We all know that good posture is a good thing, or rather bad posture is bad for us. It’s often touted that a benefit of ditching conventional shoes is improved posture. But what exactly do people mean by this? And what evidence do they have of any benefit?
Symptoms of bad posture include:
- Back pain
- Shoulder/neck pain
- Headaches
- Jaw pain (yes, really)
- Reduced lung function
Permanent alterations to
your body include:
- Anterior Pelvic Tilt
- Thoracic Kyphosis
- Rounded Shoulders
- Hunchback
I think it’s hard to notice your own posture improving, unless it was really bad to start with. These changes happen over time so unless you took photographs before you began, it’s a little anecdotal at best.
However this week I attended a training course at RADA called, ‘Presenting with Power & Passion’. It was basically teaching you how to talk to an audience, without PowerPoint or any other props; just you and their attention. It was really quite amazing. Although I’m relatively okay with public speaking, I think there’s always more to learn.
The course centered around how you breath, speak and hold yourself. These three things deciding how much of the content you’re presenting actually gets through to the audience. So the third of these, how you hold yourself, or more correctly, your posture is very important if you want your audience to take you seriously. Also it seems that the right posture, improves your breathing, which in turn improves your oration. Thus the root of being an effective communicator starts with your posture; the foundation of which of course, are your feet.
In a 1-2-1 coaching session towards the end of the day, Johnny, our tutor personally addressed each participant’s posture, voice and breathing. We watched this process as he attended to each of us in turn. One thing that surprised me was that although everyone else’s posture needed correction, mine didn’t. I already had a perfect stance. As posture in this scenario is the basis for breathing correctly and ultimately orating like a professional; it seemed I had an inbuilt advantage. However I see no natural advantage in myself – I see that it’s been three years since I binned all my conventional shoes. That’s the posture advantage I had over my peers. I’ve been walking around without the hindrance of heeled shoes. Heeled shoes that permanently put the wearer off-balance and force the body into a crooked stance to compensate. That’s the advantage I had, three years of walking and standing correctly.
I’d previously thought my posture had improved since ditching the shoes, but this was the first evidence outside my own imagination.
