Ten second crunch and good posture!

"I refuse to NOT hold my stomach in when I enter a room."

photo via Getty Images

Did you do this when you were a kid?  I did.  Well there are other ways to fix your posture so you don't have to walk with a book on your head!

If you engage your abdominal muscles for ten seconds it is equivalent to a crunch.
Make believe that there is an imaginary string pulling your belly button towards your back.  Now hold it for ten seconds.  You did a crunch!  You can do them anywhere.  You can definitely do them waiting on line in a store.  

Posture is also key!  Roll your shoulders back and pull your belly button towards your spine.  It totally changes the way you stand and the way you look and most importantly the way you feel!

You can see in the following pics that if your shoulders are rounded forward your stomach protrudes more.  Bad posture can also cause back and neck pain as well as headaches, trouble walking, and trouble breathing.  The organs inside your rib cage start to become cramped with less space to do their job.  

Let's make an effort to be aware of our posture and stand tall with our shoulders rolled back and stomach pulled in.  Your body will thank you!   

                                                                                 

photo via Getty Images

photo via Adobe Stock

In the above two pics you can see the difference is so great with only rolling your shoulders back and pulling your abs in.  Remember this is not about appearance.  Although that is a plus.  Good posture is all about your health.    

Strong Core.....Strong You!

Ladies......It is so important that we have strong core muscles.  A strong core gives you the ability to perform everyday activities with ease of movement and with much less chance of injury. Everyday activities means something as simple as carrying a bag of groceries, reaching for a plate in the cabinet, bending down to pick something up, lifting a child or keeping yourself steady on an unsteady surface, etc.  Your core is the center of your body.  Think of your core as your body minus your extremities.    Without a strong  core your extremities will not perform well.  This means that you might have trouble moving around easily.  So, it is so important that we strengthen our core muscles.  Doing abdominal exercises alone is not good enough.  We must also strengthen our back which consists of different muscle groups. Please watch the following video with Martina Navratilova showing us some great core exercises!