Changes in posture and gait may simply be part of aging, but they’re not completely out of our control.

My grandfather is 100 years old. He’s shorter now than when he was 75, and he stood taller at 50. I’ve always been curious about why and how this occurs. I imagine I’m not alone. From uamshealth.com:

Dr. Pham Liem, a geriatrician at the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, says that we can shrink for several different reasons.

“Older adults can get shorter because the cartilage between their joints gets worn out and osteoporosis causes the spinal column to become shorter,” he says.

We know that degenerative changes will happen in our bodies over time. However, there are aspects we can influence. From the National Institutes of Health:

The posture may become more stooped (bent) and the knees and hips more flexed. The neck may become tilted, and the shoulders may narrow while the pelvis becomes wider.

Remember the teacher who told you to “sit up straight” when you were in school? They may have been onto something. We begin to develop our postural habits as children. When we slouch at our desks and computers, we contribute to what happens naturally as we celebrate birthdays. If we want to feel spry, we should combat the physiological changes as early as possible.

Being hunched at any age is not desirable, but it’s especially confidence snatching when it occurs in our thirties. You remember how valuable it is to stand tall with your chin up, shoulders back in power poses. The more diligently we address how we sit, walk and stand, the more likely we are to feel healthy, strong and self assured. Our work may start, well, at work. From realsimple.com:

Establish good posture at your desk: Sit with your back against your chair and feet flat on the floor. When you look at a computer screen, your eyes should be level with the center of it. If they aren’t, raise or lower the monitor.

Our power is certainly not limited to how we sit. We often discuss the health benefits of a good stroll here at Kaplifestyle, but we haven’t mused much about the way we walk and how it impacts us. From walking.about.com:

On a daily basis, you walk more than any other physical activity. Have you ever really taken the time to analyze the way you walk? You have a walk all of your own, called your Primary Movement Pattern (PMP). How you walk defines most everything about you, including predisposition to pain, athletic prowess, and health with respect to aging. And wouldn’t it be amazing to discover that something about the way you walk is the actual culprit in why you have pain, and that you can totally change it?

Nice. Another opportunity for change presents itself. Can’t get enough. It starts with improving your standing position and transferring it to your gait.

Start by bringing your center of gravity forward. To accomplish this: tighten your belly muscles a little and bring your weight to the balls of your feet. Unlock your knees, feel how that makes it easier to lift your upper body up toward the ceiling and forward.

It is not ‘chest up, shoulders back’, it’s chest down shoulders square, crown of head up with chin in!

Military men, ballet dancers, models and good little children who sit up straight often exemplify the Prototypical example of “good posture”. That’s a universal misconception. That “posture” works against your body. When your rib cage is lifted up and widened in front, or when your chest is raised even a little, it automatically throws your body’s weight to the rear, which starts the problems associated with leaning back.

Okay, maybe the “sit up straight” advice wasn’t quite correct, but the sentiment remains true. You don’t have a choice how old you are and you have limited control of how old you look, but you can substantially impact how old you sit, stand and walk. Value at the margins, folks. Value at the margins.

Kap