Overcoming Poor Posture

The physical therapist partner over at GMB teamed up with the author of Overcoming Gravity (which I haven't read yet but which I've frequently heard reckoned a classic) to write this brief guide to improving your posture.  While these guys are not going to win any literary prizes, and the book reads a bit like a long blog post, I found the information pretty useful.  An early chapter on the relationship between pain and posture was particularly interesting, since it argues that pain is only a protective mechanism, rather than a sign of damage.  This suggests an approach to pain that involves desensitizing the nervous system to positions it finds threatening.  Hence the importance of both mobility/stretching and strength training in letting the mind know that certain positions of the body might be less dangerous than it thinks.  The bulk of the book is a description of various exercises that you can combine to improve your posture, as well as a set of program recommendations.  Many of these are of course exercises I was already familiar with, but there were several that I wasn't aware of, some of which feel pretty awesome.  For example, I had never done a reverse hyperextension, or any segmental rolling, both of which feel pretty awesome.  The biggest benefit though, seems to be in simply going through all the exercises and paying attention to how the body feels in different positions.  Even without spending lots of time following their program, this has made me more aware of my tendency to round my thoracic spine forward, and the effect this can have on the lumbar.