Can Exercise Help Improve Posture?

Poor posture is a problem we’re all aware of but something that we rarely do anything about.

Long periods of sitting, looking down at your phone, laying on the couch in all sorts of positions.

It’s no wonder our posture is so bad.

When it comes to posture it’s just accepted that we are the way we are.

But does it have to be like that?

What Does Exercise Even Mean

Everyone takes the word exercise to mean different things.

As a health practitioner, I hear people describe exercises in so many ways. From stretching and running to gym, yoga and pilates, everyone has a different definition to what they classify as exercise.

Lucky for you, exercise is a combination of all these things put together to get the best changes in terms of your posture.

How does Exercise Improve Posture

Exercise is something we all know we need to do but never get around to finding the time to do it.

Unfortunately, because of the way you hold your body over extended periods of time, your joints and muscles start learning specific movement patterns to compensate for the position you keep your body in.

If you’re sitting at your desk for 2-3 hours at a time day after day with your neck craned towards the screen and your shoulders and back slumped forward, does it really come as much of a surprise when your posture looks the way it does?

The worst part is, it’s not something that happens over a few weeks or months. It’s something you’ve taught your body to do over multiple years.

Exercise begins to change the interaction of the muscles affecting your posture so you can re-teach your body what good posture is.

• Stretching 

While most people take stretching for granted its one of the easiest things you can do to help start changing your posture.

As your posture begins to change there are muscles which are commonly known to become overactive and take up the slack for other muscles which tend to become weaker.

It is these weak muscles which cause the change in your posture and the overactive muscles that keep it there.

Stretching can help reduce the build up of tension in these overactive muscles and reduce the likelihood of pain coming on because of this tension.

• Strengthening and Rehabilitation

It’s very difficult to strengthen a weak muscle when there is an overactive muscle still at work.

I’m sure you’ve heard the hype about strengthening your core to help hold your body in better posture. This is all very helpful information, but when there are muscular imbalances that have developed, weak muscles should only be addressed after overactive muscles dysfunctions have been corrected.

Strengthening and rehabilitation through specific movements can help to correct poor patterns that you have taught your body over time. Strengthening increases the ability of your weaker muscles to cope with the load you add to your body when you do things such as sitting or standing for long periods.

What Can you Do To Improve Your Posture

Stretching and strengthing come from different avenues. When it comes to posture correction visiting a health professional should always be your first step.

A health therapist such a physiotherapist or chiropractor can help improve your poor posture. They can also provide you with an exercise program and advice about which areas of your body need work to change your posture.

Whether it be through running or specific weight training at the gym, or yoga and pilates to stretch tight muscles and increase strength all are beneficial exercises to improve posture.

What exercises do you do help your posture? Let us know in the comments section below.

Can Exercise Help Improve Posture?

Lumo Back Bodytech assessment: a vibrating cummerbund to improve your posture

‘I wore it for 5 days and it really is created a distinction.’ Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer

THE Goal

My posture has been horrible for as extended as I can remember. As a little one, my dad and mom would consistently inform me to sit or stand up straight and as an grownup, a pilates instructor friend informed me that my bad posture is due to a weak “core”.

Her tip, which many years later on comes hurtling back every time I catch my slumped reflection in a store window, is to picture I am gripping a satsuma beneath every armpit. It works for a bit, but then I fail to remember. A desk-bound occupation does not help issues, so I have all my hopes pinned to the Lumo Back BodyTech. I want to find out to stand tall.

THE Strategy

An elasticised belt with a sensor connected communicates wirelessly with an iOS app. The Lumo Back BodyTech promisingly bills itself as the “world’s most innovative biochemical model of pelvic tilt and core physique movement”.

This essentially means that it picks up on your slightest movements. If you slouch, the sensor vibrates, alerting you to sit or stand straight. The belt goes beneath my clothes with the sensor on the modest of my back, and I get things started by calibrating the sensor.

The Lumo adapts to person users’ physique varieties so the calibration stage is vital. After it is ready to go, it zaps me every time it senses I’ve slumped a tiny. For the 1st two days, it vibrates well more than 100 times. The app keeps track of my movements, providing a “Total Straight Time” and “Complete Slouch Time” score each and every day, week or month so I can hold an eye on how I am undertaking.

There’s also a little pedometer, so you can see how much walking you do. I end the initial two days using much more “zap time” (my term) than “straight time”.

By the third day, the vibrations ease a small. Tracking my progress on the app keeps me going.

THE VERDICT

This is a excellent thought in theory, and the engineering employed is remarkable, if a tiny also delicate – the slightest move equals a zap and is quite a distraction. I wore it for 5 days. It has produced a difference.

A week later, I am far more conscious of my posture. Each time I seem at the belt – now in its box on my desk along with a satsuma – I de-slouch, so annoying had been the constant vibrations.

Lumo Back Bodytech assessment: a vibrating cummerbund to improve your posture

Sit up straight: five of the very best posture workouts

If you have a medical issue or injury, seek the advice of your GP or physiotherapist just before undertaking these exercise routines.

Back pain reliever (above)

Most of us commit too much time sitting down, and this shortens our anterior hip muscle tissue (a group of muscle tissue that attach to the front of pelvis in numerous ways – namely the hip-flexors, quadriceps and psoas). In flip, this pulls the pelvis forward into a tilt to the front, and can ultimately lead to back pain and bad posture simply because it generates an exaggeration to the curve of our lumbar spine. “By stretching these muscle tissue, we assist to hold our pelvis in neutral alignment,” says Jan Keller, a postural correction professional. If you have a decrease-back ache or tightness, this may possibly offer instant relief.

“Kneel down, then spot your right leg out in front of you at a 90-degree angle. Place your hands behind your head and push your left hip forwards. You will truly feel the stretch through the front of your left hip and front of the thigh. Hold for thirty seconds. Don’t lean forward, but hold your shoulders over your hips.” Go back to kneeling and repeat on the other side. Try this five instances a day.

Shoulder stretcher

Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

A lot of of our day-to-day pursuits, this kind of as driving or functioning on a pc, involve reaching forward with our hands, triggering our shoulders to curl and our chest muscles to shorten and tighten. Rishi Loatey, chiropractor at the British Chiropractic Association, suggests the following exercise to relieve stress from the shoulders and counteract the effects of hunching up.

“Stand with your feet just wider than hip-width apart and put your arms out to the side. Bend your elbows into a appropriate angle, with the palms facing forward, and draw your shoulder blades collectively. Start creating tiny, backwards circles with your arms and hands, maintaining your shoulder blades drawn collectively. As soon as you’re into a rhythm, start swaying gently from side to side.” Consider this for 10 seconds once or twice a day.

Back strengthener

Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

This physical exercise from Christianne Wolff, a Pilates instructor, is superb for strengthening the core-stability muscle tissues that wrap close to our middle and support to assistance the lumbar spine – weakness in them leads to bad posture.

“Get down on all fours, with your hands under your shoulders and knees beneath hips, eyes searching at the floor. Breathe deeply. As you exhale, lift your right arm and left leg out straight, to be level (or as near as you can get) with your physique. Do not lean into your right hip to assistance oneself – counterbalance by engaging your core-stability muscle groups rather. They are like a corset wrapped about your middle – picture pulling it in tight. Inhale, and reduced your arm and leg back to the starting position, ensuring that both touch the floor at the identical time. Exhale, and increase the opposite arm and leg. Inhale, and lower. Maintain moving with each and every breath.” Aim for ten-20 raises in complete.

Spine relaxer

Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

This Alexander Approach workout makes it possible for the spine to rest and regain its all-natural curve, enabling you to sustain far better posture when you stand up yet again. Peter Nobes, an Alexander Strategy instructor, suggests the following exercise.

“Use books to make a 6cm-9cm assistance for your head, or whatever feels comfy. f your chin is dipping in direction of your chest, take a book away. Bend your knees to carry your feet flat on the floor, and maintain the knees slightly wider than hip-width apart. Now, retaining your elbows resting on the floor, deliver your hands to rest somewhere in between your reduce ribs and hips, wherever feels cozy. Keep in this place for ten-20 minutes and come to feel your spine, slowly but surely, chill out and soften.”

Stand tall

Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

This exercise, recommended by the physiotherapist Sammy Margo, will aid you fight the effects of the round-shouldered desk slump, and remind your physique what it feels like to actually stand up straight.

“Uncover a blank segment of wall and stand tall up towards it, with your heels touching it. Make positive that your shoulder blades and bottom are in make contact with with the wall. There ought to be a gap among your reduced back and the wall, to keep its natural arch. Now try to place the back of your head against the wall by tilting your chin downwards somewhat. Think about a piece of string pulling the back of your hair up. Stand right here for 30 seconds and then step away, keeping this newly straightened posture.”

Sit up straight: five of the very best posture workouts