Tl;dr: Don’t expect to be taken seriously if you hunch, bow your head and mutter.

Posture in this day and age is a problem, a big problem. Let me throw some statistics at you: EU-OSHA discovered that 40% of workers’ compensation came from Musculoskeletal disorders (consequence of poor posture), as we can see, the problem is pretty widespread. Abnormal Spine Alignment can be caused by posture as well as a plethora of other negative effects, but I’m not here to be a doctor.

The problem with poor posture is a significant road block to social interaction. Picture this, you approach a girl, open, then bow your head and look at her chest instead of her face while keeping arms crossed, is she going to think you’re confident? Probably not, will this reduce the chance of attraction? Yes. Same thing if a guy walked up to me and did that, I’d think he was a pussy. In addition to exterior perspective, poor posture can have a negative effect on your mind too. In a TED talk Amy Cuddy explained how when using a strong posture, hormone balances where affected. Her studies concluded her so called ‘power pose’ increased testosterone by 20% and decreases cortisol by 25% in the brain, cortisol is a hormone which is released during stress and low blood glucose concentration. The obvious affects of this is inducing stress on the brain but it also can lead to muscle wasting, something we obviously would want to avoid. Without a strong posture, you have heightened levels of stress and less testosterone, and you look like a bitch.

So what can we do?

The first question to ask is what should an alpha’s body language characterise? It needs to be vulnerable, why? To register, in peoples’ unconscious mind, that the individual is assertive, strong and confident. How do we do this? Expose areas that are areas of rapid blood loss, exhibit A and exhibit B. It shows that you’re open to attack, thus representing the values I have previously stated. Exposing these areas creates the foundation of why Amy Cuddy’s power poses work. What does this end up looking like? On the extreme side of the spectrum is the standing pre-fight gorilla, the rawest most dominant pose it can make. Let’s make this clear, I’m not saying you should go around looking like you want to start a fight with every chump in your neighbour but take some inspiration, stand up straight and look like you mean business like this from fight club. Keep your chin up, open up your crotch, move you neck back and chest forward and expose your arms, voila. Don’t flail about like a starfish and try and be someone you’re not but most people (including me) can benefit from making a few corrections.

On a side note, speak up. You can look the part you want, be confident but if you start muttering and having to repeat yourself, people are going to start losing interest. At the moment I work a job with a high frequency of customers, and the amount of times I have say “excuse me, I didn’t quite catch that, would you mind repeating” is unbelievable, people just don’t have the balls to be assertive nowadays. The best analogy I can give is telling a dog to sit. Today I watched a middle aged woman telling a Bull Terrier to sit down with a voice like Herbert out of Family Guy, guess what happened? It stopped listening her and she had to tell it 6+ times to sit and it got up after 10 seconds, maybe the dog isn’t obedient due to a poor upbringing, but you get the point. Alternatively, my buddy deepens his voice and tells his dog to sit and guess what? It sits when its told to. Be assertive.

Lesson Learned:

  • Good posture releases hormones that make you less stressed and more alpha
  • Good posture makes you look more alpha
  • Stop whining and muttering, speak up
  • Be assertive

Edit:Formatting