How To Improve Posture With These Exercises
As you get older posture becomes one of the most important aspects of your fitness regimen
. The problem is a lot of people never really understand it, take it seriously or try to work on it. I think we should be working on our posture beginning in our 20s. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is because this is the time when young people start to join the work force. As you might know already, a lot of jobs these days that are popular with people who have college degrees require you to sit on your butt 8-10 hours a day in front of a computer screen. This is by far one of the worst things that anyone can do for their posture from head to toe. Human beings were not meant to sit on their tail bones for such a long period of time and be inactive. We were built to constantly move, run walk, jump and climb. So when we become sedentary at a desk, things begin to rapidly deteriorate. I have many friends in their early to mid 20s who I can already see the classic signs of poor posture. They are setting themselves up for a crummy future if they dont start correcting things.
I myself suffered from poor posture starting in high school. Being young and dumb, I pushed myself too hard in the weight room and suffered severe bicep tendonitis in both shoulders. In fact, it was so severe that the doctor labeled it as tendonosis, a chronic condition and no longer acute. I had to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on my shoulders before I found someone who knew what they were doing and could treat my condition. One of the biggest catalysts for my injuries was not because I pushed myself so hard in the weight room, but it was because of my poor posture and what they call scapular winging.
I basically had no upper body muscles in my back which complimented the muscles in the front, some like to call them the mirror muscles, which are the chest and shoulders. Because of this, it created an imbalance throughout my upper body causing my shoulders to round forward like an old mans and inevitably pinch the bicep tendons in both shoulders.
So the I guess the first thing you can do to fix your posture is to start doing a 2:1 ratio of upper body horizontal pulling exercises to upper body pushing exercises. So for every type of bench press or pushup that you do, you should do 2 sets of some type of rowing exercise. I dont care which type, just do something. Also note its best to do a different number of rowing exercises with assorted hand placements because the back can be hit at many angles. Collectively its a very big muscle group so make sure you hit it with a lot of volume and different exercises.
The second thing you could do is to just drop any type of pushing movements and only focus on pulling exercises. This will help rid the imbalance at a faster rate than doing a 2:1 ratio of pulling to pushing.
Another neat trick is when youre home to grab a broom stick and place it behind your back. From there, take both your arms and place them behind the broomstick which is sitting on your back. This will force you to straighten up, to contract your spinal erectors and to contract your upper body pulling muscles. Try and stay in this position as long as you can, the longer the better because youll start training your body to remain in this position. It will feel really awkward at first but overtime it will get much easier.
Remember the upper back muscles responsible for good posture are built to sustain long times under tension. Think about it, youre standing erect all day with your arms by your side. If it wasnt for your upper back muscles, you would be totally stooped over with your arms dangling in front of you. So it makes sense that the more you train these muscles, the better your posture would be.
Some good exercises to increase your posture would be stick ups pictured below.
Stand against wall with feet shoulder width apart.
Gently press low back against wall.
Place back of elbows, forearms, and wrists against wall.
Bring arms up and down slowly in a small arc of motion while keeping elbows in contact with wall.
Another good exercise would be cable rows with a straight bar which is also pictured below.
Sit up straight on a chair.
Keep elbows very close to sides and pull back on the bar as shoulder blades come back and down.
Return to start position slowly.
And the last good exercise that you can practice every day to improve your posture would be seated reverse flys pictured below.
Bend at the waist holding 2 dumbbells
With your arms hanging down at your sides, raise your arms keeping the elbows slightly bent straight up to your sides, squeezing at the top
Slowly lower back down.
So with these 3 exercises, you can easily create a great posture improving routine that you can use every day. Now I know a lot of people will tell you that you should give your muscles a break every other day so you dont over train but thats false information. The upper back muscles can take a lot of volume because that is what they are designed for. Feel free to do each exercise in the beginning for 10-12 repetitions for 3 sets a piece. You can also do this routine 5 days a week if you have the time.
All in all, if you want to know how to improve your posture, just start working on the upper back muscles with various exercises like I wrote about above. Try and drop all pressing exercises for the time being or just limit them in total volume.
by: Jared DiCarmine
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