Why is posture important? It's really not, as long as you don't care about any of the following:
*Increased confidence
*Attractiveness to the opposite sex (or same sex, I won't judge)
*Blood circulation
*Overal health
*Lack of pain
*Perceived increased height
If indeed you do care about any or all of the above subjects, this following piece might just help out in that regard.
Our present way of life is overflowing with factors that contribute to bad posture. Whether it's looking down at smartphones, looking down at dumb phones, sitting for long periods of time (driving, sitting at a desk), exercising only the front part of our bodies and ignoring the posterior chain, these are all contributing to the average person's posture degrading further and further.
It's fairly obvious that better posture increases quality of life, I haven't yet found anyone who advocates bad posture as something worth striving for, but if this was a worthy pursuit, then rejoice, the world's population are getting closer and closer to resembling oversized jumbo shrimps. Alright, I won't belabour the point any longer. Bad posture is BAD, it says so in the name, take the hint.
The first thing that anyone looking to improve their posture needs might be THE most important thing of all: a sincere desire to improve this aspect of their lives. This sincere desire can then be translated into a commitment. With that commitment comes the realisation that this process will not be an over-night quick fix. Sure, you'll feel better even a few days after you've started integrating the practices I'm about to share with you into your life, but the real, shocking, hit you like a ton of bricks type of change for the better will only become obvious after a few months from now. I say from now because you will start NOW, won't you? The reason it will take so long is because the connective tissues in your body need time to adapt to the new demands, and adaptations in these types of tissues usually take 8 to 10 times longer to occur that muscular adaptations. Another important thing to remember about connective tissues is that they are poorly vascularised. The way they are fed with nutrients is by working the muscles in that particular area and increasing blood flow to those areas in that manner.
This is why it's very important that we don't force the joints of the body into violent stretches like you might have seen in the old school Jean Claude Van Damme movies where he goes to the jungle and his newfound master attaches a pulley system to his legs to force them apart into a split. It does make for good bad TV, but definitely not the way to go about gaining mobility, especially if you still want to be able to walk again in the foreseeable future.
There are several crucial parts of our body that influence our posture. The following list is not exhaustive, but for me, focusing on these areas has helped tremendously:
*The lumbar spine (lower back)
*The thoracic spine (upper back)
*The cervical spine (the neck)
*The core - note that when talking about core we are not just referring to the abs, but all the midsection. Imagine wearing a
tight corset. Everything that corset touches is your core, even if it's in the back. So yes, the lower back could be
considered part of your core.
We could probably add the gluteus (butt) to that list, but I don't want to make people feel like this is turning into an article about the whole body, although in a way, it always has been about the whole. So let's keep the butt out of it for now and treat it as an optional element for tackling posture.
Strength and mobility go hand in hand, so not only do we have to work muscles, we have to stretch them as well.
Fine distinctions and lines in the sand can be drawn endlessly when tackling these types of subjects, but ultimately, the most important thing is that you do the work. Start somewhere and get better. If you miss a day, don't beat yourself up about it, just forgive yourself and return to the process. Remember, no matter how long you've walked in the wrong direction, it's always possible to just stop and head back.
Now for the good stuff, the actual key exercises!
Some of these might look simple, but that is not a reason not to do them.
'Do not look for complexity of presentation when all you are interested in is getting results.' - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Start from the top of your body and work your way down.
- Neck rotations
Do these slowly and try focusing on finding your end range of motion. Don't try to stretch your neck excessively, it should feel pretty good, not painful. Keep your eyes open and your mouth closed. Breathe through your nose.
- Shoulder rotations
Focus on mobilising the shoulder blades. On the way up, try to squeeze your shoulder blades together. On the way down, try to pull them apart. When squeezing them together, imagine you are trying to keep a pen from falling by squeezing it with your shoulder blades. Pay attention on keeping the movement even on both sides. It's fairly normal for one side to be slightly more mobile than the other. Keep the range of movement the same as on your bad side until it catches up to the dominant side. This is preferable to creating imbalances in the body, please believe!
- Scapular shrugs (shoulder blade shrugs)
Do these on all fours, or if you are stronger, in a push-up position. If doing these in the pushup position, focus on keeping the abs engaged. You want to strive for what is called a 'hollow body position' at the top. More on that another time, for now, thing about engaging those abs.
- Cat cow stretch
Start with your chin up and lower back arched down, then round your back and tuck your chin towards your chest.
- Jefferson curls
Articulate the spine one vertebrae at a time, spending 1-2 seconds in the bottom position. When doing this exercise you want to keep your legs straight. A good way to make sure they are straight is by contracting the quads and keeping them contracted all throughout the movement.
- Wall straighteners
Keep your back to the wall whilst in a squat position. Whilst touching the lower back, upper back and back of the head to the wall, extend your arms straight up in the air and try to touch the wall with the back of your palms. Keep your elbows straight throughout the movement.
Do 4 sets of 10 reps of each exercise every day.
Realistically, all this work should be easily doable in 25-30 min, a time investment with an astronomical ROI if you ask me, even more so than crypto in October of last year, before the bubble popped a little :). But even if you can't do them all daily for some reason, pick 1 or 2 and do them on alternating days. That way it will only take about 10 min per day. Like Tony Robbins said, 'If you don't have 10 minutes, you don't have a life'.
Enjoy!