“You know, when you stand up straight, it makes you look confident,” my mom would suggest in my insecure teen years, to which she received the biggest eye roll of all. I had the confidence thing down, thank you very much. But when I picked up a roll of film from a disposable camera a week after my senior prom, I sat in the CVS parking lot in a pool of 18-year-old devastation: Despite the careful thought with which I had picked out my perfect fuchsia dress, I didn’t like any of these pictures. And it was all because my posture was bad. The funny thing is, for years I thought standing up straight came down to the simple act of having the willpower to stand and sit in a more erect position, no matter how painful it was to hold. But nothing worked, and when the time came for me to get married, I decided enough was enough—I would not recreate those slouchy senior prom photos on my wedding day. And so began an intensive research project on posture, and I’m happy to report that by my wedding day, I was pretty proud of how straight I could stand up, not to mention how much better my back, shoulders, and neck felt. Here’s what I learned. So whether I was having a difficult moment in a workout class (a recipe for my shoulders to head straight for my ears!) or simply feeling worried, when my body tensed up, I started focusing on sending that tension to my core. And you know what? My core got a lot stronger. I also started utilizing props more often in yoga classes, and I found that sitting on blankets and blocks helped my posture in class, which translated to helping my posture in real life. “Massage helps bring increased circulation to the muscles that support the spine and assists to relax and lengthen muscles,” explained Jenn Grigg, community manager for massage therapists at Zeel. “Relaxed muscles can also reduce pressure on sensitive nerves caused by misalignment, thus alleviating tension and pain caused by structural imbalances. Regular massage encourages balance in your body and helps create the space to move in a more natural, healthy, and free-flowing way.” I found that massages seemed to make everything just a little easier: My backbends in yoga class were suddenly happening more easily, and I found it much easier to stand up and sit up straight in everyday life. In fact, just a month into regular massages, I found I was standing up straight without putting any thought into it at all. That was a first for me! Out of all the things I did for my posture, getting regular massages from people who really knew what they were doing was by far the most transformative—but I’m the first to admit that it can get expensive. One thing I highly recommend is buying a lacrosse ball and using it to roll out back and shoulder knots. It works wonders! While I’m glad I was able to stand up straight on my wedding day (I haven’t gotten the pictures back yet, but the majority of the amateur photos I’ve gotten back indicate that I won’t be reliving my prom experience), my posture project has all but eliminated my back and neck pain, and standing up straight is no longer even a little bit hard for me. That’s the real accomplishment. Want ideas for how to get a massage without breaking the bank? Here’s how to make that happen.
