Why you should care about your children’s good body posture?

I am sure you already know the answer; the main reason is because you love them. However, I want to bring your attention to why this matter is important and what you

can do.

A poor posture causes body imbalances that quickly develop as back or joint pain. The majority of people in adulthood live their everyday life without paying attention to their body posture. They carry things, remain seated for long periods or perform heavy

physical tasks neglecting what is happening to their bodies.

It is only when their body reacts to these imbalances with pain when they look for professional help. It is a common belief that those professionals should ‘fix’ the problem and find a permanent solution that will prevent the pain from coming back. In many of these cases, people do not think that they are responsible for their posture and the efficacy of their body movements.

To some extent, I believe that we have some excuse for this behaviour since we are not taught in our early years how to work towards healthy lifetime habits to protect our spine and musculoskeletal system. Occasionally, some parents try to correct their children and tell them things such as ‘don’t hunch over the desk', 'sit upright' or ‘stand tall’; unfortunately, none of this is enough if they do not tell them how to do it properly. We learn habits by repetition, therefore, in the same way we subconsciously learn bad body posture habits we should learn the good ones.

Children are natural learners; thus, it is highly recommended to introduce them to disciplines that could give them lifelong healthy habits. Pilates is one of these since it is

an excellent tool-exercise for kids to become aware of their bodies.

Pilates strengthens the deepest core muscles generating more efficient body movements and helps to correct body posture. By practising Pilates, kids would get stronger and more flexible muscles, allowing healthy growth and the development of their musculoskeletal system. Pilates is a non-impact exercise discipline that improves balance and coordination during growth and assists in children’s development. With Pilates, a growing body becomes more balanced, helping to prevent injuries caused by the practice of high-impact sports.

Alternatively, practising Pilates develops children’s interpersonal skills through interaction with their classmates during their exercise sessions; this also increases confidence and self-esteem, the latter being particularly important in the adolescence stage.

For the youngest children, Pilates helps to build up self-assurance in the performance of the exercises by creating patterns of motion and using their imagination this also allows increased attention span, thus developing concentration skills.

To enrol your young kids and teenagers in a regular Pilates class is to invest in their future, since this could prevent issues such as back, neck or joint pain that quite often adults present due to their bad body posture habits.

Let’s follow Joseph Pilates’ advice: First educate the child!!