Improving your posture is one of the quickest ways to feel better. So, stand up nice and straight, and take a deep breath!
These days, many of us lead very sedentary lifestyles, hunched over a laptop, cell phone or desk. Sadly, it’s not doing your spine any favours. You might have felt tension in your neck and shoulders at the end of a long day, and even had headaches from the strain.
Long hours of hunching can lead to bad posture if you don’t counteract that forward lean with some exercises.
Bad posture is the cause of a world of woes in your body. It’s technical name is postural dysfunction, which is defined as positioning the spine unnaturally in a way that causes stress to muscles and joints.
Generally, it leads to some muscles becoming tight and some becoming weak. Other muscles or joints then compensate for the weakness, and your body can get all out of wack.
Bad posture can lead to serious health problems if untreated. Joint pain in the knees, lower back pain, and hip tightness are among the most common complaints. Poor posture can also exacerbate arthritis, damage your mood and self-esteem, worsen your balance and circulation, and cause breathing problems.
Yoga or pilates are great options to improve your posture and alignment. Properly trained instructors will know all the modern posture ailments, and can help you balance yourself out.
The modern hunch often leads to collapsing your chest/heart region, which over time can lead to trouble breathing. A simple bridge pose helps to open your chest region, and encourage a fuller breath.
Stand up straight
When you stand, it’s important to push your chest forward, pinching your shoulder blades together behind you. Shrug your shoulders up to your ears then roll them back and down in an exaggerated motion. Feel your upper back muscles switch on, and squeeze your shoulder blades together and down your back.
You can clasp your hands behind your back and push your knuckles down towards the ground to help you lift and open your chest.
To lengthen your spine when standing, imagine there is a string attached to the crown of your head and you are being pulled up by it. Tuck your chin slightly to offer space and length to the back of your neck. Actively turn on your abdominal muscles to support this action and push into the ground with your feet to elongate the whole body.
Tight hips
Long hours of sitting will also likely lead to your hip flexors becoming tight, since they are contracted for unnaturally long periods. Tight hips are a pain, and may well limit you in your workouts, shortening your range of motion. You can stretch them out in a number of lunge variations to ease the tension.
Tight hips can also make it harder for your glutes and hamstrings to fire up. This could lead to other muscles taking more load than they should, and could cause lower back injuries, for instance.
To improve your posture, be sure to incorporate exercises to stretch and strengthen glutes and hamstrings in your workout.
Desk woes
Having a desk job doesn’t necessarily mean long hours of terrible posture.
Innovators are continually developing new gadgets and gizmos to allow for good posture at a desk.
Ergonomic chairs, standing desks, treadmill desks, laptop stands. There are plenty of options for you to try.
Any one of these, or a combination, could end or at least significantly lessen your desk-job posture woes.
Working to improve your posture is well worth the effort. Standing taller and straighter boosts your confidence (think power-posing) and will keep your spine supported and happy.
