How to Fix Posture: Expert Tips from a Waterloo Chiropractor

What’s going on everybody! Dr. Rob here with insights designed to improve your life, health and fitness.

Today we’re talking about how to fix your posture, a major problem in this day and age.

Did you know that teenagers are now growing bone spurs on their skulls from looking down at phones?

Or that your head weighs as much as a bowling ball and when it moves forward, those tiny neck muscles work overtime just to keep you upright?

Poor posture isn’t just about looking slouched.

It’s literally reshaping our bodies and affecting how we breathe, think, and feel every single day.

Want to skip straight to the test? Jump to the posture test and exercises

Why Good Posture Matters More Than You Think

We know we’re supposed to have good posture, but why is it so important? Most people think of bad posture as just an aesthetic problem – you don’t look good when you’re hunched over, and people tell you to “sit up straight” like your grandma used to say.

The real issue: It actually becomes hard to maintain good posture because your body gets better at whatever you make it do.

Your Body Adapts to Bad Posture

If you’re always in bad posture, your body learns to stabilize in that position. All the muscles and ligaments that attach to the back of the skull are constantly pulling and pulling and pulling.

We usually see these bone spurs on the bottom of people’s feet. Now, due to bad posture, we’re starting to see them in the back of people’s skulls. It’s absolutely crazy.

Your body’s always going to adapt to whatever you make it do.

So if you’re always in this head down, shoulders rolled forward, spine flexed forward position, it’s going to get better at being in that position and won’t be able to get out of it.

The “Bowling Ball” Problem

Your head weighs as much as a bowling ball. Here’s a fun fact that came up in a recent physiotherapy meeting where we were discussing posture and chronic headaches.

If your head weighs 10 pounds, where are you going to hold that weight all day? Close to your body or way out in front?

If you hold a 10-pound weight out front in front of you, it gets a lot heavier and starts to shake. You can’t do it much longer, right? It’s way heavier even though it’s the same weight.

The same thing goes for your head. When your head comes forward, those tiny neck muscles have to work much harder. Your neck muscles are the size of your pinky.

They’re not very big or strong, but they’re designed to keep your head balanced. When your head goes forward, these muscles work extra hard for that 10-pound bowling ball.

The Hidden Health Impact: Breathing and Beyond

The more important benefit is that when you have better posture, you can actually breathe better.

If you’re crouched down, it’s hard for the lungs to expand. You’re not getting as much oxygen into your body on a regular basis.

Less oxygen on a day-to-day basis is not a good thing. If you’re slouching really low, it’s harder to breathe. You get less oxygen into your blood and whole body over time, which is obviously not good.

Studies show that the worst posture is associated with lower health scores. As we age, people with better posture have:

• Lower heart rate
• Lower rates of heart disease
• Lower blood pressure
• Better scores on all markers of health and wellness

If you want to be healthier overall, working on your posture is one of the cornerstone foundations for how your body’s going to function.

Understanding Your Posture Problems

This insight comes from a patient I had recently – a teenage girl who was having mid-back pain.

She admitted that she knew it was from bad posture because she was always on her phone and computer at school, and it had gotten worse throughout the year.

We slouch over our desks, slouch over our phones, and slouch while driving our cars.

If you’re always slouching forward, it’s going to get better at slouching forward and want to stay in that position.

The Domino Effect of Poor Posture

As soon as you have bad posture, there are other consequences and compensations from the body:

Headaches: When you have bad posture, your shoulders roll forward and your head comes forward. When your head is forward (like when typing or driving), your neck muscles have to work extra hard. The further forward your head goes, the heavier it gets. These muscles do way more work than they’re designed for. When muscles get overworked, they tighten up, and become one of the most common causes of headaches.

Numbness and Tingling: When you’re slouching, your shoulders come forward. The nerve and blood supply that goes through your shoulder gets pinched off, which can cause numbness and tingling from bad posture.

If you’re constantly slouching:

• Your body gets better at being in the slouching position
• All the muscles at the front tighten up
• They pull on the muscles in the back of the shoulder
• This causes a lot of pain in the back of the shoulder, but it’s from the pulling at the front

Testing Your Current Posture

The Reach, Roll & Lift Test

Here’s the ultimate posture test that’s also an exercise. It’s called the reach, roll and lift.

Good posture comes down to three things:

1. Mobility of the spine
2. What your shoulder blade is doing
3. What your shoulder is doing

Without all three working properly, it’s very difficult to have good posture and everything slumps forward.

How to Perform the Test:

1. Kneel down and try to sit on your heels as best you can
2. Put your forehead on your fist
3. Reach out as far as you possibly can
4. Roll your palm up
5. Lock the elbow (don’t bend it)
6. Reach your hand off the ground without bending the elbow

Can you do that? Try it at home and see how it feels.

If you can do this, it’s a great postural exercise and warm-up for your workout. It really works your lower traps and forces your spine to move and gets your shoulder moving.

If you can’t do this, there’s not much point in trying to keep doing it. You need to step back and create foundational movements that get the shoulder blade and spine moving first.

The Foundation: Mobility & Stretching

Let’s face it – stretching can be boring, uncomfortable, and just doesn’t feel good. That’s why I hear “I tried,” “I forgot,” or “I didn’t have time” when I ask patients about their stretches.

The Game-Changing Open Book Stretch

I’m going to show you the absolute game-changing stretch that feels amazing. You’re going to crave doing it because it feels good, delivers instant results, and fixes most common issues including:

• Neck pain
• Shoulder pain
• Mid back pain
• Low back pain
• Trouble taking deep breaths
• Rib pain
• Headaches & migraines

It’s called the Open Book Stretch and it’s really good for the mid back.

How to Do the Open Book Stretch:

1. Lie on your side
2. Bring both knees to your chest as high as you possibly can
3. Use your bottom hand to pin the legs down so they don’t pop up
4. “Open a huge book” with your top hand
5. Bring your shoulder down to the ground
6. Once you hit your limit, let it hang out and relax
7. Take a deep breath in
8. You’ll see your hand easily drops down – it feels amazing

Going the opposite way: Curl up and rotate back to open up the other direction. Same thing – deep breath in and you can really see it sink down.

The goal is to get your shoulder all the way down to the ground, letting it hang out, relax, and chill. It feels amazing.

Essential Chest and Shoulder Stretching

To fix poor posture, we obviously want the head back. One of the most common things I recommend is the doorway chest stretch.

Get people to stretch at the front of their chest in the door, trying to get a good pull through the front. If you’ve never done this stretch, ask us about it – it’s one of the most prescribed stretches I give people.

Benefits:

• Opens up tight chest muscles
• Gets rid of shoulder tension
• Reduces headaches
• Helps with back pain

Foam Rolling for Spine Extension

I need to make sure my spine can go backwards, so I use the foam roller to ensure it’s extending backwards. You can do foam rolling techniques back and forth to work the muscles, but what I actually like to do is use it as a fulcrum.

My Foam Rolling Technique:

1. Put hands above my head, often together
2. Gently bend my spine backwards over the foam roller
3. Move it up to hit different spots
4. Move it down and back up
5. Hit a couple different spots

It starts to feel really good and is one of the most common things I do as part of my daily routine. It helps prevent looking like a hunched-over elderly person when I’m in my 30s! (No offense to elderly ladies – I love them, I just don’t want to look like one yet.)

Building Postural Strength

So many people come into the clinic saying, “I just want to work on my posture” or “I want to stand taller.” It’s a major problem in this day and age.

Lower Trap Activation – The Low Row

Here’s an amazing exercise to reduce shoulder tension up through the trap and lower neck, and improve overall posture.

Equipment Needed:

• Resistance band that you can hook onto anything
• Something with light resistance (not heavy)

How to Perform the Low Row:

1. Start with your arms perfectly straight
2. Lock the elbows
3. Palms facing back
4. Try to pinch your shoulder blades down and back
5. Feel it in the muscles down and through the lower shoulder blade

Why This Works:

A lot of times when we have shoulder tension in the upper traps that won’t go away, it’s because:

• These upper traps are overworking
• The lower trap is underworking
• The upper trap is overcompensating all the time

No matter how many times you stretch the upper trap, it will keep coming back. What we need to do is:

1. Stretch the upper trap with gentle stretches
2. Do exercises to activate the lower traps

When you do the low row correctly, you’ll feel it in the mid-back between the shoulder blades. Automatically, your chest and posture improve. That’s why it’s an amazing way to maintain posture.

Common Mistake:

If you feel it in your arm or tricep, the resistance band isn’t heavy enough. Focus on pinching down and back, not pulling with your arms.

The Ultimate Posture Exercise – Deadlift with Face Pull

This is our ultimate posture exercise that gets everything going in the back. We call it the deadlift with face pull.

Equipment Options:

• Elastic band with cables
• Cable pull or cable stack at the gym
• Thera-band with a towel

How to Perform the Exercise:

1. Setup: Feet shoulder-width apart, arms straight out
2. Deadlift phase: Let the band pull you forward into a deadlift, keeping your back nice and straight
3. Face pull phase: As you come up, bring hands to your face with elbows high
4. Key cue: Think about thumbs going past the ears
5. Repetitions: 10-15 times, starting light to get the technique

Why This Exercise Works:

Stretches the front: You get a beautiful stretch through the front of your body as you push the hips back.

Strengthens the back: Works all the muscles in the back that support good posture.

It’s going to make you feel taller and feel better overall.

Core Stability – Quadruple Rotation

One of the best foundational exercises I highly recommend is the quadruple rotation.

Basic Version:

1. Start on your hands and knees
2. Put one hand behind your head
3. Rotate up and behind as far as you can
4. Do 15-20 repetitions

Advanced Version:

Once you get good at the basic version:

1. Go down onto your elbow
2. Do the same rotation movement
3. You’ll be surprised – it hits everything in a slightly different range of motion

Benefits:

• Gets rotation in the spine
• Gets the shoulder blade moving
• Prepares you for more advanced exercises

Postural Awareness & Daily Habits

Red Light Exercises for Your Car

One thing I train is called a red light exercise. Here’s what you’re going to do:

1. Get your head back against the headrest in your car
2. Try to push it back
3. Give yourself a bit of a double chin
4. Train going backwards

This helps retrain your head position throughout the day.

Workstation Posture Tips

When sitting at your desk, people often say “I want to straighten up all the time.” The simplest way to get your head back over your center of gravity is to arch your lower back.

Here’s why:

• When I slouch, my head comes forward
• If I arch my lower back, my head comes in line with my center of gravity
• This takes all the pressure and strain off my neck

Try this at work. Make sure you’re not living with headaches, because nobody should have to deal with headaches on a regular basis.

When to Seek Professional Help

The real secret: To improve posture and get rid of numbness, tingling, headaches, and mid-back pain, you need to stretch out and open up the front of the chest AND strengthen the back.

If you want to speed this process up, come see one of our physiotherapists. They’ll give you a step-by-step process on how to:

• Improve your posture
• Get your spine moving
• Get your shoulder blade moving

For the reach, roll and lift test: When you come see our team, just say “I can’t do the reach, roll and lift test” and they’ll know exactly what you mean.

If you’re suffering from numbness, tingling in hands, headaches, or bad posture and want help, let us know. Our chiropractors are absolutely amazing at this – it’s what we do all day, every day.

Our promise: We’ll get rid of that issue for you and show you how to maintain it yourself so it goes away and stays away.