4 Ways to Improve Your Posture and Lose that Slouch
Aside from being a way to look good in family photos, good posture is the way that we distribute our body’s weight onto our tissues so that they can easily and efficiently respond and adapt to that weight. As you can likely guess, this is much more nuanced than simply “standing up straight” like our parents and teachers instructed us to do as kids.
Brock Armstrong
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4 Ways to Improve Your Posture and Lose that Slouch
Simply put, good posture means that each of your body parts is in the correct spot, relative to other body parts, and relative to the gravitational pull of the earth. Make sense? Can you do that? Great! Then we are done here. Ha! If only it were that easy.
What is your Good Posture?
When you read the words “good posture” you probably instinctively and immediately assumed your version of “good posture.” If you didn’t, then go ahead and straighten up now.
What did you do to improve your posture? Did you thrust your chest up or did you pull your shoulders blades together? Perhaps both? Well, doing that may give the impression of good posture but more accurately all you did was lift your rib cage forward by sheering your vertebra and mashing your shoulder blades together. Doesn’t sound good, does it?
When you are slouching forward, simply misaligning your ribs like this does not actually create the movement in your (thoracic) spine in the way that you think or feel that it does. All it does is take that slouching forward curve of your upper spine and tilt it into an upward position. The curve is still there, it is simply pointing in a different direction.
You see, many of us stand at least slightly lazily at all times, trying to conserve energy and feel relaxed. To do that we stand with our neck jutted out, our shoulders slumped, our rib cage collapsed, our weight shifted into one hip or the other (or thrust forward into both), and our feet flared out like a duck. Take a look down at your body, are you standing like that right now?
The problem is that when you stand that way on a regular basis, your body gets very used to that posture and you get stuck like that, or at very least this becomes your default stance.
Not only is this an issue of bad geometry, in combination with gravity, creating unhealthy forces on your bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments but when you hit the gym or engage in your favourite sport in this type of misalignment, you are in real trouble. And this trouble will result in lowered performance, fewer strength gains, and an increased risk of injury.
The Right Way to Stand
The easiest way to create a nicely aligned body is to imagine there is a plumb line (like carpenters use) attached to various parts on your body. If each one of the plumb lines is not heading toward, if not directly to, your mid-foot or heels, you are out of alignment.
A nicely aligned body is a nicely stacked body. Ankles over heels, knees over ankles, hips over knees, ribs over hips, shoulders over ribs, neck straight and tall, and finally your head should be directly over your heels. If any of these are out of place then all the other bits need to realign themselves (incorrectly) to compensate for that one out of place part. And that results in poor posture.
Rib and Pelvis
In my experience of working with athletes, actors, dancers and office workers, the real trouble happens in the ribs and pelvis. So here is a test for you.
Rib & Pelvis Alignment Test
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Find a wall and stand with your back against the wall.
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Place your heels about six inches (15 centimeters) away from the wall.
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Make your pelvis neutral by aligning your anterior superior iliac spine (hip bones) with your pubic bone.
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How much space is between your back and the wall? There should be some space between your lower back and the wall, but there should not be space between your ribs and the wall.
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To fix that, bring the base of your ribs right flat to the wall. Do this by lightly rolling the front of your ribs down.
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Check in and make sure that you haven’t tucked or rolled your pelvis, clenched your butt or flattened out your lower back (there should still be room behind it).
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Are you staring at the floor? If you are, this is called kyphosis, and the fact that you don’t always stare at the floor like this is due to the fact that you have become a pro at misalignment. But don’t despair! I have a solution.
Shoulders and Neck
Because many of us spend so much time looking at a computer or a smartphone or other screens, we tend to have rounded shoulders and a head that is poking forward. As we demonstrated in the last test, if you suffer from these misalignments and don’t then misalign your ribs and pelvis to correct them, your rounded shoulders and poking forward head will make you stare at the floor. So now, instead of fixing the problem we have compounded the problem.
By standing, walking or even sitting like this, we are beating up parts of our body by placing a strain on tissues that aren’t adapted to bear that much stress.
And that is why good posture matters so much. But that is also why good posture isn’t simply about being able to stand at attention (like a soldier). It is about having the awareness, strength and flexibility to maintain good alignment as you move through the world.
What is Alignment?
If you are a cyclist, you’ve probably had to have your wheel alignment (or spoke tension) adjusted after you went off a sick jump (or an unexpected curb). In this case, the bike mechanic (or you, if you are technical like that) is not simply going to stare at your wheel and make it look pretty. That is because your bike’s wheel alignment is all about how the wheel interacts with the road, the brake pads, the forks, the chainstay, the drive train, the hub, and so on.
The alignment needs to ensure that the wheel does not have any conflicts with any of the other parts. Especially those that contribute to the forward movement of the bicycle.
So, aside from feeling bad about ourselves because we have been standing all wrong for most of our lives, what can we do about this?
4 Steps to Better Posture
Step 1: Stretch and loosen your pushing muscles.
Just like those rounded shoulders we talked about, tight chest (pushing) muscles can come from sitting at a desk for several hours with your hands on a keyboard, or from riding your (well aligned) bike in the aero or drop position, doing strength training, or even from swimming. The problem is that once your chest is tight, these muscles can pull you forward into that rounded-back slouch.
If you have tight pushing muscles, stretching them out on a regular basis is a good place to start. Some good stretches to loosen tight chest muscles are:
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Doorway pectoral stretch
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Stability ball stretch
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Elbow wrap stretch
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Hands-behind-the-back chest stretch
You can also loosen your chest muscles by using a massage tool like a ball or a foam roller. Doing this before or after the stretches can help make that loose feeling last longer.
Step #2: Strengthen your pulling muscles.
Some of the most popular exercises for strengthening the external rotators (pulling muscles) is to use an elastic resistance band to work your shoulders and back in all the different directions. Another way is to do bigger, multi-joint exercises which have the added advantage of getting your heart rate up and working other incidental muscles at the same time. This can include regular or assisted pull-ups, lat pull-downs, reverse flyes, seated rows, cable rows, and single arm dumbbell rows.
Pro tip: Make sure that you are focusing on squeezing your shoulder blades back while maintaining a long and tall back as you do these exercises.
Another favourite of mine is the Superman or Prone Y Extension. With these exercises, you strengthen the shoulder blades, upper back and lower back at the same time.
Step #3: Work the core.
I know, I know. We have all heard it a million times but this is how it works: when you’re walking down the street, riding your bike, swimming, or just sitting at your desk, the one thing that happens right before you start to slouch is that your core poops out. And let’s face it, that happens a lot sooner for some of us than it does for others, right?
If your core is strong, it takes a load off your shoulders, which allows you to display much better posture for much longer.
Pro tip: I personally like planks for this because they are a great way to strengthen both your core and your shoulders at the same time.
Step 4: Hang loose.
Think back to the beginning of the article when I asked you to assume your version of “good posture.” Did you feel relaxed? Were you loose and comfortable or were you holding your breath and rigid to the touch?
Instead of snapping to attention like a guard being inspected by the Queen herself, I prefer to think of it like this. Imagine that you have a string coming out of the top of your head. One end of the string is running down your spine and attaching to your coccyx (tailbone). The other end is attached to a large helium balloon that is floating above your head. You, my little marionette, are standing straight and tall, stacked nicely above your heels, not through sheer force but instead with the ease, grace and lightness of that helium balloon.
Now, doesn’t that sound like a nice way to move through the world? I think so.
When you’re working on your alignment and posture, don’t worry if each change feels small and insignificant. A couple inches (or centimeters) of shifting your hips back over your feet or bringing your rib cage down toward your hips for even just a few minutes a day is a great place to start. Even though these changes are small and subtle, as we learned today, every move toward good posture is a move toward being more aligned. And like the wheel on your bike, your body will last a lot longer if everything is pointing in the right direction.
For more info, tips, and to join the conversation, head over to Facebook.com/GetFitGuy, twitter.com/getfitguy or BrockArmstrong.com.
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About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.