Healthy Swellness: Straighten Up app review

I cringe whenever I see photos taken of me that I haven’t posed for. Because I’m always slouching. In fact, if you go on my Instagram, there are few examples of my poor posture.

Sigh.

Besides being unsightly, poor posture is the cause of many musculoskeletal problems. So many of us sit for ours, hunched over our desks. And all of this sitting puts 30 percent more stress on your back than standing does. And lower back pain accounts for one-third of missed work days (second only to the common cold). Each year, more than 11 million (11 million!) Canadians will suffer from at least one muscuskeletal condition, yikes.

With my poor posture in mind (and honestly, these stats about musculoskeletal issues frightened me!), I  put the new Straighten Up app to use for a few days. Launched last month, the app includes exercises aimed to improve posture and reduce the risk of a musculoskeletal disorder. I’ve only tried it for a couple of days so far, but in a study, participants who practiced Straighten Up daily for at least five weeks reported improved posture, strengthened core muscles, and less back pain when sitting.

The app’s easy to navigate. And I love that the exercises only take three minutes to complete; I found completing them once I get up in the morning is a nice, gentle way to wake up my body. In terms of production value, it’s not the slickest, but you really only need to watch the video once or twice to learn the proper form, and then just a quick glance at the home page of the exercises is enough to jog your memory as you do the exercises to your favourite song. (Oh, btw, there’s a Youth series of exercises, too).

Also in the app is a handy “Find a Chiro” feature, along with a blog of articles about spine health, sports injuries and more. You can also log your exercises in the app, which is always satisfying, don’t you find, watching your good fitness work adding up over time?

The exercises only take three minutes to complete, so in theory, you could easily complete them in cubicle or office. You might feel a little silly doing ones like Bending Circles (a little bit like waving your hands in the air like you just don’t care), though. But when you consider the benefits of doing exercises that improve your posture, that might be incentive enough to looking a little silly. Five reasons why good posture is so important:

1.       Reduces wear and tear: Having a balanced spine decreases the amount of stress and pressure on your joints, reducing the risk of wear and tear that can result in a limited range of motion or arthritis.

2.       Breathe easy: By avoiding slouching and sitting up straight you are helping to open your airways and increase oxygen flow throughout your body.

3.       Decreases stress: Since stress causes your muscles to contract and become tense, stretching those muscles reverses the tension and the related stress.

4.       Increases energy: Slouching puts many of your muscles into overdrive as they work to hold you up, wearing your body out. Proper posture enables the body’s most efficient position, saving energy.

5.       Be better: Standing up straight with your shoulders back gives you the appearance of being taller and slimmer, making you feel more confident.

Just three minutes a day of the Straighten Up app’s exercises can help prevent you from experiencing lower back pain–think about it, you can complete it in the time of a commercial break as you watch The Good Wife. 

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Leave a Comment November 19, 2014

Hangin’ tough

I’ve been slacking big time on going to Pilates class, and this research makes me wish I’d been going on the regular:

Good posture makes you tougher, according to findings published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Slouching can actually make you physically weaker, making you more sensitive to pain. Which suggests, for example, that instead of curling up into a ball when in pain, you should stand tall and hang tough so that you feel more in control and more powerful, which may increase your pain tolerance.

3 Comments July 13, 2011

How Pilates can improve your posture

I’ve never really understood how Pilates can make you stand taller, so I checked in with Body Harmonic Pilates founder Margot McKinnon. Here what she had to say:

“When we look at our own or another person’s posture, we are seeing their muscles and bones trying to hold the person up against gravity. And gravity is a strong force indeed.

So when you see someone with very rounded shoulders and a forward head carriage she is showing an imbalance between the front and back muscles of the torso. Basically the front muscles are extra short and the back muscles are extra long.

When they are at their appropriate lengths, you see someone without rounded shoulders and without a forward head. Another example would be someone with a big arch in the lower back that extends up past the waist. This person has shortened back muscles and elongated abdominal muscles. When these muscles work in proper balance you see someone with a slight arch in the lower back and abdominal muscles that pull inward slightly rather than poking outward.”

Hmm. So it’s all about balance. Pilates helps by creating balance in the muscles of your body so that tone is appropriate around every joint, says Margot. “When muscles work in optimal balance with each other they pull the bones into correct alignment, and voila, posture improves.”

Neat.

(Oh, and BTW you might want to sign up for Pilates classes if you’ve got some job interviews in store.)

Leave a Comment January 7, 2011