POSTURE CHECK:
- Feeling for balance: Close your eyes and march in place a few times. Then stand still in your natural posture. Where is your weight balanced? Forward on the balls of your feet or more on your heels? On one leg more than the other? Your body weight should be distributed evenly between your legs and centered in the middle of you foot.
- Feet: place a mirror near the floor and look at your feet. Are they toed inward or outward? Rolling inward onto your arches or out toward your little toes? Your feet should be slightly turned out and neither rolling in or out.
- Knees: Do your knees roll inward or outward? Where are the kneecaps in relationship to the ankle and hip sockets – in a vertical line or off to one side? Turn to the side – are the knees locked or relaxed? From the front your knees should be vertically aligned between the ankle and the hip, the caps facing straight ahead. The knee should be relaxed; from the side the kneecap should appear slightly forward.
- Hips: face the mirror and place two fingers on each hip socket (from your hipbones, two inches down and two inches inward – in the crease between your hip and thigh. Are your hands on a horizontal line, or is one higher? Is one hip rotated father forward than the other? The hips should be even in all directions.
- Lower back: turn to the side. Rest a hand on its side in the centre of your buttocks so that your fingers point down like a tail. Do the fingers point behind you or underneath you? If they point behind you, you have a “swaybacked” posture; underneath you means a “flat backed” posture. For neutral (ideal) posture the fingers should point straight down.
- Upper Back: from the side is your upper back rounded? Are your shoulders forward? Is your rib cage caved in or sticking out? Is one side of your torso rotated in front of the other? The upper back should be straight or slightly rounded, the rib cage neither collapsed nor jutting forward, and no rotation of the torso.
- Shoulders: face the mirror and look at your shoulders. Is one higher than the other? Is one more forward? Turn sideways. Is the shoulder in front of the hip? Behind the hip? Check the other one. The shoulders should be even horizontally and line up vertically over each hip. Neither shoulder should be rotated forward.
- Head and Neck: Stand sideways to the mirror. Does your chin jut forward? Is your ear in front of shoulder? Behind your shoulder? The hole in your ear should be lined up vertically with the centre of your shoulder. The chin should be relaxed, not jutting forward.