Don’t Fix Your Posture

It’s posture Thursday and today Imma flip the script. Usually I tell you a tale about some unexpected benefit I accrued through posture correction exercises. Today I’m going to say, “Don’t fix your back and posture, I mean what could go wrong?”

Take my wife. Please.

Okay, bad Henny Youngman joke aside (and please don’t take my wife), take her for example. Her yoga membership came up for renewal recently and the studio owner looked up her record. Over 300 classes in the past calendar year. I’ve told you I do a lot of yoga, and I do. But 300 classes in 12 months? That’s a lot of yoga.

Thing is, she still has relatively poor posture, and has not had her moment of clarity to lead her to fix it. She exercises hard, and regularly. She’s fit and strong. But…

But last week, sometime during her normal Saturday triple (yes, triple) class, she tweaked something in her lower back. Now, I’ve told the story of when that happened to me, and the short version goes:

  • Click
  • Ouch
  • 5 days of anti-inflammatories, painkillers, heat packs and bed rest.

Well, my dear bride came home sore and suffered about 4 days of anti-inflammatories, painkillers, heat packs and bed rest.

Again, she’s strong and fit; she exercises more than I, and does a lot more yoga. She’s a few years younger than I, but a lumbar injury put her down for several days, whereas now a lumbar injury bothers me for 1 day.

It’s not just about doing yoga, or any exercise program, for that matter. If you have back and postural problems, there are specific things you need to do to correct them. I can advise you (and that’s what I do on Mondays) and I can beg and plead for you to do it (pretty much everything else I write), but I can’t do it for you.

Heck, I can’t even do it for my wife.