12 Simple Exercises to Perfect Your Posture
Do you ever look at yourself in pictures and cringe at your posture? Well, a lot of us do! Poor posture develops almost naturally over time. As humans we are rarely in an extended posture. We spend most of our lives maintaining a flexed posture throughout the day.
You might be seated at a desk working, standing hunching forward making meals, or sitting on the floor and playing with your kids. All these activities cause our bodies to slowly curl forward. Specifically, having forward head and shoulders is a very common postural issue.
2 quick ways to check if you have good alignment
1. Take a picture of yourself from the front and side views.
This example shows a plumb line. A plumb line demonstrates proper alignment of our body. Take a look at your picture. Are your ears in line with your shoulders? Do they line up with your ribs, and are slightly forward of the hip and knees? Are they also in line with the ankle?
Look at your picture from the front. Many people have a slight head tilt and don’t even know it! One arm may be closer to your body than the other. These are all common themes when making comparisons to proper alignment.
Another quick way to check?
2. Stand with your back against a wall.
The back of your head, upper back, and buttocks should all be touching the wall!
If not, take a look at this list of 12 exercises for proper posture.
To correct forward posture, you need to remember two things. Stretch the FRONT of the body and strengthen the BACK of the body. Up next, we’ll dive into the stretches and exercises.
12 Exercises:
6 stretches &
6 exercises to
combat bad posture
Stretches
1. Upper Trap Stretch
(Hold for 15 sec. a few times, each side)
Tilt your head to one side, ear moving towards the shoulder. Apply gentle pressure with your hand. Make sure you keep your body upright and avoid lifting your shoulder, or twisting the trunk.
2. Pec Stretch on foam roll
(Hold position for a minute or two)
Lay on a foam roller vertically with the roller aligned with your spine. Your head should be on the roller as well. Keep the knees bent and feet on the floor to stabilize yourself. Arms are rested by your side.
You can change arm positions to feel a greater stretch. Start with your arms resting at sides, then you can try a T position, or goal post.
For this exercise, you will need a durable foam roller.
3. Cat/Cow
(Hold each position for 10 sec. for a total of 10 times)
Start on your hands and knees with the wrists in line with your shoulders and knees underneath your hips.
From here, look straight forwards, create a dip in the back with hips tilting forward.
Then move into the opposite motion, head down and create an arch with your mid-back. Move back and forth between the two postures.
4. Sphinx Pose
(Hold this position for a minute or little longer if you like)
On your yoga mat, start by laying on your stomach, then come up to your forearms looking straight ahead like an Egyptian Sphinx.
Elbows should be aligned underneath the shoulders, with your chest facing forward. If you crave more of a stretch, you can come onto your hands into a Cobra Pose.
For more comfort, it is recommended you utilize a yoga mat for this and other floor exercises.
5. Trunk Rotation with Varied Arms
(Hold each side for 30 sec. for a total of 6x)
Start by laying on your back and bending your knees, so feet are flat on the floor. Both knees rotate to one side with arms out in a T.
Your head should be rotated to the opposite side of the knees for optimal stretch. You can also bend your elbows with hands behind the head for comfort as shown above.
6. Hip Flexor Stretch
(Hold for 30 sec. for a total of 6x)
Start in a lunge position and drop your back knee onto the floor. Shift your body forward till you feel a stretch in your groin. When you lean into the stretch, your back hip should be in front of your knee.
The front leg should keep 90 degree angle at the hip/knee.
For a more intense stretch, grab your back foot. This will give you an added hamstring stretch.
Exercises
1. Neck (Cervical Spine) Retraction
(Hold for 5 sec. for a total of 10x)
Start by sitting up tall and touching both hands gently behind the base of your head. Retract your head back into your hands and hold for 5 seconds.
Your chin should move back towards your ears without your head tilting up or down. You should be able to feel your neck extensor muscles tighten with your fingertips.
2. Bridge
(2 sets of 10x)
Lay on your back with both knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Feet are apart enough to fit 2 of your fists between your feet. Slowly lift your hips off the floor, keeping the spine straight. Think about your knees moving toward your toes.
At the top of the bridge add an extra glute squeeze. To make this more challenging, try single leg bridges.
3.
Bilateral Shoulder External Rotation
(2 sets of 10x)
Hold either side of an exercise band with your thumbs facing up. There should be enough tension in the exercise band so it remains taut. Pull the band apart while keeping your elbows pinned to your sides, then slowly fight the resistance to return to the starting position.
You can try a single arm version for more of a challenge, or change position onto your side, so you're moving against gravity (single arm).
As you gain strength with this exercise, feel free to bump up your resistance to the next level!
4. Rows with Exercise Band
(2 sets of 10x)
The exercise band should be taut for optimal resistance at the starting position. Arms are forward and down at an angle, with thumbs facing up. Pull the band towards your waist, while squeezing shoulder blades together.
Shoulders should remain down throughout movement. If you seat with arms extended and knuckles facing up, you can also do an upright row. You want to pull up keeping elbows at shoulder level and pulling the band towards your underarms.
There are many options for resistance band sets — pick what works best for you!
5. Bird Dog
(2 sets of 10x,
2 sec. holds)
Start in a quadruped position with wrists under the shoulders and knees aligned with the hips. Extend the opposite arm and leg at the same time, keeping them in line with your body. Hold for 5 sec. or longer if you want to further activate your core.
As you return to the starting position, you can hover the moving arm and leg, so they don’t touch the ground and immediately extend your limbs from there. Moving the same side arm/leg is even more challenging.
Bird Dog Example; demonstration of the post-quadruped position Bird Dog exercise. This image is demonstrating the extension of opposite arm-and-leg, balance and posture-improving exercise.
6. Superman
(10x, for 5-10 sec. each)
Start by laying on your stomach with your arm at your sides. Slowly lift your legs and chest off the floor. Legs should be glued together and your gaze should remain on the floor in front of you.
Try lifting into different arm positions for further challenge (T’s and Y’s). You can also reach your arms forward and move arms/legs into a swimming motion for up to 1 min. Arms and legs should be moving within a few inches, while maintaining the lifted chest and legs.
other exercises to consider for great posture
Swimming
Yoga
Barre Classes
Swimming and yoga exercises do a great job strengthening the posterior muscles of our body and increasing the flexibility of our spine into extension. Barre type exercises are derived from ballet and focus on upright posture during exercise.
If hunching forward is something you struggle with and want to fix, give these a try!
