Posture Exercise: A Tool for Anti-Aging
Posture exercise is the best possible anti-aging tool available! It is a known fact that exercise is the primary mode of aging well. According to studies, exercise alone can add three years to a person’s lifespan. These specific exercises strengthen your balance, alignment and motion to improve your health and quality of life.
Posture exercise improves flexibility, which decreases premature aging and the chances of injury. It does this by diffusing the effects of excessive mechanical stress. Specific balance training reduces the number of falls a person might experience. This is significant because once a fall occurs, “there is a 50% chance of another fall within six months” as noted by cdc.gov. Strong balance improves physical performance and reduces the fear of falling. This enables aging people to move about independently. With the knowledge of pelvic tuck and one-leg-balance, they can assess any given situation, such as maneuvering stairs or squatting down to pick up an object. Then they are empowered to do a pelvic tuck followed by stepping or squatting with ease.
Day to day life makes the body move in patterns, compensating to keep it from feeling pain or discomfort. Because of that compensation, some muscles shorten while the others overstretch. Common ailments such as lower back pain, neck and shoulder pain, and headaches are all conditions that can be reduced by strengthening those weakened muscles.
Each generation is aging better and better by educating themselves and taking care of their bodies. Learning these posture exercises and perfecting them one by one will allow you to be more in control of how your body moves. Controlled movements keep you moving confidently for a more active, healthier lifestyle.
Nicole Howard, C.M.T.
Advanced Alternatives in Spine & Health Care
Richmond, VA
