Hello, my name is Pia. As a Pilates instructor for more than 16 years I have a lot of people coming to see me to talk about their back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain and so on.

They are also wanting to improve their posture. Often when trying to improve our posture we pull our shoulders back and down because that is what we are taught from a young age. When we try to improve our posture, we start with our shoulders.

I would like to suggest that you start  from a different point - your feet.

I see a lot of people who don't stand with their feet pointing forward, their weight equally distributed over both feet. However, this is the recommended way to stand. Typically people stand with one foot pointing outwards and their weight is distributed unevenly so that there is  more weight on one foot than the other.

While this might feel very comfortable and seem a simple thing, not a big deal, it actually changes your pelvis position (which will make a difference to your posture and spine health in the long term). It often doesn't show up noticeably facing the front.

To see it better, I will stand side-on. I am going to stand firstly with both feet pointing forward so that you can see what a neural good posture might look like. I have my weight distributed evenly on my toes and my heels and my hips (pelvis) are over the middle of my feet. I am standing well. I would call this good posture.

If I turn one foot out more than the other it allows my pelvis to do something quite different. Typically, your pelvis pushes forward with this foot position. Your pelvis  goes forward because it feels more comfortable in this open foot position.

I invite you to try this at home. (it's quite safe- see what happens). This forward pelvis position tucks your tail under (your backside tucks down and pushes your hips forward).  Over time, this position also pushes the back out of alignment. People with upper back problems often have upper back muscles that are tired of holding their back in this position ( the muscles feel tight from the strain of holding this spine position and this causes pain). Their backs are past the position of good alignment.

I'll exaggerate this position - my hips are forward, my upper back is behind me and my neck is pushed forward. You might see some older men who stand in this position with a huge belly.  It might be the beer but it might be that they are so used to pushing their pelvis forward that their stomach muscles have stretched.

What we need to do is to stand with our weight equally on both feet.

To improve your  posture I highly recommend that you notice what your feet are doing first. Have your toes pointed forward, your weight equally distributed on your toes and heels and allow your hips to balance evenly over your insteps.

I hope you found this tip useful. It's not only for posture. It will help you improve your core muscle strength and help reduce lower back pain.