POSTURE, POSTURE, POSTURE, THE KEY TO YOUR WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS
Posture simply refers to the alignment of your body. Perfect posture is when your ankle, knee, hips, shoulders and ear are in alignment. If you have perfect posture then the forces that life places on us would be distributed through the body evenly and we would not have stress on the muscles, ligaments and joints. Unfortunately for the majority of people this isn’t the case, most peoples joints are locked up and there muscles are not working properly. As a whole there body is a poor performer when compared with optimal posture.
Poor posture – e.g., rounded shoulders, forward head posture, anterior tilt of the pelvis. These are some examples.
So what effect will these problems have on us?
Once one area of the body is unbalanced it sends forces that are different to that intended by the body and so it affects another area in a negative way as well. This effectively has an adverse effect on the body as a whole.
So how is this, the key to my weight loss?
Ok so here’s a scenario I see a lot of with my clients; your body in terms of alignment is pretty bad. You have muscles that are not working well if at all, your joints are taking extreme pressures they shouldn’t be. Your range of movement is limited, you know if this is you, if you can’t squat to at least level with your bum. (Ideally you’re calf touching hamstring at the bottom of the movement in an ideal world).
In terms of an exercise perspective if your range of motion is limited. The amount of the muscle that you are working is also drastically reduced. So if you’re doing a squat, where you not even getting level with your bum. I’m doing a squat where my bum is almost touching the ground and my hamstrings are touching my calves. In terms of a calorie burning perspective the difference is huge. I’m working at least twice as much of the muscle as you are. So by increasing the range of your motion, your calorie burning potential will fly up. That’s just in terms of exercise.
Poor posture, causes the body a great deal of stress. As a result stress causes us to secrete more stress hormones. Hormones are chemicals released by your own body which are produced to impact other parts of it. They are often called “messengers” that transport information from one cell to another. Just small quantities of hormones can dramatically impact the entire cells metabolism.
Stress makes your body produce two hormones, adrenaline and cortisol.
Cortisol, when it’s maintained at excess quantities, it has various negative impacts on the body including sending a hormonal signal to the fat cells in the abdomen to store as much fat as possible.
Adrenaline is a good thing when we it is used as intended. The body creates adrenaline for fight and flight situations, and you need that extra boost to get you through emergencies. However, adrenaline was never intended for daily use, which is how it is being used today. And the result is weight gain.
So in conclusion just the effects of these additional stress hormones been secreted due to the body been stressed due to poor posture can cause you to gain weight/ fat. Added to the fact that your range of motion is limited and your workouts are not giving you the benefits they are intended to. Most likely causing your body more stress due to incorrect movements and in so secreting even more stress hormone as a result you will gain weight/ fat and eventually gain injuries.
So to avoid gaining weight and potentially injuring yourself. Look into correcting your posture. Your body will feel, look and perform better and you will lose fat quicker than ever before.
TO YOUR SUCCESS
Harry Pointon
Health Coach
Book a consultation today