If you look like a spastic turtle doing the backstroke on silks (been there), or you’re 25 but look 1005 in your trapeze video, friend – you may have an Aerial Posture Predicament. What’s up with that? What is lifted aerial posture? Does it matter beyond aesthetics? Are you destined to resemble a bashful tortoise forever? Let’s point our nipples skyward and find out.

Lifted Aerial Posture 101

When we’re not hanging from our arms, you get an A+ if you:

• Allow your shoulders to ease down away from your ears – those upper traps can take a seat for the moment.
• Now, think of broadening your collar bones, as opposed to allowing the shoulders to round forward. Feels le poo? The exercise above might help.
• Lift your chin, and lightly tilt your chest up. Let your charms or pecs point skywards! (Well, not that much, but “When in doubt, boobies out!”). Imagine you have a fab new T shirt and want everyone to read what’s on it.
• You might hear me cue for: broadening the collar bones, opening the chest, casting your nipples to the sky, tits up, proud chest, look for Jason Momoa on the horizon, etc.
• While we’re at it, let’s avoid the opposite extreme too! Hyper-arching the spine throws us out of alignment in the opposite direction. You don’t need to put your head on your butt, just imagine that someone is pulling you up by a string attached to the top of your head. 

The effect should be confident and regal! Fake it ’til you make it. 😉 

Again, this is when we’re not hanging by our arms; if you ARE hanging with arms extended overhead, you’re looking to elevate and rotate.

Why Posture Matters

• A lifted carriage communicates confidence! Just by dropping your shoulders an inch or opening your chest, you could go from drabulous to fabulous in 3 seconds! Werk.
• If you’re rounding forward and looking at the floor, people are going to think you dropped money. Lift!
• Rounding forward often places our spines and shoulders in inefficient or even dangerous positions. 

“Boobies out” looks different on everybody, because every body is different! No matter where your body is today – tight shoulders, upper spine rounding, forward head posture, etc – we can find small ways of lengthening to bring ourselves into a more lifted position. So, while you don’t need to climb with a book on your head (though I’ll give you mad props if you do), you will want to cultivate lifted lines in the chest and neck. Video can be super helpful here. So, make like Emily Post, grab a couple of cucumber sandwiches, and get crackin’ on that posture! Making the world more magical, one back, chest, and neck at a time. Love and pull-ups, Laura