When discussing fitness, good posture may not be the first thing that comes to mind, even though it should. While it’s not impossible to improve your fitness with bad posture, it is much harder and unfortunately, it’s easy to practice bad posture nowadays, since we can spend days on end sitting at a desk leaned over a book or staring at a laptop.
However, if you want to fix your posture, there are ways to do it. This is a general guide to fixing posture and doesn’t cover every exercise and stretch but if you just want to get started, these are a few things that could help.
Recognize where your posture fails
The first step to fixing any issues is recognizing where the issue occurs most. Bad posture isn’t a single problem fixed by a single stretch or exercise, it’s a collection of various issues that each require special attention.
The biggest postural issues are rounded shoulders, over extended neck, a rounded upper back and an overly tilted pelvis (anterior/posterior pelvic tilt). You want to have a straight line from your heels to your ears, with your shoulders rolled back, your neck straight, your upper back at a natural curvature and your pelvis leaning neither forward nor back.
Strengthen and stretch your postural muscles
Once you’ve identified your problem areas, it’s time to address them.
You can take some general steps by staying active and on your feet. Go on walks and spend some time standing up for all that time sitting down.
Bad posture often occurs because of muscle tightness and weakness. For anterior pelvic tilt, your hip flexors are tight and your glutes are weak. Tightness and weakness in your back, especially around your thoracic spine, can cause a rounded upper back and rounded shoulders. Your extended neck is offshoots from your rounded shoulders and back, leading to weakened in your neck flexors.
You can fix much of your back and shoulder problems by performing pull exercises. Face pulls and band pull-a-parts are go-to examples of postural fixers. You need to practice extending the thoracic spine. Wall arm raises are a great way to target your postural muscles in the back. Rear leg extensions are a great way to target your glutes with little to no exercise equipment required.
Be posture conscious
Bad posture becomes the norm if you’re not paying attention. You need to stretch and strengthen postural muscles to fix the problems you already have. However, you’ll be back to square one if you don’t consistently practice good posture.
Your posture is weak because you’ve been practicing bad posture, so instead practice good posture. When you feel your back start to round, straighten it up until your sternum is perpendicular to the ground. If you feel your shoulders round, roll them back. If your pelvis rotates too much, rotate it back. Practice makes perfect, and with practice, a good posture will eventually become second nature.
