Today's movement snack, I want to speak to you about carrying your baby or your child. But for those of you who may not be in that stage of life anymore, I still recommend you listen in because this information is really for everybody. And it has to do with our standing posture in regards to not only carrying our child, but for those of us who have carried our children in the past, we are probably falling into the same pattern as those mamas who are carrying their children.
It is always my goal to help you and your family move more. So every Thursday, I am dropping a movement snack into your ears to help you and your family move more. Today's movement snack, I want to speak to you about carrying your baby or your child. But for those of you who may not be in that stage of life anymore, I still recommend you listen in because this information is really for everybody. And it has to do with our standing posture in regards to not only carrying our child, but for those of us who have carried our children in the past, we are probably falling into the same pattern as those mamas who are carrying their children. So most of us are many of us, when we carry our child, we place them kind of on our hip. And we tend to do one of two things, or possibly a little bit of both, you will notice when you place your child on your hip, your ribs will move off to the side. So this over time, can just like when we're sitting and I mentioned last week, in our movement, snack with sitting, this is going to be something where if you do it for extended periods of time, you may end up with some shoulder pain, some hip pain, because of the way we're moving within our ribs. So we need to pay attention to that slide that ribs slide. The other thing many of us do is in addition to that slide, we're pushing and sinking into our hip, which again can create some tension later on or even during, you may notice. So we've got to start working ourselves out of these habitual patterns that we're in, and we need to become aware of them. As always, I'd like to say, become aware of your posture, the goal is not to have the perfect posture, it's to become aware of the positions you are in and make sure you are moving through them into the next position. So if we are going to the right, when we're holding our child on our left hip, our ribs are sliding to the right, then you need to make sure that you are creating some sort of slide to the left with the ribcage at times. And that's then taking that child and placing them on the other hip, which is really awkward and difficult. And the more awkward and difficult it is, the more you're going to realize that you have stuck yourself into a pattern. So the sooner for those of you who are new moms, the sooner you can get into practicing both sides, moving your child from both sides of the hip, the better it's going to be for you because you won't be stuck, so to speak in that position. So the goal is to get them off of the one side if at all possible. Now for those of you who have already practiced those positions, then we've got to start working, you may notice when you are standing around in line waiting for something, you fall into that pattern again, pay attention be observant of what your body is doing, and try to move into a more neutral position. So if I think of myself standing in the line at the grocery store, I may sink into my right hip, my left hip kind of juts out, my right foot turns out, these are all little things that habitually over time, create discrepancies within the body. So you may deal with some aches and pains, like I mentioned, some tightness in certain areas that can create some lingering tension. So the goal, as always, is to try to move through to a different position. So if you are in that position, that doesn't mean you always need to then flip it and go to the other side. It might just mean bringing your body back into a more neutral position where you know, instead of trying to turn that toe that foot out, try to bring it back into neutral, both toes facing forward. Make sure that you're not leaning the weight into either hip, working on keeping that ribcage more neutral, that type of thing. And the other thing for those of you who are still in the phase of carrying your children, part of the reason we do these things we move into these positions is because we don't have the strength in our upper body to hold our children. And so we're relying on our hip to kind of help hold that child up. So things to think about changing your position, trying to see if you can use your arm, use that strengthen your arm, to help hold the child up for longer periods of time. And then working on a program that's going to help you build that strength because it is very important, not for the aesthetic, not for the looks. But for your body for you to move through life, it is important for you to build strength in your body. So find a fitness program that you enjoy. I offer fitness classes online and in person, if you're interested, feel free to reach out to me, I do have a membership, where you can have access to my on demand workouts, I go live sometimes in Facebook. And that is something that you might be interested along with the mom posture program that I have. So if you find these movements, snacks, or something that intrigued you, and you want to learn more, definitely go look at the mom posture fix on my website, which is formed fit online.com so that you can take a look. Also, you can join my community where I will do weekly posture tips and information for you. To help you to help guide you. Each month I go live where you can ask me questions in regards to certain things that you are interested in learning more about in regards to posture. So definitely reach out to me or join our community. Everything will be in our show notes. So you can just click on the links that you're interested in. And I hope you all have a wonderful day, and make sure to move more. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you could do me a favor. If you like what you hear. Could you leave us a review or take a screenshot and share your favorite takeaway on social media. And make sure to tag us over at raising underscore healthy humans. Now go out and enjoy more movement throughout your day.