I’ve been studying posture since my car accident 16 years ago when I decided to become a personal trainer. The inspiration came from the fact that I was in a lot of head, neck and spinal pain. No-one was able to fix the pain or my spine until I met a great chiropractor. I was told by him that my recovery was rapid, and that the rapidity was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s modern encyclopaedia of body building. 

Since then I’ve played with a lot of training styles, as originally I was training to get into the UK karate squad; martial arts and sport have been a passion of mine since I was 7 years old.

Anyway, back to you, why is posture so important?  I’ll be frank, I’ve met many people and trained many people.

“The difference between a confident person and a strong person can be as simple as their posture.”

Another thing I’ve noticed is nowadays a lot of people have poor or weak posture. But posture isn’t a sexy topic – it’s not a buzz word people go for. Yet, people still ask about muscle building and weight loss.

Words of my typical client are ‘toning up’, but what I always see again and again is poor posture.

When the client realises that I am helping them to tone up, build muscle or lose weight with the aid of posture, they are really grateful that I have done so.

So, what are the key components of posture?

1. Strength – weights, bodyweight, or sports (personally I think it should be a mix of the above).

2. Movements that challenge – climbing, jumping, walking, throwing, striking, sprinting or crawling.

3. Stretching – not Yoga but stretching tight muscles that worsen posture on a regular basis so that it improves.

4. Balance – balance of the foot or feet and the hand or hands.