Don't.Slouch

I can't tell you how many skaters I've seen, young and old, amateur and elite, slouching while they skate.  As an ice dancer I am sometimes forced to look at video of myself skating and I occasionally see myself as bad as everyone else. Slouching is a terrible posture problem for both young and old, and it's easy to fall into bad habits. It's also bad for you.

Let me describe the kind of slouch I'm talking about.

1. The shoulders roll forward so the chest is narrowed.
2. The upper part of the back curves so the chest is collapsed
3.  The head is pushed forward

This posture has a lot of effects. It can impede deep breathing since it compresses your internal organs and rib cage into your lungs, it can affect the angle of the pelvis causing back pain, it disrupts your balance,  the angle of the head can cause pressure on the brain stem raising blood pressure and most critical of all....

It makes your boobs sag and your stomach pop out!

MO-TI-VA-TOR! Right, am I right? People will ignore the health issues, but talk about looks, and everyone's all standing up straight!

So what do to? Good posture is mostly good habits, stand up with chest out, shoulders back is enough. But you have to do it all the time. Every minute. Every hour. Every day.

Is it hard to be consistent? Yes. I lift weights, do Pilates, and yoga and I still catch myself slouching. Still, there's some simple exercises that you could try to help you straighten up. I found these on  the Women's Health magazine website.

No matter how young and beautiful you are. Slouching is ugly.
(And bad for your health)

Skating with out slouching gives you more breath to skate with, centers your balance, improves your looks. All you have to do is be conscious of it. All.The.Time.

Johnny Wier. Always perfect posture. A lesson for us all.