Having Poor Posture Can Lead to Imbalances and Especially Weaken Muscles and Joints

This week’s BowlFit tip is a spinoff of last week’s tip on posture.

One thing that coincides very well with postural practice is stretching and flexibility.

If you’re constantly perform actions in ways that cause extra stress or resistance to your muscles and joints, you may cause those muscles to become “tighter” because they’re adapting to a stance or motion that isn’t regular for it’s normal range of motion. Consider this: If your back is sore from slouching in your chair, then it probably hurts to straighten out. Why? Because your muscles have adapted to that stance, so moving in a direction that opposes it stretches out the muscles and can be uncomfortable.

Here’s one really fundamental way to improve your posture: stretch! Improving flexibility is often overlooked, but it can get your muscles moving in their appropriate ranges of motion more readily. The more stretch you can reach, the easier it is for your muscles to move in the direction they were designed to.

Some everyday and even pre-competition stretches include:

Hip flexor,

shoulder capsule (cross body)

triceps

quadriceps

hamstrings

Standing Calf Stretch (against wall)

Some pictures have been provided for your convenience.

Remember, reaching a little further each day will start to add up and benefit you in ways you may not have believed possible!