Keeping the body connected (Gangly bodies)

Today I actually "cheated" on one of the 5 minute sketches (the rightmost one) and used a lasso tool to pull in a torso and arm that where just kind hovering too far away from the rest of the body. The weird pose probably threw my eye off, and couldn't quite get the connected feeling of the body parts. My rib cage and hips usually turn up a tad too far away from each other, resulting in a long and gangly body. I hate to call it my "style" because it's not intentional... Anyone have any tips on how to avoid this? just study how many heads fit into an upper body and all that jazz? Done as part of a 30 minute class. My current goal is: Better understand human anatomy, so I can render imagined poses