Ladies, gentlemen, children, everybody: the way you walk is one of the first image you give about yourself. It has to be perfect. Beyond a natural human capacity, walking elegantly is an art I propose you to learn. For this first lesson we will review a crucial element: your body posture. Are you always correct?

You may have the attitude of a real lady, you may be wonderfully dressed, if you have a poor deportment you won’t make a perfect impression. And the body posture is the first thing we notice. Look at the posture of these ladies. 

Now look at the shoulders posture of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

As you can see you may be a star and have a bad back posture if you have not been working on it on a long term basis. Many of them have the head and the shoulders leaning forward, which create not only a disgraceful visual effect, but also some potential health problems when getting older. And it is not something you can correct with a simple surgery.

Understanding the problem

A bad body posture may cause serious physical distortions if repeated over the time. Having the head leaning forward will create a bigger tension on the neck and the trapezius muscles. It will increase the curvature of the back and limit the expansion of the thoracic cage when breathing, creating health disorders. 

These distortions not only affect your body, but also your relations with people. It creates a “closed” posture, giving the impression that this person wants to protect herself from the environment seen as hostile. By having this bad back posture, you send the message “I don’t want to interact with you”. 

What is the proper body posture while walking?

Your spine and your neck must be straight, your chin parallel to the ground, your shoulders are down and backwards. This is the proper posture to keep while walking, in order to achieve a gracious deportment, and to remain healthy. 

Exercices you can easily practice

Try these exercises, and maintain the posture achieved when you start walking.

Exercise 1

  • Put your shoulders forward
  • Then up
  • Then back
  • Then down

Keep your stomach in, move your pelvis slightly forward if needed, in order to get a very straight body line. Now you can walk, but without being tensed. 

Exercise 2

In our class, deportment teacher Svetlana is helping with the wall exercise

Keep this posture for 10 minutes. Then move 1 step forward. You will feel very straight, but not tensed. Try to walk, and keep this good posture.

When sleeping, try to avoid having too many pillows, in order to maintain your spine straight. From now, you should always think about your back posture while walking on a daily basis. Remember, being a true lady / gentleman or a well-educated child require daily efforts!

Of course, there are still our deportment classes for practicing with our teachers. Let us know if you are interested, we will soon open public classes!

The right body posture while walking

Our deportment teacher Svetlana is correcting the body posture