar support (i.e., not a perfectly upright backrest) can help you maintain the correct posture, which involves the spine following its natural curvature, i.e., retracting a little at the base and arching only slightly at the top, like a very elongated S (right in the photo). Any other position is to be avoided, such as one that causes it to assume a single curvature (left) that compresses the lungs and prevents them from expanding, or such as the middle position that puts too much weight on its back. Indeed, consider that the body is a machine in perfect balance, which has therefore evolved so that each of its parts has a precise function. In the case of the skeletal system, each of its parts serves to take a share of the weight. In short, if you only charge one part of the body, it inevitably suffers.

Try to work (even) standing

An alternative to sitting and working is – drum roll – do it standing! Therefore, in recent years, also aided by the spread of working from home, workstations for working in this way, also known as standing desks , have become popular. These are height-adjustable tables that thus allow for both seated and standing work. Some models also have a reclining work surface.

Note that they are therefore not just tables made for working standing up, but for doing so standing up as well. Alternate, again, is the right answer. After all, standing 4/5 hours in a row may not be easy.

Body beauty routine

You do the beauty routine for the skin, do you want to not do it for the body? Since we’ve talked so far about balance, weights, etc., you’ve already figured out where we want to go with this: that’s right, to yoga, core, Pilates, and generally all activities that allow you to develop proprioception and balance. Which is based on the harmonic relationship of weights and forces, need we remind you?

After all, we spend relatively little time working out compared to sitting or doing anything else. In short, assuming the most correct posture during most of your day is the right thing to do.

(Via Canadian Running)