So, here it is; a beginning, so let us begin. Who am I? What is this place? What brought me here? And, why am I doing this?
Let’s take it in order, I’m Andrew. Middle aged guy, husband, father of 3 young boys. Engineer, computer jockey, former athlete. I’m suffering the consequences of my youth, working hard to mitigate those consequences, and looking forward to many healthy, pain free years to come.
This little corner of the intertubes is where I noodle, exposit and expound upon any and all subjects related to posture and back pain. Exercise, physiology, psychology; anything and everything which affects posture, and anything and everything which posture affects.
It is important to stress here that I’m not a medical professional (engineer, remember). Everything I write about is based in my own experiences. If I recommend and exercise, it’s because it worked for me. If I recommend a therapy, it worked for me. If I recommend studying this subject or that, it’s because I found it helpful for my recovery.
Any recommendation I make is that, a recommendation. Before taking any therapeutic action, consult a professional in that field.
My journey to this place was long and circuitous. I certainly never expected that one day I’d be writing on the topic of posture. In fact, if you had told younger me that in 2018 I’d be launching a blog on back health and posture, I’d have laughed at the absurdity of it. Why? Because to describe my posture of 2 years ago as “poor” would be an insult to poor posture; I didn’t have poor posture, I had terrible posture. How terrible? While that will be the subject of posts yet to come, suffice it to say it was bad on a level my 10 year old might call “epic.”
To get here, I had to do some uncomfortable things. Not just physically uncomfortable, although many of the exercises and therapies I went through were quite uncomfortable, but psychologically uncomfortable. Acknowledging the problem, finding the causes, finding solutions and worst of all, making changes. Change is no fun, especially if it means breaking lifelong habits. It’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s easy to get down on yourself when you slip, it’s easy to backslide into the old habits.
That sounds bad, but it’s not all bad. In fact, it’s not bad at all. Yes I gave stuff up, but the rewards! Along the way I gained better health, better fitness, a life freed from back pain, and so much more.
And that’s why I’m doing this. I gained so much on my own journey to back health and better posture that I want to share it with the world, and maybe point a few people toward the solutions for their own posture problems.
Welcome. I have a newsletter for you (to sign up, see the sidebar), and I’d love to hear from you. So comment here, or email me at standupright.ca@gmail.com and let’s talk posture.
In the meantime, let’s all stand up right.
