Product Description
It's true - improving your posture can make important differences in the way you look and feel. Like many people, though, you may think that your posture is hopeless, especially after years of slouching, slumping, or working in positions that have strained your muscles and stressed your body This fully illustrated guide shows you how to beat bad posture habits and demonstrates easy strengthening exercises that start working right away. Make yourself a promise to learn these simple techniques - and enjoy the rewards of better posture today!

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 4 reviews)

If You Suffer From Poor Posture, You Will Find This Book Helpful

There are millions of people who suffer from poor posture or clinically known as Postural Distortion Syndrome. And I am quite sure that many of us including myself have heard our mothers and spouses tell us to straighten up. In fact, countless experts have attributed such health problems as arthritis, sore necks, back pain, leg pain, digestive problems, headaches, obesity, and other chronic physical symptoms to poor posture.

According to Janice Novak, author of Posture Get It Straight, just straightening up is not the answer. Novak goes onto inform us that when most of us try to improve our posture, we jam the shoulders back, suck in the bellies, and stand stiff as soldiers. The problem with this, as Novak states, is that it is very difficult to sustain this position for more than a few seconds, but moreover, it does not align the body properly. The position feels and looks unnatural and uncomfortable. Our bodies are meant to function from a position of balance and equilibrium and here is where the techniques outlined in Posture Get It Straight come into play.

Novak is considered to be a leading posture expert and her unique posture program was developed over a period of twenty years as she worked with individual clients as well as presenting thousands of workshops for hospitals, universities, and professional organizations. She holds a master's degree in health and physical education and has been quoted in several magazines including Ladies Home Journal, Woman's Day, Muscle & Fitness, Natural Health, and American Baby. In addition, she can often be heard on radio and seen on television.

In Posture Get It Straight readers are presented with a step-by-step guide as to how to stand straighter instantly and how to keep yourself standing straighter through a combination of stretching and strengthening exercises as well as practical tips for better posture.

The 136 -page book divides itself three parts, an epilogue and an index. The first part is a general overview where we are given the tools to assess our posture, and shown why we suffer from poor posture as well as what constitutes good posture. An entire chapter demonstrates how to have better posture instantly where we are given six tips entitled One Minute to Better Posture Technique wherein this technique will get our ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles in a direct line. According to Novak, it will help us have been posture immediately.

From this opening section, Novak goes onto explore common posture problems where she deals with heads that slump forward, general slumping, rounded shoulders, lower back alignment, strengthening the abdomen, knees, feet and ankles. To correct these problems, Novak provides her readers with numerous illustrated simple exercises.

The last part shows us how to have good posture all day long when sitting at our computers, planes, trains and automobiles as well as sleeping positions, lifting objects safely, good posture for sports and workouts, hobbies. There are also chapters that explore eating for stronger muscles and bones, as well as mothers who suffer from new baby backache blues, and a section dealing with osteoporosis and posture.

The Epilogue counsels when to seek medical care as when you may have been in a car accident or have fallen, when you have a feeling of numbness or tingling or a shooting pain into your buttocks or legs and the pain is sharp or stabbing, when there is a stiffness or a decrease in range of motion, weaknesses in the ankle, big toe, hand, fingers, or a loss of gripping in your hand, a neck pain that lasts for more than ten days or one that is accompanied by fever or nausea that many be symptoms of meningitis.

It should be pointed out, as mentioned in the disclaimer to the book, that the instructions, procedures and advice in the book are in no way intended as a substitute for medical counselling. Before attempting any of the exercises in the book it is highly advisable that you consult with your physician and physical therapist.

What I found quite helpful is the index that lists the exercises and stretches contained in the book along with their page references.

Written in straight- forward language with ample excellent illustrations, Posture Get It Straight is not meant to be the last word on improving posture, but should prove to be a good starting point for those who wish to take the first step.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures
March 30, 2008

Order the book, AND the DVD.

I was considering buying the "Posture Alignment" book by Paul D'Arezzo, but decided to buy "Posture, Get It Straight..." by Janice Novak along with the DVD. And boy, am I ever satisfied with both items. I find the book to be very easy to read, with basic, but invaluable information. The exercises/stretches are simple to do, but you'll feel completely refreshed/satisfied/better after doing them.

I particularly loved the section on food intake and the specific amount of calcium/potassium/magnesium/vitamins and other minerals and supplements that your body require on a daily basis, in order to have not just healthy bones, but an overall healthy body.

Not to say the exercise instructions on the book is difficult to follow, but if you're the type of person that benefit greatly from visual examples, then the DVD is the perfect accompaniment to the book. It takes a lot of the exercises (not all) directly from the book and put it into visual form for you to understand. For some reason, the reviewers for the DVD version neglect to mention this fact, but there's a resistance band that's included with the DVD. You'll find the book has a lot of exercises that required the use of a resistance band. However, if you get the DVD, you'll have all the necessary tools to get started toward a healthy body.

I absolutely recommend the book and the DVD, 5 Stars, anything less is an insult to Janice Novak's 20+ years of experience and her programs.
August 16, 2007

Read this!

Posture, Get it Straight! discusses the widely overlooked secret to long term health care--our posture and how it affects our body, attitudes and outlook on life. More often than not we are reminded that exercise is needed to keep off weight while posture is not discussed. The good news is that regardless of the condition your posture is in, Janice Novak suggests it can immediately be corrected and improve your well being by simply adjusting sitting or standing positions.

Using her suggested stretching exercises to help limber up muscles, trains them for straight posture. My favorite sitting exercise is the trapezoid stretch, which I use when I find myself hanging my head forward while working on the computer. I was amazed to learn that sleeping with a pillow between the knees not only protects the lower back alignment and prevents the weight of the thigh from pulling on the hip socket; it also protects the posture.

After several weeks of using the suggested stretches the author offers, I discovered that good posture affects every area of our lives whether it is recreational or work related.

This book is an excellent reminder that good health begins with posture and that it does play a significant role in our personal long-term care. Who knew that something so simple that harkens back to my mother telling me to straighten my shoulders would be something I still need to be reminded of!

Armchair Interviews says: With so many of us getting computer-itist, this is a great book to put us back in order.

October 04, 2006

Practical advice, easy to put in practice

I like doing things the easy way with the least amount of work and that's why I found "Posture, Get It Straight" to be invaluable. The drawings help me understand what I'm supposed to be doing and the author is very complete with explanations and instructions.

Because I sit at a computer for most of my workday, I tend to become round in the shoulders and both my neck and mid back get very sore. There is a chapter called "The ABCs of computer comfort" that explains how to set up your mouse, monitor, keyboard and chair so that you put the least amount of stress on your various body parts. One thing the author mentions that never occurred to me is to tilt the monitor so it can be viewed with bifocals. I've been perching my glasses on the end of my nose and bending my neck to get just the right view. No more!

There are lots of exercise and stretches to do to build muscles in various areas and they actually feel good to do. The exercises can easily be done around the house using walls and chairs as props but some require the use of a resistance band. I particularly like the door frame stretch for shoulders and chest and the foot exercises to help strengthen arches that get beat up from wearing high heels.

Other chapters in "Posture, Get it Straight" cover how to sit on a plane or in an automobile, how to choose a pillow and how to sit while doing crafts. Whether your concern is posture while pregnant or how to avoid osteoporosis, you will find some practical suggestions.

The subtitle of the book is, "look ten year younger, ten pounds thinner, & feel better than ever!" I think it must be true because since I've been practicing better posture, people have asked me if I've lost weight.

I'd recommend this book to anyone of any age. It will help you understand how your body works and how you can use your body more efficiently by keeping it aligned.

September 19, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Posture, Get It Straight!
Directed by Janice Novak
Starring Janice Novak
Janice Novak Health Educ. Services

The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World
by Mary Bond

Posture, Get It Straight! Two Disc Set
Directed by Janice Novak
Starring Janice Novak
HTG Media

Posture Alignment
by Paul D'Arezzo

Sitting Pretty: Looking and Feeling Better With Good Posture in Ten Easy Steps
by Gregg J. Carb