(clears throat)
So far so good.
(upbeat electronic music)
Reason I'm doing this, I've always sat
with bad, slouched posture.
I edit video all day in a horrible position.
My whole life, I've kinda been like this.
You know, I'm doing all this self improvement stuff.
Might as well try to improve my posture.
Supposed to be good for you.
Please, allow me to interrupt myself.
What is good posture?
Well, for sitting, back straight,
shoulders back, buttocks on the back of the chair,
but not if you're on the toilet,
knees at a right angle.
(grunts) There we go.
Feet flat on the floor.
Tickle, tickle,
(laughs)
For standing, just kinda straighten her out, okay?
I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
Google it.
As you were.
You know, it's a little bit of soreness
in some back muscles that I didn't normally use before,
but it's not really that bad.
It's just hard to remember.
Like, I'll be done here, like, editing.
Whoa, gotta do this.
Somehow, we've skipped a little bit ahead to day 26.
Also, new office.
We moved.
Yeah!
So basically, I spent every day trying
to have good posture.
Sometimes, I'd forget.
Sometimes, I wouldn't.
Good story, bro.
That's not to say I didn't learn things.
I also inspired what's-her-name, Chyna, my wife.
Do you pay attention to your posture.
- I am trying to be better about it now,
especially now that you've started doing this.
- See?
I did a good thing for once.
Chyna, tell me a story.
- When I was in fifth grade,
I started playing the violin.
You have to have good posture,
so you have to sit up straight
with your feet flat on the floor
'cause otherwise, you can't toodle-loodle-loo.
- You can't toodle-loodle-loo without good posture,
and if a man can't toodle his loodle-loos,
what can you toodle?
Anyway, how you feel now, Chyna?
- Since I graduated high school,
I feel like, slowly, through the years.
- So she thinks her posture is getting worse,
but you know what?
Is it even a bad thing?
I think day one Craig seems to know the answer.
It's supposed to be good for you.
Ah, all right, what do you know?
Tell me.
Oh, you mean I jumped into this without knowing anything?
Fine, I'll do the research myself.
(clears throat)
Cue music.
(upbeat rock music)
According to they, bad posture can bend your spine
in terrible ways, give you back pain,
mess up your muscles, your beautiful, beautiful muscles,
compress your abdomen, ruining your meal
before you even get to eat the folded up beef string,
impair your circulation and respiratory functions,
and probably other terrible things.
Maybe not though?
So, a lot of these issues are long term,
and I'm not gonna know if I've improved them
for many years, or until I'm dead,
but with regard to pain.
- I notice a pretty significant difference.
I sit on the floor with our daughter a lot,
and everything, and we're, like, coloring and stuff.
I hurt a lot if I slouch down
versus if I'm sitting up straight.
- Think I've been slouching for most of my life.
I don't notice that it's painful.
- But is it?
- I don't know.
(laughs)
Yeah, I haven't really noticed much physical improvement.
It has only been a short time,
and it's not like I'm a posture denier like my dad.
- Posture shmosture.
- Leave Smosh alone.
They're a YouTube insti (beep) tution.
- I'm saying, anyone who peddles posture is an imposter.
It's preposterous.
- I'd rather you were a flat earther than a round backer.
- Listen, angel face,
I've been slouching my whole stupid life,
and I've never felt better.
- Well, you make some good points.
- My demeanor has never been meaner.
- I'm listening.
- When I hobble down the street,
they all say, "Hunchback of Notre Damn."
- Heyo.
- And the earth is flat.
- Nope.
- Okay.
- My parents.
They continue to be related to me.
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Legally, I might have to say it that way.
But there is another issue besides the physical effects
of posture, and I talked about it on day four,
skipped over it until now because relevant now.
Might be psychosomatic, but I feel
more confident, more in control.
Oh, do you?
You know what?
Cue music.
They also say it can affect your mood,
make you feel less stressed or depressed,
though she just might need new glasses,
or more confident.
What do they really know anyway?
I could quote they all day.
Source that really matter is me,
and I have to say, I agree with day four Craig.
Day four Craig is a very credible source
as far as I'm concerned
despite not framing out that ceiling fan,
and cleaning up that clutter,
and doing that weird jaunty dance he's doing right now.
Good posture kinda does change how confident I feel.
Yes, I'm wearing a different shirt now.
We're on day 28.
But I didn't feel that way at first.
At first, it felt kinda weird.
Like, who is this jerk
who thinks he can walk around all proud and shirt.
I guess it goes against what I normally think of myself,
which is, jokey, sarcastic, modest,
trying to hide from ridicule,
but slouching goes along with that
rather than standing tall where you can be seen
and someone can more easily throw a rock at your face.
That was just at first,
but after a while, I actually started
to feel the way that standing tall projects,
which brings up another issue
other than how it makes you feel,
how others perceive you,
which is something I can't really measure
other than asking my wife.
- You look good.
You might be over-correcting a little right now.
Like, confident, taller,
in control, and decisive.
- See, body language is something
that I never really paid much attention to.
- I mean, I don't think
that most people are paying attention to it,
but I think it's just something
that you intuitively pick up on.
- Which is all the more reason
to pay attention to your posture,
because you could be giving off ideas
about yourself that really aren't true.
Before, I said that I'm slouchy
because I'm sarcastic, and jokey, and modest,
but it can give off other unintentional signals too.
They could think maybe you're tired,
you're not in the moment, whatever moment it is.
- You're disinterested in what's going on,
lacking in self-confidence.
- And true, sometimes, I can be a tired old man,
or completely bored by whatever it is you're talking about,
or lacking self-confidence, but not always,
and I don't want people to automatically think that.
And as they say, bad posture could be a cause
of some of those things.
I don't know if that's true,
but, from my experience,
it seems like it might be, a little bit.
Sorry, (clears throat) a little bit.
I don't know why I changed the tone of my voice too.
I talked with a low voice for a month.
Here's what happened.
Interesting video idea.
Sorry, (clears throat) interesting video idea.
Or maybe the posture itself isn't the cause,
but my preconceived ideas
of how people view my posture is the cause.
Okay, we're getting in the weeds.
So, should you try to have good posture?
Well, I think yes,
but don't break your back over it.
- It's not really feasible
to have, like, super excellent posture all the time,
'cause, at the end of the day,
you're, like, lounging on the couch, watching TV.
You don't want to be, like, sitting up on a couch,
like (clicks tongue)
You want to lean back, and slouch down.
- Well, they also say
that you're not supposed to be in the same position
for more than, like, 30 minutes.
Yeah, what's that about?
They say you're supposed to have good posture,
but not be in the same position for 30 minutes.
Then what do you do?
- You just go like this after 30 minutes.
- Different posture.
It's probably not good for the neck.
- I'm gonna stay like this for 30 minutes.
- The spousal banter, too funny.
Well, another thing you could do,
if you work at a desk, is get a standing desk.
Just got a brand new one.
State of the art.
Works great.
Another big challenge I had
for the month was remembering to do it.
I would always forget
that I was supposed to have good posture,
so one thing you can do
is put up a picture on the wall.
Wish I would've done that.
That would've been really helpful.
Another tip I came across on the internet was,
have a friend or a stranger put strips
of tape on your back so that, when you slouch, it pulls.
I found lots of other tips on this site
you can check out, https://www.google.com.
In conclusion, new shirt, glasses, day 30.
All in all, I don't notice a giant physical improvement,
but I do notice a mild physical improvement,
and I notice a mood improvement.
I feel more confident, and I might have
a little bit more energy,
but this could all be placebo effect.
Who knows?
And it certainly helped reduce back pain for my wife,
although the biggest pain in the back
is this guy right here.
(laughs)
And also, long term, they say it will be good for you,
although I've also found other they saying
that a straight back is not necessarily
all it's cracked up to be.
Over on the Beardlovers subreddit,
many of you say that, in your experience,
good posture has really helped you,
but this person expressed doubt
that I could make a whole video about it.
What up?
But then this person defended me,
saying that I made a whole video
about the phrase awesome possum.
Actually, it's Everything is Possum,
but thank you for defending me.
That video may be my masterpiece.
A possum.
Gibberty, gibberty.
Yeah, I'll take care of it.
Though now kind of ruined
'cause annotations went away.
Anyway, if it turns out
that good posture is good for you in the long term,
that works well for my long term goals.
Yeah, I just want to live long enough
so that I'm around when they defeat aging,
and then we live forever.
And to become the all-seeing,
all-knowing space baby at the center of the universe.
- I just want to live long enough
so that I can be around
when they recreate the Harry Potter movies,
and I can see the fourth one actually be good.
(Craig laughs)
- Gauntlet thrown.
- I was disappointed.
- And I truly do believe
that the way that we carry ourselves does affect
how others perceive us,
whether that means we should change the way we look
to appease others, or others should just get over it
and not judge people that they don't know.
In fact, maybe they should just not judge people
that they do know that much anyway.
Get over it.
Ahem, regardless, judges gonna judge,
so maybe we should just let here nows be here nows,
and, you know, work on our posture a little bit.
That has been my experience
with my month of good posture.
Hey, thanks for watching.
Here's a playlist of other month-long challenges.
YouTube thinks you'll like that video.
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just for patrons over there.
Guess it's not secret, but it's just for patrons.
Subscribe.
(piano note dings)
Sit up straight, or don't, whatever you want to do,
or whatever you want to don't.
♪ It's my prerogative ♪
Your, your prerogative.