Exercises for "Own the Room" Posture That Will Get You Noticed
Exercises for "Own the Room" Posture That Will Get You Noticed
Do you want "own the room posture?" Posture has more of an effect on your appearance than you might imagine. It's such a huge factor in the appearance and function of your body that I am continually amazed at just how underrated it is.It's not underrated in fashion, sports, dance, or many other activities, but the general public seems to wander around oblivious to the fact that the way they hold themselves has such a great effect on how they look and feel.
In fact, most people do know good posture when they see it, they just can't indentify that's what they are seeing, nor do they realize when their own posture is bad. On many occasions, I've heard friends say things like "That guy walks around like he owns the place" or "She really grabs my attention, but I don't know why."That's when I give them the answer: it's because they have great posture!
Great posture will make you look more confident, taller and thinner.It will give guys the look of a stronger, broader chest, and will give girls not only an apparent cup size increase, but will give you a "lift" that even the best bra can't duplicate, as well as eliminating that "pooch" some women are always complaining about.
Why do I bring up posture in a health and fitness book?Because although you can force yourself to have good posture to some extent, if you want really good posture all the time, even without thinking about it, the only way you're going to get and keep it is through a properly balanced resistance training program.The words "properly balanced" are critical here.Even most fitness buffs usually have routines that do not result in an overall balanced musculature.
I see two prevalent postural errors in the majority of the clients I work with.There are other small areas of bad posture, but these two are so wide spread, so prevalent, and so blatant that by taking care of these two, you'll be 90% of the way there.In fact, I've found that if you take care of these two, a couple others will go away as well.
Forward Pelvic Tilt
By far the postural error most complained about among women is forward pelvic tilt.If you look at someone from the side, with a properly adjusted belt, the belt should be nearly level to the ground.In almost all of you, your belt will be much lower at the front than at the back.
This has a couple of negative effects visually.First, it affects the posture of the rest of your upper body.Since you are now angled forward at the waist, you will be compensating all the way up through your neck.Especially for women, this will result in what many of you call your "pooch", or the little belly that sticks out even if you're not over weight.Many will attribute this to child birth or getting older, but it's really not a function of your belly at all.If you correct the forward pelvic tilt, the "pooch" will go away.The forward pelvic tilt will also make you look shorter, as it creates an "S" curve through your upper body.You will never stand straight, and you'll look it.
What causes this?Beyond intentional bad posture caused by lack of self-esteem or tall girl syndrome, it's pretty straight forward: tight quads and hip flexors along with weak lower posterior chain musculature (glutes, hamstrings).The reason this postural imbalance is so prevalent is because these two weaknesses are so common.I won't speculate as to why most people have tight quads and hip flexors, other than the fact that we don't do nearly enough activities with our lower bodies that use a truly full range of motion.We're all tight there.
I'm not going to get into the details of flexibility and stretching in this book, as if I did, this would quickly turn into a 500 page book, but there are no end of free internet resources that will tell you how to stretch your quads, and hip flexors. Check out my web site for some good ones.
The reason for the weak lower posterior chain muscles was discussed earlier: we just don't use them in our modern lifestyles.Both the glutes and hamstrings get utilized when we pick up heavy objects with PROPER form (something no one does), bending at the hips, keeping the back flat, and using these muscles instead of the lower back.I do not know why the muscles of the lower back are the "lazy" way of picking things up, but they are.
For week glutes and hams, the number one best exercise BY FAR is the stiff leg dead lift described earlier.
This one exercise alone will do more for your physical appearance than perhaps any other exercise.I'm not saying this is the be-all, end-all of exercises, but if you're not doing this exercise, you're really missing out.
The other activity that will really help is sprinting.Jogging and running will not work the glutes, or hams to any significant extent.Only during true sprinting will these muscles become active.In the cardio chapter we talked about intervals.Intervals are more than just sprinting, but sprinting is certainly one of the most productive ways to do intervals.
There are reasons Olympic sprinters have such enviably toned physiques, and it's not because of long slow cardio, or even endless hours in the gym.Sprinting itself may be one of the most productive ways of exercising.The muscular and cardio benefits are many.
Even if you do have a healthy heart, you still need to worry about pulling a muscle, rolling an ankle, or otherwise hurting yourself.You'd think sprinting would be such a natural activity, but you don't realize how unnatural it is until you try it (for the first time perhaps in decades)!If you do feel like you are up to it, start out slowly.Run fast for a couple intervals.Work up to sprinting over the course of many workouts.
What separates sprinting from running?When you sprint, not only does neither foot touch the ground at the same time (unlike jogging), but your heels also never touch the ground.When you're sprinting you pretty much float from the toes and balls of one foot to the other foot.
It really is that foreign of an activity.As strange as it seems, you just don't ever sprint, even when you think you're running really fast.It's an activity that has been removed from modern society, but one that uses certain muscles that just don't get used in other activities.
Yes, I'm a big fan of sprinting and stiff leg deadlifts!It's also not a bad thing that these exercises will really firm up your rear.No, there is no such thing as spot reduction, but since most people have almost no appreciable muscle in this area, once they lose the extra weight, their rear is still flabby.As you strengthen this area, you'll notice the droopy line that separates your butt from your upper legs will start to disappear, and any cellulite will greatly diminish (or disappear entirely) as the muscle that the skin is connected to starts to take on the size and shape it had when you were younger.
As an added benefit of making this postural improvement, you will start to use better form when you bend to pick things up.Your lower back will REALLY thank you.
Slumped Shoulders
The second postural imbalance most everyone has is shoulders that slump forward.From the standpoint of overall posture, this appears to be just a continuance of the forward pelvic tilt.From the side, your body forms an "S" shape.There is a correlation between the forward pelvic tilt and the slumped shoulders and just as there are various degrees of pelvic tilt, there is a huge range of slumped shoulders from really good to terrible.Most people fall into the middle zone where it's not overly apparent to others, but when corrected, makes a huge difference in appearance.Some, however, are so bad it becomes obvious.
Again, ignoring the possible intentional reasons for a slumped posture, how do you correct it?This one is very simple.Although tight pecs are part of the problem, the majority of the solution is in one exercise: rows.High row, low rows, dumbbell, barbell, pulley, etc. etc.For the upper body, rows are probably the number one neglected exercise, hence the slumping shoulders.
Guys neglect rows because they spend too much time benching.Girls neglect rows because they have never been taught otherwise, or they think pressing will help expand their chest.In both cases, we can see our chest, but the back is neglected because we don't look at it in the mirror.As straightforward as this may seem, unfortunately both sexes have it backwards.Not only will working the chest more than the back (doing more presses than rows), screw up your posture, it will also not give you the results you are looking for.
Yes, bench pressing is the exercise that will work the chest most effectively, however the pectoral muscles of the chest are actually pretty small in comparison to the various back muscles.For a guy, working the back muscles will actually make you look thicker and more muscular than will working the chest.Couple that with the fact that the improved posture (shoulders pulled back) will actually make the chest look much bigger.
This is true for women as well.I'm not saying every woman is looking for bigger breasts, but it's pretty standard for women to appear at least one cup size bigger with the correct "shoulder back" posture.Even if you have no desire to look a cup size bigger, having the correct posture will make them stand higher and give your body a younger look, as well as helping to eliminate the lower back pain many well-endowed women complain of.
This section was by no means meant to be a complete resource on posture.As with the rest of this book, it's just meant to cover the issues I've seen most often.If appearance is one of your goals, do NOT overlook this topic!
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