My Belated New Year's Resolution

For me, 2017 is about achieving the Me I want to be. But what does that really mean? For most Americans, the New Year's resolution means tackling that one trait or behavior that we've always wanted to get rid of or improve. For some, it's quitting smoking. For a lot of others, it's losing weight. For me, it's something deeper.

Now, my friends close to me know that I've recently divorced. Before you think to yourself, "Not another sob story," hear me out. My life got completely turned upside down in 2015 and 2016 wasn't much better. This year, I intend to go back to my roots. To rediscover myself. That's why this resolution is deeper than overcoming one nasty habit, or losing X-amount of pounds. This resolution is about improving myself in mind, body, and soul. Regarding my mind, I will be welcoming new information that helps me grow as an individual. For my soul, I will be pursing means of spiritual relaxation, and stress management. For my body, I want to overall be more physically fit, free of pain, and capable of meeting the demands of my military career.

Figure 1

I am not your typical unfit American. I am not perfect, either. Take a look at the picture on the left. To most, I look completely fit. However, some may be able to spot a significant physical distortion. OK, so I have some muscle definition. And I am not overweight. Most would say I am doing very well for myself. I would agree...to an extent. I am referring to my posture. For those of you who can't pick off what I'm hinting at, I've included a second photo, Figure 2, which illustrates the flaws of my alignment. Note the zig-zagging red line. That line represents the direction of alignment that section of my body is pointing.

Figure 2

As you can see, my hips are tilted forward, my torso tilts back, and my shoulders roll to the front. Classic signs of Desk Jockey. Chances are, you have it, too. Pretty much anyone who sits for an extended period of time is going to have poor posture. The reason is because over time the different parts of the body get used to this alignment. Muscles on the front of the hips shorten since they are not needed to stretch out anymore. Likewise, muscles on the back side, the glutes, overextend. The glutes actually go completely dormant and you have to forcefully incorporate them to get them to activate during your workouts. This is a reason why a lot of people don't develop those buns of steal they're looking for.

According to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), 80% of Americans will suffer from a back problem at some point in their lives, while 31 million Americans experience back pain at any given time. If this isn't enough, doctors are now linking posture issues with asthma (Burns, 2016). For those of you who can't see the correlation, observe Figure 2. Notice how the line points in multiple directions as it goes down. In a person with good posture, this line is straight, with the center of each section aligned with the center of gravity. Where the top two lines intersect is an obvious bend. What may not be so obvious is that my windpipe is bending there, too. And I don't even have a severely distorted posture. That might explain why I can still breathe.

While I may not have asthma, what I do have is chronic body pain. I don't know how much I can attribute to my poor posture. Not only do I have this going on, but my arches have collapses, leading to a domino affect of orthopedic failures. I'll have to go into more detail on that in another segment. As I said earlier, my New Year's resolution is threefold: mind, body, and soul. For my body, I am incorporating total physical fitness. While I would love to gain strength and build mass, I must first build a solid foundation for my exercise movements. This is where so many people go wrong when working out. If you're following along with me, I implore you to look at yourself in the mirror and see if you can identify posture alignment issues. If you have flat feet, that is easy to identify and I will go further into detail on that in a later article.

References

Burns, K. (2016). Studies Link Poor Posture and Asthma. American Posture Institute. Retrieved from: http://americanpostureinstitute.com/studies-link-poor-posture-and-asthma/

Unknown. (n.d.). Back Pain Facts and Statistics. American Chiropractic Association. Retrieved from: https://www.acatoday.org/Patients/Health-Wellness-Information/Back-Pain-Facts-and-Statistics