POSTURE WORKSHOP
Worried about your kid's posture?
Teenagers are generally known for slouching, but with cell phones, the trend is getting much worse.
Forward Head Posture
The average human head weighs ten pounds. The body is designed to hold that up quite easily; However, for every inch that your head drifts forward, you add an additional ten pounds of pressure onto your spine. That's a lot of weight! If you've drifted forward just three inches, your head now "weighs" 40 pounds.
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This is a huge contributor to neck and upper back pain. In order to hold up all that weight, muscles get tight and joints get compressed. Even young kids are starting to have these symptoms!
Sitting
Sitting is starting to get a lot of bad press and rightfully so! Sitting pretty much shuts down the muscles in your lower body and later, when you need them, they're not there and your back is forced to do more work than necessary.
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In order to be upright, you need to get stability from somewhere. Ideally, it's from your glutes and activated leg muscles. Less ideally, it's from an over-flexed (slouched) or over-extended (arched) back.
Slouching
The fellow on the left has a few things going on. Forward head posture (lots of extra pressure on upper back), sitting (glutes have shut down), and slouching.
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One of the biggest effects that slouching has on the body is that it prevents good breathing.
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Give this simple experiment a try. Sit up with good posture and take a deep breath in through your nose. Now, slouch, let your back collapse, your shoulders roll inward, and your head drift forward. Try a deep breath now. How was it? Is your kid getting enough oxygen?
How We Help
We won't be taking away your kids cell phones or making them suddenly
lose interest in video games (Sorry!). What we can do is teach them some
strategies to offset all the sitting and computer time.
This class addresses posture in a completely different way.
It's not walking around with books on their heads or telling them to just
"sit up straight".
This is an interactive class to wake up all the muscles and patterns that are
lost with sitting and forward head posture.
Outside Magazine produced an excellent three minute video entitled:
Sitting is Wrecking Your Body. More Standing Isn't the Solution.
This is a similar approach that is taken in our four-week workshop called Breathe-Stabilize-Move.
Breathe - Stabilize - Move
Breathe for Stabilization
Activate
Wake Up
Ditch Your
Chair
Class Details
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This is a four-week workshop that consists of a one-hour class each week, for four weeks.
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You can schedule the day and time of each of the four sessions around your schedule. Evening sessions are available.
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Minimum class size is 2, preferably a parent and a child. You can add a second child (or parent, or partner) at no cost. In other words, the third family member is at no cost.
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Parents will need to be on the premises during the class.
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We strongly encourage parents to take the class with their kids. This way you can get a feel for what your kids are learning, and you can set a good example by doing the homework with them.
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Cost is $130 (+tax) per person, which includes all four sessions.
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Recommended age is 10 and up, but obviously every kid is different. If you think your kid can focus on a combination of learning and gentle physical activity for 45 minutes, then we trust your judgment.
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Questions? Feel free to call 505-835-0049 or e-mail DocEmily@SquareOneFitnessABQ.com
What if I don't have kids?
Don't panic. We offer this class to groups of 2-3 adults as well. Just find a friend that is interested in attending with you!