Posture Balance Nutrition & Choice of Food
Most people think of Posture as more biomechanical, which focuses on musculoskeletal relationships. Before I started my practice, I also thought this way.
Then I realized that the most essential ingredient of good posture is Food, which means of course, Nutrients. To improve our posture, we need to make better choices in our Food options.
Then I came to understand that the core foundation of posture is the Gut. Also from the mouth to the anus, our Gut and Digestive Tube form the centerpiece of our Body. And how its integrity significantly impacted our mental state.
Back then, Pilates was gaining popularity rapidly because Hollywood celebrities were practicing it. And it was frequently promoted in popular TV shows, such as Sex and the City. In NYC, every block seemed to have a Pilates studio.
During training for certified Pilates instructors, we were taught about the four major abdominal muscles: the Internal and External Obliques, Transversus Abdominis, and Rectus Abdominis. So when I became a Pilates exercise instructor, I would observe and feel my clients’ abdominals (with their permission).
The term “Body Center” was also being used to describe this body area which led to an Ah-Ha moment, given that I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. And my Pilates Studio became a successful business.
However, a peculiar curiosity arose in me while dealing with a wide variety of abdominal muscle shapes and textures daily.
While teaching Pilates, we encourage clients by saying, “Engage your abdominals!”. This was done so often that it became background music, but then lightning struck me. I asked – If engaging the abdominals was that important for our vital being, why were our abdominals not designed to engage naturally – without forced effort ? And every day, as I taught my clients, I couldn’t help but think about finding the answer to this mysterious question.
So like everyone else, I researched through anatomy books, articles and photos. Then I slowly arrived at the answer, and my key journey began.
Age & Gravity
My Pilates studio is located on the Upper East Side in NYC, and all of my Pilates clients are financially successful and in their 40s. And they told me that as we age, our muscles give up fighting against gravity, become weak, and then sag.
Initially, I accepted their idea. But is that true? My gut instinct began to stir the energy in my brain! The question then became: Why and how does age interfere with our critical vital functions?
Many people talk about gravity as if it were an enemy – from above – and squishes us down. On the contrary, gravity pulls our body material – from below – towards the ground. So when the quality of the material is not maintained adequately, its shape weakens and decomposes over time.
Here, I had to go back to my high school textbook and rediscover Newton’s famous Physics law: Every action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction. Therefore, everything on Earth, including the human body, can create an action which is “equal and opposite”.
What is “equal”? The equal amount of force that pulls our body cells down allows our cells to create an equal and opposite force, which is directed upward. In other words, Nature has designed our cells to create just enough opposite force (resistance) to prevent from being squished, allowing us to maintain our Natural Structure. This is a law of Nature.
Basically, it means that Age should not be a major cause for our abdominal muscles to weaken and sag, as long as we maintain our natural design by adhering to natural high quality Food products.
But when do we start losing our natural design ?
When we are standing upright, the soles of our feet transfer our weight to the ground. Here is another action covered by the Physics and Nature laws. And when any part of our body does not respond to gravity appropriately, in accordance with these laws, then that part will be pulled down and become a burden on the rest of the body. Getting back to the Abdominals, when they have an abnormal response to gravitational force, the cause is not gravity, rather it is the disengagement of the abdominal muscles. And the results are Weak and Saggy Abs.
Now, why are the abdominal muscles not responding to gravity appropriately? Is it due to aging? This question led me to further investigation.
We do not expand horizontally
Another point that caught my attention was the idea of “expanding horizontally”.
Many of my clients were afraid of being overweight because they viewed it as a disfigurement, and it could also cause health issues. They called this condition “Horizontal Expansion,” and they believed that gravity was the cause. Back then, I was a Size 0 to 2 depending on the design (but this is no longer my case). So I began to worry about expanding horizontally as I aged, and began to research on preventing it.
My investigation led me to discover that we do not have any skeletal muscles that can expand horizontally. The nature of our muscles is to elongate vertically to fit our structured skeletal system.
Grouped muscle fibers are attached to our bones and interconnected via the joints, running vertically from the head to the feet. And when adequate elasticity of skeletal muscles is not present, the group of abdominal muscles cannot respond to gravitational force appropriately, and become weak and saggy. But our organs can expand in various directions, especially due to inflammation caused by toxin buildup, such as, when our figure starts to expand around the belly, and this condition does not support our figure, rather, it interferes with our freedom of movement, and thereby causes poor posture. As our organs begin to accumulate toxins in their tissue while expanding in various directions, resulting in an overflow of unstructured muscle cells, which creates a disfigurement characterized as a rounded abdomen. Then many people think that the expanded tissue is related to fat content. But is this true?
So I focused on the contents of my clients’ Abs, and had an eye-opening moment. It is the Gut at the Center of Body !
For many years, I could not see the true Center of the Body. My eyes were drawn to the façade of the abdominal area. And I never thought about what was inside.
The pelvis encages and supports our abdominal area. The 4 major abdominal muscles are the only muscles on the front side of the cage. The contents of the enclosed area primarily consist of the small and large intestines, besides other organs. However, the center of the cage is occupied by the intestines – part of the GUT!!!
As my eyes opened to a new vision of our Abs, I began to ask my clients what they had eaten before the sessions (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks). I discovered that sugar, flour, and milk, which are main ingredients of processed baked foods, such as doughnuts, muffins, pastries, cookies, and the ever popular candy, ice cream, and cheese. These foods were causing my clients’ abdominal muscles to become weak and saggy, so it became clear to me how they could not respond to gravity appropriately. Of course, the quality and quantity of related ingredients would be variable and questionable. And then I surmised that a GFCF diet may be needed, since my clients might be at the beginning of a celiac condition (back then, there was an upward trend in this condition). It was not well-known back then, but the cause was related to glyphosate.
So whatever stagnates in the Gut could interfere with the engagement of the abdominals, and exercises meant to increase circulation through movement. So keep in mind that increasing Gut area activity will enhance the connection between our brain and the rest of our body through the nervous system. But when you eat processed foods, you limit or reduce the level of improvement. Regretfully, many people lose the battle between sweet food and vanity, although they are aware that processed foods end up causing unwanted weak and saggy muscles, and those unhealthy foods are somehow incredibly addictive.
Finally, I understood that “jellyfish-like” muscles (as my clients called them) hang from the façade of our musculoskeletal system – and this is not only a problem for vanity, but also more problematic for overall health – issues ranging from common ailments to immune system disorders, such as breathing problems, digestive problems, sleeping problems, even behavioral problems, emotional problems, psychological problems, etc.
Postural Problem & the Saggy Abdominals
When abdominal muscles cannot respond to gravity appropriately, the person tends to develop back, neck, and shoulder aches. The organs are swollen to the point where they can no longer be supported by the musculoskeletal system. The trapezius and sternoclavicular muscles in the neck are supposed to help with the proper placement of the head. But the inner walls from the mouth to the anus collapse along the digestive tube, and the person can no longer maintain their head in the proper position.
Therefore, when your abdominal muscles are not properly engaged, the sternoclavicular muscles (the front neck muscles) cannot function properly. Thus, your head hangs away from the trapezius, a muscle in the upper back. With this improper alignment, the head cannot move as freely as possible.
You can feel this by exaggerating pressure – by leaning your head back on your spine and pressuring the vertebrae. Then the lower half of the back muscles tense up and push the lumbar joints forward to hold your weight, which makes it difficult to engage the Abs. Most likely, people will begin to pull their abdominals in to prevent the expansion of the abs. This is a typical way to get stuck in the vicious cycle, therefore, leading to poor posture.
Until the entire picture was assembled correctly in my mind, I misunderstood the human body’s construction with a flawed representation. So I had deceived myself by thinking that the musculoskeletal system and the organ systems were separate (individual) entities.
The truth is that when organs develop and function properly, they support our well-aligned skeletal structure, and vice versa. Both coexist with each other. Healthy organ systems produce the proper pressure to support the musculoskeletal system, thereby maintaining the inner space of the body center, allowing it to function freely and naturally. This interdependence forms the foundation of the circulatory, digestive and elimination functions.
Now back to the abnormal Abs function caused by disengaged muscles, due to improper biochemical balance, caused by unhealthy processed and improperly prepared foods.
It’s been said that “You are What You Eat!”
It’s no surprise that some of my past clients struggled to maintain their positive results from one session to the next. They improved their mobility, but then they lost it, along with their invested time, money, and effort over a few days – Due to the foods they chose to eat.
I often detected unusual tension in their abdominal cavity, just like pebbles spreading around the area. I knew that they were the result of swollen gut wall tissue. And I included movement exercises to increase circulation to the swollen tissue.
Again, during my Pilates instructor training, I was taught that there should be smooth texture throughout the abdominal cavity, and the entire body should have well-balanced muscle tone at the end of a good session. But then my focus shifted towards food and nutrients to seek the root cause of disengaged abdominals, and treat related bad food habits.
Integrity of the Gut wall is the integrity of the abs
At this point in my ongoing journey, I understand that the integrity and function of the gut wall reflect the integrity and function of the abdominals, which determine the integrity of our Posture Balance.
The center of our body extends from the mouth to the anus, along the digestive tube – which is also the center of our Posture. We govern a unified Body-Mind-Soul, which is who we are, based on the level of integrity of the Body Center (our Gut). Our posture encompasses all of these aspects: Anatomical, Physiological, Psychological, Emotional, Energetic, and Spiritual. The status of the Gut wall influences each aspect and its interrelated functions. So this overall digestive system governs all aspects of our overall well-being.
How?
Approximately 90% of our immune system is located within the digestive system. The immune system determines who we are by sorting out what becomes you and what doesn’t become you. For example, when you eat a carrot. The carrot goes through the digestive system from the mouth to the anus. But the entire carrot does not become part of you. Your immune system functions to sort out what can be absorbed through the gut wall into your bloodstream, or what is purged out of you. The Gut flora governs this determination at the gut wall, which is the first line of defense for Who Naturally You Are. Therefore, you can say that Gut flora plays a crucial role in the functioning of your immune system.
When you allow any toxins to enter with food, water, medicine (or through procedures), your gut flora can be damaged. And the level of damage is measured by the level of inflammation. When inflammation becomes chronic, your metabolism slows. This state is called metabolic syndrome. After a while, your body can no longer metabolize properly, which means that your cells are not being renewed, and as a result, your Abs become weak and saggy. An inflamed or swollen gut wall cannot respond to gravity to maintain your figure. When the gut wall loses integrity, the body’s center does not function to support its structure; therefore, poor posture develops. The description of this domino effect makes sense.
Bottom Line – To improve your Posture Balance, you must start by healing your gut wall integrity. So it is essential to avoid foods that can cause inflammation of the gut wall, such as Fake Junk and Over-processed food. And this means sticking to Natural and Real foods as much as possible.
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