Good posture and testosterone

This article was first published here.

We already know that good posture influences your health and the way people see you. What’s less known is that it also influences your risk-taking and hormone levels. There has been a very interesting experiment that once again shows how influential your posture can be!

To give some context we’ll shortly talk about the two hormones, testosterone and cortisol. You might be familiar with testosterone, which is the primary male sex hormone and is also known as the ‘dominance hormone’. Less well known is the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol. Studies have shown that high power ‘alpha males’ have high testosterone and low cortisol levels.

You’re wondering how this relates to good posture? Well, apparently it does and there is a very interesting experiment that shows how.

The results showed that 86% of the participants with high-power poses chose to gamble and only 60% of participants with low-power poses chose to do so.

Participants of this experiment were told to adapt either high-power poses or low-power poses for two minutes. Before, as well as after, the experiment their testosterone and cortisol levels were measured and they were given the opportunity to gamble.

The results showed that 86% of the participants with high-power poses chose to gamble and only 60% of participants with low-power poses chose to do so. You might have expected these behavioral effects of the poses, but what only two minutes of either high- or low-power poses did to hormone levels will surprise you.

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The high-power participants showed a 20% increase in testosterone levels whereas the low-power participants showed a 10% decrease. Cortisol levels dropped with 25% in high-power people and increased with 15% in low-power people.

So, if only two minutes of a specific posture will give these hormonal changes imagine what a full-time posture improvement can do. If you would like to learn more check out Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk. In her talk, Amy speaks about how your posture and body language can define who you are.

Let us know what you think about this experiment on twitter or in the comments below!

If you’re really serious about improving you posture: These articles are first published here.