The Ultimate Posture Exercise You Need To Be Doing

We often have people coming into the clinic who are looking to improve their posture! They want to stand taller, straighter, and with more confidence.   If you’re one of those people then you’ve come to the right place!

This one exercise will activate all the muscles you need to get better posture.

https://youtu.be/OCN4oqURXlg

Having good posture is important for balance, reducing chronic pain, and even for improving your mood! Being mindful of your posture can be a challenge in the age of the smartphone where we spend a lot of our free time hunched over a screen. So what is good posture?

Good posture means:

• chin parallel to the floor
• shoulders even (roll your shoulders up, back, and down to help achieve this)
• neutral spine (no flexing or arching to overemphasize the curve in your lower back)
• arms at your sides with elbows straight and even
• abdominal muscles braced
• hips even
• knees even and pointing straight ahead
• body weight distributed evenly on both feet.

When sitting down, keep your chin parallel to the floor; your shoulders, hips, and knees at even heights; and your knees and feet pointing straight ahead.

Did you know that having worse posture has been shown to be associated with worse health scores? Posture matters!

When you slouch you’re actually compressing your rib cage and all of your internal organs. Over time this can affect your breathing as well as other organ systems. Apparently organs don’t work well when they’re squished!

A hunched posture also changes your center of gravity which can affect your balance. While it may not seem like you’re balancing when you walk across a room, you definitely are. You wouldn’t be able to walk across a room, climb a set of stairs, or even get up from a chair without adequate balance. Improving your posture so that your center of gravity is generally over your feet will make it easier for your body to maintain balance.

If we had to give one exercise to everyone for improving their posture it would be this one:

Deadlift With a Face Pull

• Using a cable with handles or a theraband attached to something sturdy at waist height; stand with your feet shoulder width apart holding the cable out in front of you.
• Hinge at the hips into a deadlift position and let the cable or band pull your arms straight out in front of you.
• Drive through your hips back up to standing and pull the band up toward your face so that your thumbs are pointing behind you around chin height.
• Repeat 10-15 times!

If you have any questions be sure to ask your therapist at your next appointment.

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