Your posture can hugely impact your health and comfort. While it may feel comfortable to slouch or recline in a chair, you may be adding to a growing problem that can lead to headaches, back pain, and even arthritis. Luckily, you can reverse the effects of bad posture with persistence, some minor changes, and a few simple exercises aimed at correcting your posture over time. Let’s look at a few of these exercises, including one way you can help fix your stance while you sleep!
Stop Making Your Posture Worse
Before you go about trying to correct your posture, it’s important to stop making it worse. Pinpoint the things that you do that causes bad posture. Many of these come from how we sit or the technology we use. Slouching is one of the most common habits that can lead to bad posture. Sitting properly in your chair or at a desk is a great way to correct this form of bad posture, but sitting properly is a bit more complicated on a sofa, where sitting up straight may be harder. In these cases, try stretchsitting, sitting at the edge of the soda, or using pillows to help recline properly.
You can prevent ‘text neck’ by curbing your phone usage or changing the way you hold your phone.
Other common causes of bad posture relate to technology use. For example, did you know there’s a condition colloquially known as “text neck?” This refers to the shape our bodies tend to take as we use our phones, which leads to neck strain, rounded shoulders, and a slumped back. You can prevent this type of strain by curbing your phone usage or changing the way you hold your phone, bringing the phone to eye level instead tilting your head down. These are only two prominent examples of how to fix text neck, but there are certainly others.
Once you’ve identified and stopped the habits that can lead to poor posture, you can better start correcting the issue.
Yoga Poses for Low-Impact Improvement
Yoga isn’t only a good exercise for people with arthritis, many of the poses are great for correcting one’s stance without causing more damage. In fact, studies back up the posture-benefits of yoga, also showing it’s a scientifically-backed way to prevent back pain. It doesn’t even have to be a very long yoga session either. One 10-year study found that 12-minutes of yoga daily was enough to begin seeing benefits from yoga, though more is certainly better. Many of the benefits you’ll receive from yoga come from strengthened muscles, primarily your core muscles, and increased flexibility.
Of course, there are other yoga poses that are good for improving posture, so it’s worth exploring these options more.
Generally, there are some of the yoga poses that many agree can help people with their posture. One of these is the downward-facing dog, which strengthens and helps align back muscles. Another beginner-friendly pose is called the cat-cow pose, which stretches the spine and can ease tension in the upper back and neck. A third example is the child’s pose. This simple pose helps stretch the back and neck muscles. Of course, there are other yoga poses that are good for improving posture, so it’s worth exploring these options more.
At-Home Exercises You Can Do Anywhere
If you’re not a yoga fan, you can also do exercises at home that can help relieve the strain from bad posture and promote good posture. These exercises work on strengthening your back and core muscles, along with straightening your back and spine. Some require equipment, others don’t. There are even workout plans geared toward improving your bearing. What they all have in common is that they strengthen your weaker muscles while stretching out your tighter muscles, both of which lead to poor posture.
These exercises work on strengthening your back and core muscles, along with straightening your back and spine.
Let’s focus on a few exercises and stretches you can do at home. First is the plank, a simple exercise that can greatly improve your posture and strengthen your core muscles. Watch out, though! It’s also one of the more common ones people do wrong. Doing planks correctly can make them more effective. Door-stretches are also effective because they loosen tight chest muscles, which can help combat a slouch and rolled shoulders. Whatever exercise or stretch you’re doing, just remember to be consistent, since it can take awhile to correct poor posture.
How to Fix Your Posture in Your Sleep
While exercises and yoga are all well and good, it may be difficult to find time to do them sometimes. Luckily, there’s evidence that we can improve our posture while we sleep! It all about how you sleep. Several chiropractors believe that the best position to lay in is on your back with your knees elevated or supported by a pillow. Others maintain that the most important sleep pose for posture is one that’s comfortable and gets you the most sleep. No matter how you usually sleep, there are ways you can improve your posture. Just remember to support your back and neck correctly and to find what’s most comfortable for you.
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While we believe you should still try out the exercises we’ve just mentioned, you can also purchase special items aimed at helping you achieve better posture. Everything from braces to pillows to specialty chair support items (to name a few) is available to pick up. When used alongside posture-friendly exercises, a healthier, optimal posture can be yours in no time!
