Home » » Aerobics » Good posture: the spine

Good posture: the spine

© Soumy Ana

The spine plays a central part in having a good posture. It is a flexible structure that might be compared to a train with its wagons, consisting of 24 vertebrae (or wagons): 7 in the neck, 12 in the chest, 5 in the lower back, making a total of 24.

These bones are connected by tough ligaments and separated by pads of cartilage (intervertebral discs). These disks act as shock absorbers and allow the flexible movement of the spine.

When we are standing, the spine naturally curves both inwards and outwards. Imagine how many times we use our spines to sit down, lift a weight, clean our house, etc.

Forward pelvis tilt?

Women experience more hips problems than men for different reasons. One of them is that it is believed to look cute for girls to stand their tummies out. If you watch gymnasts perform, you will automatically notice how curved is their lower back. They do that by tilting their pelvises forward. This posture tends to stick as they grow older and causes health problems, even arthritis.

Wearing high heels worsen their condition as well as bad habits such as picking up objects from a higher place by curving their spine a little bit farther off. When a girl or a woman does that, the head of the femur or the thighbone is not sitting properly in its socket anymore. Because of this, her hip muscles work overtime. After a certain time, she begins to feel pain all over her middle body: buttock, low back, abdominal, pelvic. It might even be harder for her during childbirth due to her pelvis tilting in an odd angle.

Relaxing the tight muscles may help. The only way is to learn a better posture and to stretch.

One of the ways to stretch the muscles on the back of your spine is to tighten your abdominal muscles. Since muscles work with opposite muscles, when you stretch one, you contract the other.

During the warm up session of an aerobics class, most instructors use a backward pelvis tilt in order to stretch the hips flexors and the quadriceps. Ease into it and hold the position; you will learn that way how to relax the painful part of your lower back and avoid discomforts during the session.

The copyright of the article Good posture: the spine in Aerobics is owned by Amy Burychka. Permission to republish Good posture: the spine in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.