Baggy Pants= Pain for Life?

On average, I treat over a dozen young people a year with problems directly related to wearing baggy pants. The way people have to walk in order to keep their pants from falling down causes the hip joint to support posture awkwardly. Hence, the legs rotate inwardly at the knees, and the feet turn outward to keep balance.

What you don't know is, walking this way can cause hip degeneration and low back problems. Further, rotating your legs like this every day can lead to life-long knee mis-alignments and bunions.

Forget long-term participation in sports and recreation! In my Reposturing Dynamics practice, I help people of all ages improve posture, flexibility and sports performance. However, I just cringe when I see these young people who have no idea that by this one fashion statement, they may have doomed themselves to over $500k in medical bills and years of chronic joint pain and physical inconvenience.

I used to think that the health-costs of women wearing high-heels was bad-enough. But there was always some social or aesthetic benefit that justifies the choice. I can't get my wife out of them.

Nevertheless, when guys wear baggy pants, the potential long-term health-costs are astronomical. Still, I can't find a girl who thinks a guy is sexy when he wears his pants down to his knees and walks like a penguin to keep them up. How cool is that?

Posture, Beauty, and Attraction

Throughout history [all living beings in Nature] have a mating dance or ritual. It varies from species to species. [But] I can't think of anything except amoeba or earthworms where there are two animals of opposite gender that just randomly bump into each other, have sex, and go on about their business.

In Nature, it's a very simple equation: the strongest, smartest, most virile males get the better choices for mates and control of the herd. The weaker males get nothing, get beaten up, and are more quickly devoured by predators.

The most fecund, resourceful, strongest females get the best choices for mates. The weaker females are ostracized and eventually are quicker to be consumed by predators.

The males use posture and strength to establish and maintain control of their females and position in the herd. The females work to feed and protect their offspring and themselves.

In nature, the rules are simple: Avoid predators and poisonous foods. Eat for strength and longevity. Dominate the gene pool. Perpetuate the species. Male or female, young or old-the stupid, weak, and sick are devoured by scavengers or predators.

We entertain ourselves with the mating rituals in nature. However, we will learn a lot about ourselves when we seek to master the mating rituals of our complex human species.

In civil society, we variegate ourselves by size, class, color, politics, gender, sexual preferences, personality, food preferences, roles in our profession, so on and so on.

What works is when people are living the life they want to live; being the person they are meant to be. What works in relationships is when people are living authentically as themselves AND they are complementary and compatible with the other person living as their authentic self as well.

What does not work is when there is an incompatibility or mismatch in ideals, preferences, needs, or personality. What disappoints and causes difficulty in finding your ideal mate is when you start out with the behavior of one lifestyle, and then, the more you become your true self, the less compatible you actually are.

The best recipe for finding your soul mate starts with finding your true self, in the best of health and circumstances. The best health starts with a strong, flexible body and great posture.

When you hold your body upright, open and free, as your body and soul are meant to be, you make a statement: "This is the true me, this is the mission I am sent to do for the world." In effect, your posture becomes your mating call. You even vibrate to the frequency of your journey and destiny as an authentic being.

Whatever your posture says about you will be magnified by the people around you. You slouch and losers will reinforce your mediocrity. Carry yourself confidently in the right places and the perfect partner will join you in your journey to be the best person you are meant to be.

If you don't have a partner right now, take this as an opportunity to self reflect and discover yourself at your best. Are you vital, strong, upright, and flexible? Are you in your right livelihood? Are you on the personal and spiritual journey that will lead you to your greatest contribution to the world? Start in any of these places and begin your journey toward self-mastery and your authentic self.

Many people make their wish list for an ideal mate without making sure they have their own act together-and their posture says it all: "I don't have my act together and I will drain the life out of you if you try to change me or help me overcome my wounds and weaknesses."

On the other hand, I see people with great posture, who receive raises, promotions, offers, and opportunities-all the time. Perfect posture helps make people whole. The process of achieving great posture helps you shed unnecessary layers of guilt, shame, anger, and hurt. Ultimately you reveal your inner beauty. You love yourself for who you truly are at your best. You enter and built a relationship with your whole and sufficient self in tact.

When two people bring their wholeness together to build a relationship, what they create is greater than the sum of two hearts. This is the purpose of the entire mating ritual for every higher species-Isn't it?

Are Backacks Good for Your Kids?

Are Backpacks good for you?

Get a load of this...
A message for Parents and the PTA

Dear Vitality Man,
My child wears a backpack loaded with 20-30 pounds of books and supplies every day for school. I'm concerned, because she only weighs less than a hundred pounds. Are backpacks good for you?--
Dear Parents,
There are three main reasons (ways) that wearing a backpack can have negative effects on your child, and three positive reasons. Then I'll give you my opinion.
Negative Effects:
1. A backpack reinforces poor posture when your child is NOT wearing the backpack. Poor posture can lead to lower self-esteem and a long list of problems you never want your child to have.
2. A backpack inhibits normal movement and coordination, which may affect learning as well as increase risk of injury to joints.
3. A backpack puts pressure on the rib cage, inhibiting lung expansion, which decreases oxygen to the blood and decreases stamina.
PS: If you or someone you know wears a backpack on your commute to work, these same considerations apply for adults.
Positive Effects:
1. Your child is more likely to be prepared with their books and supplies ready to use.
2. Her books are less likely to be lost or stolen.
3. Her hands are free to use even though she has her books to carry.
As you consider the pros and cons of backpack wearing, here is my opinion:
Backpacks by themselves are not bad at all. Backpacks are cool and useful! However, if we wear them at the expense of our good health, with no way for our body to recover from the downsides of having a heavy weight in an unnatural position-Now, That's no so good. The best way to eliminate the backpack problem is to minimize its use by as much as possible. Here are some suggestions. Use what works, modify what doesn't quite match.
1. If your child bikes to school, get a rack or basket for the bike and tie the pack to the rack with some strong bunjee cords, instead of having her wear the load during transit.
2. At school, if lockers are permitted, get one book out at a time for each class and exchange it at class breaks.
3. If she has a different schedule each day, plan for bringing only the books she needs for the day.
4. Use the study period to do the homework for the classes with the heaviest textbooks, then leave them at school.
Finally, in addition to this, you can also get your child into yoga or other exercises your child can do to counteract the negative effects of wearing a heavily loaded pack on her back.

A client who had been working with me 6 months comes bounding in the front door of the Vitality Center and says, "Aaron, before I started working with you I had my blood pressure taken as part of a health exam now that I'm 62. I just had a check-up and my blood pressure is down by 20 points. I haven't taken any drugs. I haven't done any additional exercise than I normally do. I haven't changed my diet. Is it possible that Reposturing has lowered my blood pressure? "

Pump #1: The HeartIn my many conversations with Dr. Victor Barker, author of Posture Makes Perfect, I learned that posture plays a big role in circulation and regulation of blood pressure. What people don't know about circulation is that there are 5 pumps that your body uses to circulate blood. Most of us are already familiar with the heart as the main pump for the blood. By the time blood leaves your heart and gets down to your feet, the blood pressure is approximately 1/3 of its original pressure. How does the blood get back to the heart?

Pump#2: The Heel StrikeIn the feet, there is a venous plexus that is stimulated with every heel strike. This venous plexus in the foot stimulates blood to circulate through the capillaries from the arteries to the veins of the feet where blood begins to return back to the heart.

Pump #3: The Calf Muscles- The Body's "Second Heart"When blood leaves the feet, it heads up through the veins in the calf that are specialized to have flaps that prevent backflow. Every time the calves flex in a normal stride, the contraction of the calf muscles pushes blood further up the leg, and the relaxation of the calves allows more blood to fill up the vein. The flaps close inside the vein to prevent backflow.

Pump #4: The Arterial Return WaveThe fourth way that blood gets back to your heart is the "arterial return wave". According to Dr. Henry Hamilton, a surgeon, there is an arterial return wave that stimulates blood flow in the adjacent vein that helps to send blood back to the heart. To get a picture of it in your mind, imagine if you splash water in a bathtub. Your splashing hand pushes water to the other end of the tub, but that wave comes back to you with some force and continues for some time until the water settles. That return wave is what happens in the arterial blood flow in the thigh. The body sends blood to the leg in the artery, but it doesn't send it in one big "woosh". There is a wave that pushes then recedes again and again until blood makes it all the way down the leg. Simultaneously, the power of that return wave pushes blood from the legs up to the abdomen.

Pump #5: The Abdominal VacuumThe fifth way is the vacuum pump that gets created when, with your full and open ribcage, every time you take a full breath you create negative pressure in the abdomen. That negative pressure is a vacuum that creates a suction force that helps pull blood into the lower hose that goes to the heart, otherwise known as the inferior vena cava.

With each of the five systems of circulation, there could be negative consequences if there is a deficiency or a restriction. If a person is inflexible or overweight, the heart has to work harder to push the blood through the veins and arteries. If a person is wearing high-heeled shoes, the feet can't flex to stimulate circulation. The feet can't flex for a proper heel-strike either. If a person's ribcage is compressed or collapsed with bad posture, then the vacuum pump of a full inhale is missing from the circulation process. Some of the consequences of breakdowns or deficiencies of any of the 5 ways could include: high blood pressure, varicose veins, cold feet, achy joints, achy legs, swelling in the feet, and swelling in the calves, just to name a few.

Perhaps you can see, that the solution to maximizing your circulation is to have good flexibility and great posture. Here are the Reposturing exercises that will give you the best results to improve circulation:
Foot Circles, Calf Stretch on Wall, Standing Quad Stretch, Step-Up Lunge, Side-Reaches, Torso Twist

Getting Rid of Chronic Pain

The Summer of Perfect Posture is all about looking great and feeling on top of the world. For the month of July, we are going to focus on Reposturing exercises that relieve pain; more specifically chronic pain. One amazing posture fact is that 1.8 million Americans suffer painful and potentially disabling musculoskeletal disorders (MSD's), 600,000 of whom must take off work to recover, costing businesses $18 billion annually. Aaron's solutions to great posture are designed to be simple and effective so that your body can reclaim its authentic self and participate in every activity and event in life that is important to you.
The exercises below are designed to eliminate chronic pain forever if followed properly and performed frequently. In addition, the four target spots represent the areas on the body that have the biggest impact people's lives when they are affected by aches and pains.
So if have been looking for a remedy to make the aches and pain go away, look no more because help is finally here.

Headaches/Jaw: Open Jaw Pull
Neck/Shoulders: Reach Up Reach Back and Side Flex Neck Stretch
Back: Side Reaches
Hips/Legs: Step Up Lunge
Ankles/Feet: Foot Circles

America's Posture Crisis

Americans are in a posture crisis. Many common aches and pains we have can be traced back to poor posture. Every day I see people of all ages with bad, awful, or wretched posture. At a health lecture a few weeks ago, I tried to find ONE person with good posture among the 300 attendees. I could not find even one person with pretty-good posture who I would consider asking to be a model for any of my posture videos, seminars, or photo shoots.

So what are the hallmarks of good posture? I look for the shoulders to hang behind the body's front-to-back midline such that the person would have a high ribcage. Second, I look for the neck and head angle to be upright so that the head sits squarely over the body midline. Third, I look at the low-back and hips. The pelvis should be vertical front-to-back and level left-to- right. The pubic bone should be forward so that the abdomen is mostly flat. Lastly, I look at the knees and the feet. When a person is walking or standing, the knees should be directly over the feet, but in a balanced, even, unforced way. Finally, I look at how a person walks, to see how they balance their weight from foot-to-foot and front-to-back. Are they graceful? Coordinated? Is the chest high? Do the arms swing evenly to balance movement smoothly?

When I am out-and-about, I am perturbed that I cannot find anyone with very good posture. What people don't know is by having bad posture, they set themselves up for long-term problems such as neck pain, shoulder problems, shortness of breath, headaches, jaw pain, chronic lower back pain, knee problems, and foot problems.

Do you have friends who are in need of a posture intervention? Maybe that person is actually you. Is it time for you to do something about your posture? This is the summer of perfect posture.

Read more about it: Do your own Posture Intervention THIS Summer

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