Foundation Series

You know the good stuff is always on the top shelf, right?

Here’s me with my ‘good stuff’ –  notice happy face ☺

But do you know that as we age our ability to reach upwards decreases?

Leaving that aside for the moment I’d like to share a lovely event I went to last weekend.

I attended my 18 year old stepsons graduation last weekend…his name is Callan by the way :).

It was held at the Marriott Hotel and the graduates all rocked up in the fanciest of fancy cars. Gorgeous young couples stepped out regally from Corvettes, Bentleys and sports cars to pose for photos.  Camera’s were flashing from all directions.  Everyone was a star !

The radiant couples stepped out on the red carpet for more photos.  The girls were just gorgeous with beautiful, glitzy and clinging dresses, their hair and makeup immaculate.

The boys looked swank in their tuxedos and slicked hair. The end of High School excitement evident on their faces.   They looked polished,  poised, confident and obviously revelling in the moment.  Many months of planning has gone in to this event and everyone was proud, father’s beaming and  mum’s shedding a tear… or 20 ☺

So, there we were mingling, chatting, champagne in hand and waiting to be called in for the professional photos and I had moments to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes. Posture and alignment spotting !!

What my beady, curious eyes observed was that once these graduates were no longer posing for photos their posture would change. They would fold at the waist, shoulders drooping forward, chests crashing.  Ok, I admit not all of them but many of them.

Also, they’d fidget, a lot, and I mean a lot !

Beautifully manicured fingers would be grabbing and lifting up bodices or rearranging straps.  There were nervous looks around the room and shuffling of feet. Suddenly many would transform back to self-conscious teenagers still finding their way and still not quite comfortable in their bodies and certainly not confident in their unfamiliar formal clothing, as beautiful as they looked.

They were unconsciously revealing, via their body language and posture, how they were really feeling at this event, nervous anticipation of the evening ahead. Any previous projection of confidence was gone.

Do you Strut?

Think about the last person you watched on stage successfully keeping their audience attentive and interested.  I’m sure they didn’t  stand with arms and legs crossed, collapsing in to their torso’s as they delivered their message.

More than likely they would have strutted back and forth across the stage, arms stretching out and gesticulating animatedly.  They may well have been nervous but their body language would have projected self assurance,  confidence and belief in what they are saying.

Here’s the thing though…

To project this amount of confidence you need to be able to comfortably stretch your arms wide, and be able to take long strides, without experiencing muscle discomfort or joint pain.  This long-term ability is dependent on maintaining length and suppleness of the muscles in your trunk.

I’m 58 years old (arrrrgh…how and when did that happen? ).  I’d be lying if I said that having a youthful body shape isn’t important to me. Of course, it is!  I want a toned, lifted booty and flat abs as much as anyone but, what is more important to me, is that I feel as flexible, mobile and healthy for as long as I can.   I want to be able to reach out and reach out wide, not from my shoulder joints but from my trunk muscles, where the reaching is meant to be initiated.

Stress and Posture

Our musculature is responding to stress… daily!  We can’t control it,  the muscular contractions are involuntary.  Multiple times a day the flexor muscles of your abs and the muscles of your back will contract.   Notice how the muscles in your trunk feel at the end of a stressful day…do I need to say more?  Remember the teenagers at the formal?

This negatively affects our health, our vitality, including stress levels, our body shape, including posture and it also affects how confident and empowered we feel as well as the image we are projecting to others.

Confidence is something that seems to diminish as we age.  Our bravado seems to dampen and we may grieve for the days when we were impulsive and dive in to new projects with unabashed enthusiasm and “I can do it” attitude.

…but, don’t panic I have wonderful news

Any ageing can be reversed.  Once you start lengthening out your muscles you will not only look years younger but you’ll feel amazing.

You’ll notice subtle changes such as an increase in drive and motivation.  You may even be interested in taking up a new hobby or join a group to make new friends.  I know this to be true because, after over 13 years teaching Callanetics, I’ve seen this many times in my classes.   After only a few sessions the vitality and feel of a new student changes.  They become sharper more alert and their energy increase is obvious to all.

No wonder I love my job 🙂

So, are you finding that you’re no longer able to reach up with ease to the top shelf?  If done regularly, this gentle stretch will lengthen out your trunk muscles to provide an increase in the ability to rotate your torso and improve your reach.

 Set Up:

• Lie down with your arms relaxed at the side of your body and knees spread pelvic width apart and feet facing forwards
• Cross your left leg over your right leg, as though sitting in a chair.
• Reach your right arm behind you and rest on the floor
• Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, very slowly tilt both legs over to the left while you simultaneously reach your right arm back along the floor and turn your head to the right.
• Breathe in and bring the legs back up to vertical, relax your right arm and turn your head back to centre
• Breathe out and allow your knees to tilt again to the left, stretching right arm back and head turning to the right.

Repeat this 5-10 times very slowly and mindfully.

Uncross your legs and lie for 30 secs or more while you internally compare the difference between both sides of the body.  Especially pay attention to how your waist and hips feel on the right side compared to left.  Also, notice your breathing.  Are you taking a deeper, fuller breath?

Now repeat with right leg crossed over left leg and reach your left arm back behind you on the floor.

Tips

Completely relax your waist and trunk muscles as your legs tilt to the left.

Notice and pay attention to which muscles need to tighten and contract to bring your knees back up.

Avoid jerking and any forcing movements  –  Always move in triple slow motion!

I hope you enjoy this stretch and I’d love to hear how it went for you.

Happy Stretching

Sandra xx