Your posture is like your home.

“My postures looks horrible.  I sit at a desk all day; my shoulders are always slumped over; my neck hurts; my back aches. Can Pilates help my posture?”

Pilates can help Posture in many ways but how Pilates can help your posture specifically depends on what kind of posture you have.  Let’s first talk a bit about posture.

What is your posture type or do you know?  Did your teacher or mother constantly tell you to sit up straight?   Were you ever called lazy bones?  Do you see people out there who look like they’re in the military?  Maybe you know people who look a little like a bass drum but are too polite to say anything.  There are as many posture types as there are people.  Our life and lifestyle have a big influence on our posture.  If we sit at a desk all day, it will affect our posture.  New parents holding a baby on one hip all day will take a toile on the body’s posture altering it over time.  The kind of work or activities we engage in regularly will affect how we carry ourselves.  How we look and feel about what we see in the mirror has a lot to do with our posture.  Posture can be altered by strengthening and/or lengthening muscles.  Regardless of what city we’re in, what job we’re doing or where we’re coming from or going to, we live in the same place 24/7.  We live in our bodies.  When your house has a leak in the roof, you fix it.  If the window is broken, you fix it.  If your body doesn’t feel as comfortable to live in, fix it!  Start with something as simple as looking in the mirror and deciding if you’re happy with your posture.  Once you’ve decided what you do and don’t like about your posture, figure out how to fix it.  That’s the hard part.  It’s not as clear what you’re looking for to help with fixing your posture.  When your house’s roof is leaking, you look for a roofer. What do you do or who do you go to when you look like “the sower”?  A knowledgeable Pilates instructor will be able to not only help you but also give you some tools so that you can help yourself when you start falling back into “the sower” posture.  What roofer is going to give you tools to so that you can do patch up jobs on your own roof when it starts leaking again?   With a Pilates instructor you can have a postural analysis done which will help both you and the instructor identify areas to work on. While you may have some idea of areas you want to focus on your Pilates instructor can see you from all angles and be able to suggest other areas that you may not be aware of.  For examples shoulder and the scapular area.  A lot of improvements can be made by working the upper and lower back region resulting in a more upright, erect posture thus giving the illusion of more height.   Perhaps you have a bit more of a “lazy bones” posture.  You may be very hard working, sitting at your desk and in front of the computer all day, slaving away.  And what do you have to show for all your hard work?  “Lazy bones.”  You along with your Pilates instructor can identify what areas need strengthening and stretching to help eliminate that “lazy bones” look.  Perhaps all that’s needed is some strengthening of your hamstrings and stretching/lengthening of your hip flexors.  As with any part of your house upkeep needs to be done continually.  With your body, it’s no different.  To maintain a particular posture, continuous care of your frame and upkeep of muscles tone, strength and flexibility are required to live comfortably in your body.