Don't pass on posture: martial arts and alignment: Derek Croley stands behind the childhood lesson to sit up straight.

Having bad posture is one of the most common ways people develop a multitude of health problems. Simply having your hips in the wrong place, your chest concave or your head positioned incorrectly can cause serious problems and a great deal of unnatural wear and tear on your body. Additionally, bad posture inhibits your skeletal, respiratory, nervous, digestive and circulatory systems from functioning properly, thus decreasing your physical fitness, ability to correctly digest food, ability to deal with stress and illness, and even your ability, to think clearly. In fact, bad posture can inhibit all of your bodily systems, causing parts of your body to not receive enough oxygen, nutrients or neural messages.

One effective way to develop proper posture is through the disciplined structure of an education in the Martial Arts or Tai Chi. These arts are designed to make your body flow in harmony with itself and spend a great deal of time working to develop posture and alignment.

So, let's try some simple corrections taken from the Martial Arts (Don't worry, they don't involve the finishing-school practice of balancing a book on your head.) that will undoubtedly have a tremendous effect on your posture and on your mental and physical health.

First, you must be aware of two things: your center and horizon lines. Your center line runs from the very top of your head to directly between your legs. This should be a straight, vertical line. Your horizon line runs from just under your belly button to your spine. This line should be horizontal. The point in the middle of your body where the two lines meet is called your center of gravity.

To check the alignment of your horizontal line, you must figure out if your hips are in their proper position. If your hips are too far forward or backward, your entire posture is thrown off. To test yourself, place one thumb on your belly button with your pinky pointed as straight down as you can get it. Place your other hand on your lower back, with your thumb up and pinky down. Move your hips back and forth until your back feels straight, based upon the relative positions of your pinky and thumb.

Another way to test your hip alignment is by sitting down in a chair. Study the way you bend over. If you have to lean forward to sit down, your hips are too far back. If you go down as far as you can and end up flopping your rear out and head forward, you keep your hips too far forward. As you begin to understand proper hip alignment, you will be able to keep your back nearly straight when you are sitting down. (Note: it is okay to counterbalance yourself by holding your hands in front of you.)

To test your vertical posture line, begin with the hip test. From there, place your thumb and middle finger just under your clavicle bones and point your index finger straight up to your chin, making sure it touches just under your jaw. This will ensure that your head is in the right spot. Think of having a string pulling up the back of your head and extending your spine. You can also do the nod test. Slowly nod your head until you find the position that it feels like it most naturally sets. You will find that this aligns with the finger alignment test previously mentioned.

Once you have checked both your horizontal and vertical lines, have somebody push lightly down on your shoulders. You will find that when your posture is aligned correctly, there will be no give, and they will not be able to push you down. You can also play with putting different parts of your body out of alignment to determine the effect it might have on your body and health in order to then correct that problem.

So, get into the habit of thinking about your posture. By keeping your skeletal structure aligned correctly, you will find that your physical health and mental acuity will improve, as all of the systems in your body will be able to flow more smoothly.

Master Derek Croley is the founder of Croley's Martial Arts Center, a certified Tai Chi Instructor, a Martial Arts Hall of Fame inductee, co-founder of the White Oak Tai Chi Foundation, and is the founding cochairman of the National ASTM Martial Arts Educational Industry Safety and Ethics Committee. He resides in Asheville and can be reached at [e-mail] or 828-251-5807.