Uncle Joe wants you to stand up straight.

Good posture is not a particularly sexy idea.  The cool kids slouch.  We curl up in comfy chairs.  We hunch over our desks.  And it isn’t good for us.

 

Uncle Joe (Pilates, that is) encourages us to buck this trend.  This is only partly because he was obsessed with breathing.  When we don’t have good alignment in our bodies, we can’t breathe as well, which affects everything from our cognitive function to our energy levels.

 

Another reason Uncle Joe wants us to get ourselves in line has to do with efficiency.  He was all about efficient movement and that starts with having correct length-tension relationships in our muscles.  What the heck are length-tension relationships?  Our muscles have an optimal default length when they are not contracting.  When they contract, or shorten, they move our bones.  If our muscles are too tense or too slack to begin with, they can’t exert as much force and we don’t move as well, as much, or as efficiently.  We end up doing a lot more work.

 

Good posture helps protect us from overuse injuries.  When we get out of alignment, our parts wear out faster (just like tires on a car!).

 

If all of that is too high-minded to be motivational, here’s one more reason to acquire good posture:  we’ll look thinner.

 

We can do it!