Great posture conveys confidence. People with perfect posture look like superheroes, standing tall with their shoulders back. It’s like they’re ready to conquer any challenge.
Unfortunately, modern life makes our posture less like Superman, and more like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Cars, chairs, desks, phones, computers, and tablets have us hunching and hurting.
Even car headrests are changing. Engineers have moved headrests forward in the last few decades to accommodate the average person’s “forward head posture.”
Here are 5 ways to fight back:
1) Support Your Spine
Proper lumbar support maintains the normal curves in your lower back, mid back and neck. Fold up a hand towel or pick up a McKenzie lumbar roll (my personal favorite) to upgrade your sitting posture.
Inadequate low back support leads to slouched posture. Adding lumbar support is one of my favorite sciatica relief strategies.
2) Optimize Your Environment
In 2020, I treated tons of clients for work-from-home pain. Turns out, working 10-12 hour days on a laptop isn’t ideal. Especially if you’re working from your kitchen table, couch or bed. Ouch!
Lousy environments create lousy posture.
Set up your workspace for success. To learn more, check out 5 Ways to Sit with Less Pain.
3) Schedule Movement Breaks
It’s easy to get “in the zone” during work, Zoom meetings or Netflix binges. But sitting for hours on end isn’t doing your posture any favors. And changing positions throughout the workday is proven to relieve pain (Vink 2009).
Use a stopwatch, phone alarm or computer alert to remind you to move. Schedule short movement breaks every 30-60 minutes. (If your smartwatch tells you to get moving, even better!)
Stand up, walk around, use the bathroom, grab a snack. You can even do jumping jacks, air squats and pushups to get your blood pumping.
Or simply try one of these mobility exercises…
4) Move the Other Direction
As I wrote in this recent email newsletter, “do the opposite” for better fitness, posture and joint health.
Modern life forces us into flexed, slouched positions. These 3 quick mobility drills unlock stiff joints and muscles by stretching the other way. Let’s take it from the top:
Chin tucks extend the lower cervical spine and flex the upper cervical spine, opposite the classic “forward head posture.”
Open books extend and rotate the ribcage and thoracic spine, mobilizing stiff pec muscles along the way.
Prone press ups extend the lumbar spine and offset hours of slouched sitting.
This move is the most powerful back pain exercise in existence. It’s the exercise that gave me control over chronic back pain.
5) Get Stronger
Posterior chain muscles (think upper and lower back, glutes and hammies) support great posture. The final step for excellent posture is building strong, fatigue-resistant postural muscles.
Barbell rows (pictured above) and deadlifts are two of my favorite exercises to strengthen the posterior chain.
Pizza and Posture
Posture is like nutrition; it adds up bit by bit over time. It’s okay to slouch every one in a while. And it’s fine to enjoy pizza, chips and ice cream on occasion. But slouching (or eating junk food) all the time will cause problems.
You can achieve better posture by supporting your spine, optimizing your environment, taking movement breaks, moving the other direction, and getting stronger. Your musculoskeletal system will thank you.
For more practical, evidence-based health tips, sign up here for the free Facts & Physio newsletter.
