Actually turn the clock around and get younger.

Woman, voice-over: I was doing exercise on PBS and Miranda showed up, and she changed my life.

Second woman, voice-over: She was discussing a technique that she had created where you're engaging all your muscles and slow down premature aging.

That got my attention right away.

Third woman, voice-over: Just watching her inspired me to give it a try, and it became a part of my life.

Fourth woman, voice-over: There's a lot of information that's extremely beneficial about the body, about the brain, and about turning back the clock.

I don't know of anything that's more important, really.

♪ There is nothing in the world that makes us feel more confident and alive than good posture.

I don't feel 69.

I feel like as you have energy to stand up straight and a spring in your step, that definitely makes you feel younger.

We are built to last 100 years.

Our body is built to do that.

We just need to be shown how.

Poor posture does the opposite.

It makes us look older than our age.

But worse than that, it leads to poor health and illness.

I'm Miranda Esmonde-White.

I'm here to talk with you about how improving and maintaining your posture will help you feel energetic, be healthier, and reverse some of the negative signs of aging.

♪ About 10 years ago, I met with Dr. Marc Tremblay, the founder of the International Sedentary Behavior Network.

The focus of our conversation was his concern that the inactivity in the general public was leading to a posture epidemic.

But what he didn't know was that the world was on the verge of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would multiply the problem of poor posture, making his prediction even more dramatic.

At the time, I wondered why a researcher would worry about poor posture when it isn't even a disease or a health condition.

After doing my own research, it became clear why he was so concerned about posture.

It turns out that good posture helps us stay young, healthy, maintains our organs, and gives us the pleasure of experiencing a high quality of life.

On the flip side, poor posture indicates weak and unbalanced muscles, which cause our torso to collapse, in effect preventing the healthy functioning of our vital organs, leaving us with low energy and making us look and feel older than our years.

♪ Woman, voice-over: As I approach 70, I have to tell you I have great mobility, I don't walk with a shuffle, and I feel fully capable of leading my life.

♪ I'm not a dancer but I have the sense of confidence that comes from being a dancer when I feel like my body is working with me.

So, I'm very pleased to have the kind of posture that doesn't give away my age.

If I want to tell somebody my age, I'll tell them.

I don't want them to guess because of the way that I'm moving.

So, I need to keep myself upright, and that takes strength as well as flexibility.

The program gives me all of that.

♪ Esmonde-White, voice-over: Poor posture wasn't a major problem for our ancestors because their survival required constant movement from morning to night, farming, hunting, and gathering.

All the physical activity they did resulted in having strong, agile bodies, which automatically gave them good posture.

Man: In the 19th century, the problem was polluted water.

It was an environmental problem.

In the 21st century, the problem is inactivity.

In the last two generations, we no longer need to run about and we no longer need to scavenge for little bits of food.

So, we've got Paleolithic bodies in a post-Paleolithic world.

So, genetically, we're completely unsuited for the life we live in now, and this means inactivity is something we're not genetically prepared for, and, therefore, it increases the risk of many common diseases.

So, we're interested in not just lifespan, 'cause I don't meet many people who want to live to 118, but it's in health span.

So, activity is the key issue.

Esmonde-White: Try to drop the baby toe on the floor.

Woman, voice-over: My name is Beth Barnette.

I'm a doctor of chiropractic.

I've been practicing in Nashville, Tennessee for 34 years and enjoying my practice immensely.

I've been practicing the technique about 10 years and I recommend it to all my patients.

And the reason that I do is because I've found it to be very gentle on the joints yet it involves the entire body from the head to the toe.

I see people on a regular basis in gyms and working out that come to me with torn muscles and orthopedic complaints that take a long time to heal.

Medically, I've had people that this program has helped with plantar fasciitis, shin splints, posture, hip pain, you name it.

I haven't had too many people that actually haven't liked it.

A lot of times, I'll tell my patients-- I try to get them all to do it.

In fact, I think they probably think I'm obsessed with Miranda.

But I feel like they won't need to come see me as often if they can get--be aware of their own posture and how to get their own alignment.

In the old days, you know, we wandered the Earth looking for roots and berries.

Now we're sitting in chairs maybe 8 to 12 hours a day.

That has put us under orthopedic stress.

It's compressed our spines.

Surely, young people, their posture is horrendous.

They're constantly over their devices.

And that's where I see potential disaster happening.

Because we were very active in our youths, and I feel like it's gonna be a really big challenge for the generation coming up to stay healthy and to keep their body mechanics working.

For decades, a slow-moving storm of inactivity has been creeping into the collective behavior of the nation.

However, the slow-moving storm of inactivity has accelerated into a hurricane as the number of people complaining about posture-related issues grows.

It's not just the people who suffer from COVID whose health has been damaged.

It's all of us who spent years quarantining in semi-lockdown.

Overnight, millions of lives changed from pre-COVID activities like going to work, hitting the gym, participating in group sports, or even going on walks with friends.

Without warning, those basic activities abruptly stopped.

We found ourselves sitting a great deal... and moving less.

♪ As we emerge from COVID, it's become clear that being inactive has made all the muscles in our body weaker, which has in turn taken a toll on our general health.

This means we need to strengthen all, not just some of our muscles, and the safest and most efficient way to rebuild our strength and posture is through full-body rebalancing exercises that are high enough in intensity to increase strength, but not so intense as to cause injury.

They need to be the type of workouts that enable us to participate in our favorite activities no matter what our age.

The problem is that the general public's approach to exercising is an all-or-nothing approach.

Now more than ever, we need to embrace a middle approach to fitness.

Woman, voice-over: My husband is a retired physician and he has watched me do this program now for 3 1/2 years and always was really happy for me that I was having such good results and I am a zealot about it.

I mean, I really like it, so, I've talked to him a lot about it.

The thing that I've noticed the most is my posture.

When you do the workouts every day, what you realize is to establish and maintain good posture, you have to have really strong abs and you have to pull up out of your pelvis.

And so, as you do that more and more, of course it makes you look and feel taller, but it also takes a lot of pressure off of your body--your knees, your legs, and so on-- and so, you feel younger, partially because you feel lighter.

I have not injured myself at all during the 3 1/2 years I've done this program, and I think that says a lot for the program.

I came to understand that contrary to the "no pain, no gain" mantra of the fitness industry, the body doesn't have to be pushed to the point of near injury to reap the benefits of a workout.

Welcome to another half-hour of "Classical Stretch" routines.

Esmonde-White, voice-over: The Essentrics technique that I created over 20 years ago is easy to do.

It slowly goes through the full range of motion of every one of our 360 joints, which automatically strengthens and stretches and rebalances all our 650 muscles, resulting in great posture.

I'm now 73, pain-free, and feeling younger than I did in my forties.

For me personally, this is the miracle of flexibility.

Man, voice-over: Before starting Miranda's program, my body wasn't in the best of places.

Since I turned 40 or shortly after, I started getting all sorts of aches and pains in my back, in my neck, my shoulders that I really didn't understand.

There was no rhyme or reason as far as I could tell.

I would go to sleep sometimes feeling OK, wake up in the morning with it or sometimes it would develop during the day.

It was very frustrating.

I had gone to see physicians, physiotherapists, and sometimes I would feel better temporarily but nothing that was lasting, unfortunately.

My wife first mentioned the program to me.

I really had no interest in doing a stretching program.

It didn't appeal to me.

But I was wrong.

Miranda's program really changed that completely.

It's really taken away the aches and pains on a daily basis.

[Dog barking] I wake up in the morning and I don't feel any discomfort.

It's really--I'm at a point that I can appreciate it on a daily basis that I'm pain-free.

I've definitely noticed improvements in my posture since I've started the program.

A couple of months ago, one of my colleagues, actually, I walked into work and she said, "You look taller for some reason," which--I suppose it didn't really happen, but holding myself in a nicer way definitely--it shows.

♪ I'd say I digest better because of the program and because of better posture.

I would.

Ha ha ha!

Is that a bad thing to say?

Ha ha ha!

Boy: Cannonball!

One of the most meaningful developments, I guess, that I've had is that I was so uncomfortable prior to starting the program that there were so many times my kids wanted to wrestle, to play with me, and I couldn't.

I was too scared of hurting my back because of them.

It stopped that.

I don't have the fear anymore.

We play whenever they want to play or whenever I want to play, but it's great, it's great having that freedom once again.

♪ My definition of good posture is that every joint in our body needs to be capable of moving effortlessly in their full range of motion and that all the muscles in the body are equally strong and flexible.

This leads to perfect alignment.

Good posture should leave us capable of twisting, turning, bending, or reaching with ease.

When we have good posture, it automatically means that we are strong enough to live fully active lives in a pain-free body.

The human body has 360 joints.

Each joint has its own designated range of motion.

For example, the range of motion of the arm is a big circle.

When we slouch, even the tiniest slouch, it will block the range of motion of our arm.

Try doing this with me.

Slouch even a little bit and try raising your arm above your head.

You'll notice that the range of motion of your arm is blocked by the slouch, which means you can't recruit all the muscles of the arm.

Now straighten your spine and try lifting your arm again.

You'll see how having good posture not only liberates the full range of motion of the arm, it also uses all the muscles of that joint.

The reason why workouts that focus on the range of motion of every joint are so important is because they liberate and rebalance the joints.

The beauty is that when the joints are liberated, they automatically fall into clean alignment, translating into perfect posture.

One of the side effects of poor posture is that over time, our body remolds into the poor posture shape, making standing straight difficult.

This is how the remolding happens.

Every muscle in our body is surrounded by fascia.

It's literally everywhere.

Healthy fascia is made of paper-thin sheets of a collagen-rich protein separated by a liquid.

To prevent it from drying out and the fascia from gluing together, they need constant hydration so that they can slip and slide over each other as we move.

This makes movement effortless.

The catch is that there is only one way to keep our fascia hydrated, and that is to move, because movement pumps the liquid into the layers of fascia, preventing them from sticking together.

When they stick together, we have trouble moving, which makes us feel stiff and old.

TV: Now you're gonna just shift and add it all together... Woman, voice-over: I felt very tight.

My whole body was tight.

And I was starting to atrophy in my back.

I--even more so, you know, my shoulders were coming forward.

I was starting to have a little bit of back pain.

And I just didn't feel the looseness that I had felt, you know, 20, 30 years ago.

So, I noticed by doing this and doing it regularly, everything was coming back.

The freedom was coming.

The lower back pain was relieving.

And a wonderful thing was happening in my back.

My posture was improving.

It meets you where you are, you know.

You don't have to be a dancer.

You don't have to be a teacher.

You could just be somebody that, you know, frankly, spends a lot of time sitting at their desk, and you start there, and you feel it, you know.

You feel your whole body change.

And once you start feeling your whole body change and you feel better in your body, then there's really no going back.

I just talked about how fascia remolds the body as it becomes dehydrated.

This is very common in the hips of people who sit too much.

Sitting seems so innocent and harmless.

Yet, it has now become the fourth leading risk factor for death across the globe.

This statistic always makes me want to get up and move.

The sitting position makes an L shape.

When we sit for a prolonged period of time, the muscles of our hips, glutes, and abs weaken.

At the same time, the fascia dehydrates and molds into the L shape, causing the hips to feel stiff and our body uncomfortable when we try to stand.

Yes.

I mean, the idea of using a rebalancing approach makes perfect sense.

Most people have patterns of restriction that have developed throughout their lives.

The body tends to adapt to whatever our daily routines are.

So, if we are sitting all the time, like most people are on their jobs, the body begins to adapt.

It becomes excellent at sitting but really awful at fighting gravity and doing activities in a standing position.

The idea of doing exercises in a standing position that involve fighting gravity just really makes perfect sense.

I also think about how rarely people even raise their arms up in their daily routines.

And so many of my clients have neck and shoulder problems and it just seems to be associated with the fact that because of so much sitting and lack of raising our arms, they lose that capacity as time goes on.

Not only is sitting detrimental to our posture, but long sitting sessions actually change our body's metabolism.

Just getting up for 5 minutes is going to get things going again.

We've already seen how poor posture limits our ability to move our arms, which can make getting dressed or reaching into a cupboard not only difficult but potentially dangerous, because as we lose our range of motion, the unused muscles and fascia atrophy.

Anything that atrophies dries out, meaning it's susceptible to tearing.

I've often heard stories of people injuring themselves doing seemingly innocent, everyday movements, but in truth, these aren't fluke accidents but most likely accidents waiting to happen.

I--I was putting something into an oven and then I couldn't-- I couldn't stand up straight without excruciating pain, and so, then I had to be taken to the hospital and I had a slipped--or a disc that had slipped out and was pressing against a nerve.

It was like I didn't do hardly anything and my back is so painful, and then as the process went on, I--it was kind of scary to think my back can go out on me at any time and I don't know whether I'm gonna be able to continue working, and, um...that was-- that was very distressing.

♪ It was sometime after that that I found the program.

One morning, I was doing the exercise routine, and then when I was at work, it was exactly the same motion that we had been doing in the routine, and I could--it's like, "Oh.

"Oh, yeah, I can tighten up my abdominal muscles "and be doing this with my core muscles instead of making my back or my arms do all the work."

I feel more energetic.

I feel like I have more power in--in my--in walking and then when I have to squat down on the ground to plug some equipment in and get back up and I feel like I can-- I feel confident also that I can do my job without injuring myself.

I've regained all that motion and I-- I feel like I'm, um, instead of losing range of motion, I'm gaining back range of motion and I--I really am happy about that.

I'm about to take a short break, but I have a question for you.

Can you guess what we do every day that can seriously damage your posture?

You might be surprised to find out what it is.

I'll tell you after the break.

Welcome back.

Were you able to guess what we do on a daily basis that can damage our posture?

The answer is the way we stand on our feet.

When we study the mechanics of the human body, it's a bit like looking at the structure of a house.

Our feet are like the foundation, supporting the weight of the entire structure.

Our skeleton is like the frame.

Our muscles and connective tissue are like the wall.

Our vital organs are like the plumbing, wiring, and heating.

Now imagine a house with a crumbling foundation.

The structure would be pulled out of alignment, the walls would crack, the plumbing would leak, and the wiring would short.

In other words, it would be a miserable place to live in.

A solid house needs a solid foundation.

In our body, that's our feet, which is why it's impossible to overstate the importance of standing correctly on the full foot.

We all know that we have an arch in each foot, but did you know that the arch is actually composed of 3 separate arches?

The purpose of the arch shape in our feet is to absorb our weight.

In architecture, the arch shape is known as the most efficient shape to absorb weight.

When we stand with our weight evenly distributed over the entire foot, the weight of our body will then be absorbed by our arches, where it is intended to.

Unfortunately, most people either stand rolling their feet towards the inside, which is called inverting, or the outside, which is called everting.

This pulls the arches out of alignment, weakening and flattening them.

In turn, this leads to misaligned joints throughout the body, setting in motion an upwards chain reaction, pulling the knees, hips, and spine out of alignment, often causing pain and joint damage.

When the arches of our feet are well aligned, the weight of our body naturally flows evenly through them, permitting the arches to act as springboards, giving us a bounce in our step.

The value of strong arches should not be underestimated.

They give us energy, a youthful spring in our step, strong legs, and best of all, pain-free joints.

What's interesting is that simply by doing feet alignment exercises, we can rebuild our arches and rebalance misaligned joints, solving the problems of both pain and poor posture.

Now, 90% of all patients go to the chiropractor for back pain, but 90% of most back pain come from our feet.

90% of the population have improper functioning feet.

We'll say it's called flat foot, or where the arch drops down.

This will internally rotate the knee, the hip, the pelvis drops, lumbars deviate over, and this creates massive joint dysfunction throughout your entire body.

Esmonde-White: Relax.

Relax in my hand right here.

'Cause you're poking your chin forward.

Man: OK. Esmonde-White, voice-over: After years of working with people who suffer from back pain, I've been able to see the link between their back pain and how they stood on their feet.

...your hip.

So, you gotta start with the feet.

That's your foundation of your house.

Esmonde-White, voice-over: Back pain is one of the most common conditions that people suffer from, making it an extremely complex subject to tackle.

Since COVID, worldwide data reported an average increase in lower back pain.

This statistic alone confirms the direct connection between lack of movement and back pain.

Often, when we have back pain, it's because our body is out of alignment.

Misaligned joints will always pull their next-door neighbor joints out of alignment.

In addition to standing incorrectly on our feet, daily habits constantly pull our joints out of alignment, like carrying a bag on the same shoulder, swinging a tennis racket with the same arm, or getting out of bed on the same side.

Over time, our body adjusts to these habits as one side gets stronger and the other side gets weaker.

Knowing that everyday habits unbalance our body requires that every day, we do some kind of deliberate rebalancing exercises.

♪ Man, voice-over: I discovered Essentrics looking for-- for a way to alleviate my back pain.

I had been visiting health professionals, physios, chiros for quite a while, and they always provide a level of temporary relief, but I realized I needed to do a certain amount of stretching and strengthening to alleviate the pain, so, I started exploring different avenues and by chance, I joined a studio that was offering Essentrics.

So, my back pain was quite severe.

I had been suffering chronic back pain for over 10 years, probably from a level of-- sedentary lifestyle from sitting a desk, a lot of sports when I was younger, so, I was suffering from sciatic back pain, from an L3-L4 disk compression.

But then luckily, I was able to avoid doing surgery just through movement and fitness and Essentrics.

When I think about it, I live my life very linearly.

I was on my desk, I was on my phone, I was driving, I was walking.

Everything is very one-dimensional, so, Essentrics really introduced me to this idea of moving three-dimensionally and I believe that's what really helped alleviate the back pain.

♪ Being flexible and mobile to me means freedom of choice.

Freedom to do what I want to do.

Freedom to go do anything I want to do with my daughter.

Freedom to go just play a game of pick-up basketball or go skiing.

Jump in the car and just live life without having to think about the consequences of anything I might be doing in terms of how I move my body.

♪ It's--it's freedom.

♪ Esmonde-White: That was so good.

Esmonde-White, voice-over: Our organs are the engines of our body.

They make everything run.

Besides the brain, all our other organs are housed in our torso.

For the organs to have sufficient space to function, we need good posture.

Let's take a look at how our posture affects our digestion.

Digestion starts in our mouth.

As we eat and drink, the food flows through a complex series of tubes and organs as it's filtered, processed, and finally delivered to the cells or eliminated.

With poor posture, these organs become squished and compressed, blocking the smooth flow of digestive fluids, leading to constipation, stomachaches, and acid reflux.

Not only does good posture provide lots of space for the digestive system but it also provides strong muscles to help pump the fluids through.

♪ Woman, voice-over: Posture is, I think, one of the more crucial things.

As we age, digestion starts to slow down.

Your organs are not getting the room if you are pulled forward or not giving enough space through your body.

So, having proper posture helps with digestion.

It helps with your breathing.

It's important to give your organs the space they need.

Second woman, voice-over: Doing full range of motion exercise is important because the body is the whole.

The muscle is inside fascia, and then all these fibers wrapped in fascia are wrapped in another fascia.

That fascia is connected to the fascia around your organs.

Often, people who don't breathe well will have back problems.

This is the fascia from the diaphragm that is tight that will be pulling on the back.

Sometimes, it's gonna be a digestive problem that's gonna pull on your back or your back's gonna pull on your stomach.

It's all connected.

Esmonde-White, voice-over: Very few people connect good posture to a strong cardiovascular and respiratory system.

But we should, because the truth is that heart and lung health are inseparable from good posture.

Both need space to expand and contract.

The heart and lungs are housed inside the rib cage, which consists of 24 ribs.

Ribs are designed to expand and contract when we breathe.

However, when we slouch, the rib cage can't expand and contract as much as we need it to.

Try this simple test.

Stand up, place your hands on your ribs, and take a deep breath.

As you breathe, your ribs should expand and retract easily.

Still holding your ribs, slouch, and try breathing.

You'll notice that your ribs can't expand and contract as much, making breathing shallow.

Slouching limits the movement of the diaphragm, preventing the lungs from inhaling sufficient oxygen and exhaling toxins.

Most of us don't know that the diaphragm is also a main passageway for nerves, digestive tubes, and blood vessels.

When it's compressed, a type of traffic jam happens, inhibiting the cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory systems from functioning efficiently.

The best way to keep the pathways of the diaphragm open is through good posture And out.

[Exhales] Now to go round... Woman, voice-over: I've noticed big changes in my own posture from doing this program.

I've had a lot of historically, like, tightness in my upper back and my neck from being at--working at computers for so many years and sitting a lot, and I think-- now I feel like my--my chest is more open, I stand more upright, and as a result of that, I--I breathe better, and when you breathe better, when you have more space to breathe, when you're--when you're in good alignment, your body functions.

It just knows how to function.

You don't have to think about it.

And your lungs function the way they're supposed to.

You take in the appropriate amount of oxygen.

And so, you feel more energetic.

When you have good posture, you--it gives you energy, so, like, the quickest way to increase your energy is to stand up, is be in good alignment, and that actually gives you energy.

You don't have to reach for, you know, caffeine or a chocolate bar, not that those are bad, but if you want a natural boost of energy, it's-- good posture will help you breathe and that'll give you energy.

Esmonde-White, voice-over: The heart muscle is the main pump to move blood through the 60,000 miles of veins, capillaries, and arteries.

However, the heart is not designed to do all the work.

Our muscles are intended to support the heart to prevent it from becoming overstressed.

Every time we move, our muscles contract and relax, making a pumping action.

In doing so, the muscles act as a support team to the heart.

Every movement counts, like standing, walking, reaching, and bending.

Being inactive puts the full stress of pumping the blood throughout the body solely on the heart muscle, leaving the heart prone to exhaustion and heart disease.

Every 36 seconds, one person in the United States or Canada dies of heart disease.

Just by reducing sedentary time, we lower our risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack.

TV: Put your body into the right angle.

Barnette, voice-over: All my life, I've looked for this workout, and now my great challenge is to evolve with this program and allow myself to move through the planet more gracefully and feel better every day doing it.

Woman, voice-over: Miranda's program has been a huge benefit to my life and has impacted me greatly.

It's changed my life for the better.

I do it every day and I feel good afterwards.

Woman, voice-over: Once you get into it, you're not gonna stop.

Second woman, voice-over: I feel like I'm kind of in my forties again.

And I'm flexible.

I can move any direction.

It's fabulous.

And it's taken me from a totally sedentary life to one of fitness and health.

I want to get the most out of life and I see this as a very dependable resource for that.

Woman, voice-over: This movement is going to help me be able to be who I want to be for as long as I'm on this Earth.

♪ Esmonde-White, voice-over: The benefits of having good posture are never-ending.

It helps with the proper functioning of our organs, gives us abundant energy, makes moving effortless and pain-free, but best of all, helps us look and feel young, no matter what our age.

That's the miracle.

As I've shared throughout this show, these are the ways to achieve good posture.

Avoid a sedentary lifestyle, move more, and learn to stand correctly on your feet.

But in addition to that, good posture needs strong, flexible muscles, and one of the safest and fastest ways to strength your muscles is through gentle range of motion exercises.

But we need to be patient.

We are all born moving.

It's the most natural thing a human being can do.

If we want to stay healthy and feeling young, then we must choose to move.

Thank you for joining me.

♪ ♪