A simple, easy and necessary posture awareness strategy to help kids' mental and physical health
It is morning, and the day holds all its promises. Children arrive excited, skipping merrily towards those moments of play, some screaming away, and others are not even awake. But the teacher, nah, she is there. She is ready… so the day begins with children gathered on the floor. They gaze with hopeful eyes towards a better tomorrow, one that education promises to all of us…. their tiny legs crossed, hips tight, backs hunched. Heads bowed… The teacher sees an invisible force materialising; the wiggle monster feeds itself of lousy posture. This mysteriously affects her work… Some children try to maintain their awkward position. In contrast, others hold their chins like a muscle builder, propping their heads’ heaviness away from the floor. Despite the teacher’s efforts to instruct, children will not stop wiggling.
One wiggle is contagious; it is like the La Ola wave. It starts on one side and is almost like an unchoreographed ballet. The bodies begin to move, but not in resonance; it is more of an agony drama dance. Can we really blame them? Sitting in an uncomfortable position is far from pleasant. However, this is what happens every day in millions of schools all around the world.
The worrying thing is that poor posture can lead to many physical and mental health problems. To make matters worse, schools worldwide are decreasing their focus on physical activity. The teachers are swamped with subjects and marks, and classrooms are overcrowded. However, we believe there is a simple and effective solution.
This article will explore these issues and offer suggestions for parents and teachers to address them.
Below are the five top reasons why teaching children the correct sitting posture and yoga muscle-strengthening exercises matters.
We will begin with the Western perspective, examining the negative effects of prolonged sitting on children’s muscles and overall health. We will also explore strategies to prevent these problems.
So, let’s start with the Elephant in the room. Depression.
1 – Depression
Happy people look happy—sad people sag.
Sitting down in a slumber position was proven to make a depressed person remember more negative words than those sitting upright, which is a sign of how depressed we are.
Children sitting slumped for too long might feel gloomier when something perceived as negative happens than those sitting upright (Michalak et al., 2014). Power posing is a real thing. Changing people’s posture changes their minds (Carney et al., 2010). This means that leaving children sitting down in a posture that naturally mimics depressive mode will impact their perception of the world and how they feel in relation to it. More than that, it might impact their Musculoskeletal health in the future.
2 – Upper Quadrant Musculoskeletal Pain
Flexing the head forward is problematic.
Researchers in South Africa discovered that over 30% of adolescents were suffering from neck and upward back pain. One of the reasons is that they were not taught to sit upright, choosing the best posture when on the computer (Brink et al., 2015). Adults can help children develop healthy habits by consistently reminding them to perform the desired actions until their brains form strong synapses, with no conscious effort to maintain good posture. The subconscious will automatically perform the whole choreography for them. This takes us to the next point: how our posture enhances oxygen capacity.
3 – Lung capacity and oxygen intake
The jury is out
Here, we will need to be non-linear and connect a few dots. Lung capacity is related to how much air we can breathe in and out. How much air we move in and out depends on the body’s needs. The brain needs a lot of oxygen, so if we want the children to learn, they will need access to as much lung capacity as possible. Here, the science is debatable, with one study saying that slouching is not so good for lung capacity and that leaning forward allows a deeper breath (Chaudhary et al., 2022) and others saying that it does not make much difference (Lin et al., 2006). Regardless of where the science points to, giving a clean, deep and nourishing breath is always a nice moment. So you can do the test yourself, slouch and take deep breaths. Check how you feel. Sit up tall and breathe. How was that? The latter felt deeper and smoother if you are just like everybody else. Now that we understand how important good posture is for the body and brain, we should dive into the art of Exercise and posture and how this can hinder or help mental disorders like ADHD.
4 – ADHD and other disorders
Movement helps the thoughts
Science is a method of separating factors, aspects, characteristics and so on to establish causation or correlation between phenomena. Unfortunately, life is not so black and white, which might make writing about the very small angle of sitting in the right posture shallow and not applicable. ADHD and other disorders are not shallow subjects. Therefore, looking into a multifaceted solution will be more appropriate and helpful than focusing only on a sitting posture. Here, we must delve into the benefits of Exercise and the brain. Dr. John J. Ratey, an “Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognised expert in Neuropsychiatry”, explored in his books and research the miracles exercise can do to our brain; one example shows the research of 19,000 American students that went from below-average grades to the highest scores after applying for fitness based program that made kids move every day for 45 minutes (TEDx Talks, 2012). Now, other researchers have shown how mindfulness and meditation can also help. This is fundamental because one can not separate a good sitting posture from muscle strength and skeleton alignment, which is developed by having an active body. Yoga can offer both simultaneously by adopting a systematic approach to teaching mindful exercise-denominated Asanas.
Lastly, we must look into the awareness of posture and Exercise so we will be able to provide the most effective methodology to our children.
5 – Lack of posture awareness
Being aware
After suffering back pain for over a decade, Elaine Petrone created a method that teaches people how to be pain-free (Petrone, 2010). The best-selling author advocates teaching people about body awareness, focusing on how we engage in movement. A quick search for posture awareness in the database and various studies about musculoskeletal disorders show up. Body and posture awareness is a field that has little emphasis outside of sports or somatic work. However, the biggest problem with this is that we are all born dependent on how our body positions in relation to the planet and how it responds to our commands so we can move through space. Nobody pays much attention unless things derail because we are immersed in a posture like we are immersed in air.
Second part - The Yoga Perspective
In the second part of this article, we are taking the Yoga perspective to understand why teaching Asanas is so essential in modern society.
Yoga philosophy modern take has been based on the Sutras of Patanjali. The sutras are considered the “Bible” of Yoga. In the book, Patanjali explains that Asanas must be steady (Sthira) and comfortable (Sukham). Many will complement by saying that Patanjali was talking about the sitting down posture, which allows the mind to be steady and the energy to flow.
Below is the only Sutra that cites Asana
Sutra 2.46 : Sthira sukham asanam
Asana is a steady and comfortable posture.
The breakdown of this concept will give us enough information to understand Yoga’s perspective regarding posture awareness and Asanas flow as one complements the other.
1 – Asanas
What are Asanas, and why should we add them to mat time or time?
Kid’s yoga Asanas are a systematic model of organised movements that explores all body and mind capabilities. Translating, Asanas are incredibly effective in working with the systems that make up the body and mind.
Asanas are postures where specific body parts follow anatomical planes that challenge strength, flexibility and balance. They are called postures or poses in Western literature. Postures can be explored in thousands of variations. However, there are around 50 postures that can be safely taught to children. One advantage of teaching Asanas to children is that a three-year-old will understand the explanations for the Downward dog pose and practice within his or her capability as much as a seven-year-old child will.
2 – Why introduce Asanas as a form of exercise for children?
Research has already established correlations between physical activity and cognitive development (Donnelly et al., 2016), demonstrating that children, to enhance development, need as much movement as possible. Unfortunately, most children are not moving their bodies enough since schools prioritise English and maths instead of Physical Education, so we must do something ASAP.
Considering the educational system and teachers’ difficulties regarding curriculum and space, Asanas become an easy-to-access solution that can be adopted in most classrooms. Returning to Patanjali’s explanation of Asanas, it teaches children to be steady; this steadiness is translated into various components that make up an active, healthy child. With that said, why would that be the case?
3 – What are some benefits of teaching Asanas to small children?
The best way to explain this is to have an example.
The posture called Virabhadrasana III is a challenging Asana, even for adults. However, it is incredibly fun. The posture strengthens the whole body and gives the body and mind flexibility. Although that sounds incredible, a lot must happen within the body and mind to practise Warrior III properly, and that is when the magic happens.
Let’s dive into what must happen so a child can do this pose.
4 – How do we teach Asanas to small children?
First, the child needs to follow instructions, which will not happen very quickly initially, but that is okay; the key to Yoga Asanas is practice. The child will understand that failure is part of the process; we will all fail, including the teacher, but together, we persevere.
Second, the challenge will show itself up. First, the muscle capacity will be in the trial, followed by the cognitive ability flickering because of the necessity of orchestrating the decisions and wantings of the mind and body. Then, the balance will contest and protest. All that must be done with precision, steadiness and ease. Of course, it will not! It will happen with wobbliness, trembling and extreme difficulty.
However, the beauty of Asanas is that all of them can be broken down into small components that the child can master one by one and then add together.
Warrior III has six essential components.
- Leg lifting,
- core activation,
- hip squaring,
- arms lifting,
- foot base, and
- balance
Each component can be practised separately and then joined together, or they can be noticed while trying the pose, which will give the child the awareness of what has been difficult, and then the components can be explored.
Self-efficacy dictates a lot of what children do. They need to know that they can, and even better, that we can learn and improve. Kid’s Yoga does precisely that and more.
So, finally, we need to answer the question that sparked this blog article.
5 – What simple posture awareness strategies can help improve kids’ mental health?
Trying to translate Yoga effects into a straightforward strategy involving all the richness of this philosophy is the same as trying to dry the ocean. Regardless of the difficulty, we can instead focus on a fragment that might reflect the whole. This fragment is the pure and straightforward present moment. Yoga unites mind, body and spirit into the present moment. This is why it works. Now, from that, a child blossoms into the next version. Knowing the first version is essential to follow up to the next improved moment. This reasonably simple concept encapsulates all the nuances of why Yoga works. So, a simple strategy to help improve kids’ mental health with Yoga is to allow the child to be 100% present with every movement, every wobbly twist and trembling turn until the mind can become steady and the moment accessible.
Before you go, thanks for reading all the way. We appreciate your time and attention! Please consider purchasing our program if you want easy-to-follow materials to teach Yoga and Mindfulness to children. If you are a teacher and think the school would be interested in adding fun and effective Kids’ Yoga and Mindfulness strategies to the educational curriculum, please get in touch. We specialise in content creation that supports all the Yoga components and can be explored with the touch of a button!
Reference
Brink, Y., Louw, Q., Grimmer, K., & Jordaan, E. (2015). The relationship between sitting posture and seated-related upper quadrant musculoskeletal pain in computing South African adolescents: A prospective study. Manual Therapy, 20(6), 820–826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.math.2015.03.015
Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C., & Yap, A. J. (2010). Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance. Psychological Science, 21(10), 1363–1368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610383437
Chaudhary, S., Harish, C., Kaur, S., & Shenoy, S. (2022). Evaluation of EMG activity of superficial respiratory muscles and vital capacity parameters during different pelvic tilts in standing, sitting and lying postures. Indian Journal of Physical Therapy and Research, 4(1), 68–68.
Donnelly, J. E., Hillman, C. H., Castelli, D., Etnier, J. L., Lee, S., Tomporowski, P., Lambourne, K., & Szabo-Reed, A. N. (2016). Physical Activity, Fitness, Cognitive Function, and Academic Achievement in Children: A Systematic Review. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 48(6), 1197–1222. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000000901
Lin, F., Parthasarathy, S., Taylor, S. J., Pucci, D., Hendrix, R. W., & Makhsous, M. (2006). Effect of Different Sitting Postures on Lung Capacity, Expiratory Flow, and Lumbar Lordosis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 87(4), 504–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2005.11.031
Michalak, J., Mischnat, J., & Teismann, T. (2014). Sitting Posture Makes a Difference—Embodiment Effects on Depressive Memory Bias. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21(6), 519–524. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1890
Petrone, E. (Director). (2010). Power of body awareness. Healthy Learning. https://www.aspresolver.com/aspresolver.asp?MARC;2142015
TEDx Talks (Director). (2012, November 19). Run, Jump, Learn! How Exercise can Transform our Schools: John J. Ratey, MD at TEDxManhattanBeach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBSVZdTQmDs