Always maintain good posture and neutral spine. The two go together really, because if you maintain neutral spine you will inevitably have a good posture. So what is neutral spine? It's the natural curvature of the spine and the position that places an even load and the least stress on the joints through the body. How do we achieve it? Simple really, stand with your feet pointing forward under your hips and a slight bend in your knees, place the front of one hand on your tummy and the back of the other hand in the small of your back, now gently rock forwards and backwards slowly diminishing the movement until you stop in a central position. Now bring your shoulders up, back and down, lengthen through the spine with head up looking to the horizon. You should now have good body alignment with your ears above your shoulders, your shoulders above your hips, your hips above your knees and your knees above your ankles, check yourself out in a mirror. As you move through different body positions always try and maintain neutral spine, not just whilst exercising but in everyday life. Obviously as you move into different body positions your joints are going to come out of alignment, a squat for example requires your knees to bend and your hips to flex back, but your spine should still be in neutral.
In my next post we'll look at engaging the core and how that is of benefit to every day life.
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