Correcting Bad Posture

cphillpot

I have had terrible posture my whole life. I also have mild scoliosis, though nothing serious enough that I've worn a brace for. But I suffer from chronic upper back pain and for the life of me cannot sit up straight for longer than a few minutes. I almost immediately return to my hunched over "troll" position without thinking about it. I also work as a tattoo artist, which hasn't helped my posture/pain at all.

I'm pretty new to working out, so I'm not sure what I'm doing. What exercises can I do to stregthen my back muscles and potentially help correct my posture? I'm fairly flexible and try to do some light yoga whenever I go to the gym. (I go for 2-3 hours 4 or 5 times a week.)

jemhh

If I remember right @rainbowbow has given good posture advice in the past.

sarko15

Following! I have terrible posture too. I also just bought a super super cheap standing desk (that was $20 on Amazon, just to test it out) and I'm hoping that will help.

EmmaCaz4

I've got scoliosis too and a spine disorder and have had the same problems with posture. My physio told me to work on my core to help strengthen the muscles which will then help with back pain and then be able to correct your posture naturally. Side planks were the best one, I also have a full length foam roller which helps to just lay on full to stretch your back and pull your shoulders back. Also weight training has helped, deaflifts and squats have helped tighten the muscles in my back. My posture and back pain is slowly getting better! Hope this helps....

rainbowbow

I cant say for certain without having seen you in person or in images, but i believe what you're describing sounds like upper crossed syndrome. To fix this you can perform the stretches, SMR techniques. and exercises in the following videos. You'll also want to practice mindfulness in rolling the shoulders back and holding proper posture multiple times a day.

In my experience improvement is seen in the first 2 months with daily practice.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RKyaDmzsnw&t=46s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA3O0NVb-sk

kenyonhaff

I love Classical Stretch which is broadcast on many BPS stations and she has DVDs. 30 minute stretch, strengthen, tone, and alignment. Suitable for nearly all fitness levels: she coaches senior citizens and Olympic athletes.

SonyaCele

the best thing for posture is to focus and be consciously aware of your posture and sit/stand with good posture. Tie a string to your finger or a post-it on your nose, or something anything. You can do all the stretches and strength training in the world, but if you go back to slouching the rest of the day you defeat everything. Stand and sit straight always, make it habit.

lorrpb

You will probably never completely correct it, but I've found all core exercises to help tremendously with posture and pain. I think that what's best is a well rounded full body workout/weights/strength training. As all of me has gotten stronger, my posture has improved and my pain has diminished. I can't say it's because of 1 or 2 specific exercises. I've done full body functional/strength training for 2.5 years, most of it under the direction of a personal trainer.

ALL of our muscles need to get stronger and learn to work together. The risk of focusing one area, even when it's an important one, is that you can created unexpected imbalances in other areas. (Unless it's rehabbing an injury under the direction of a physical therapist.) Because: no muscle exists in isolation. All your muscles and bones are linked together, from head to toe. Literally. Problems that appear in one area can and are caused by issues in completely different parts of the body, i.e. neck vs hips vs feet, and so on.

CafeRacer808

I've had bad posture for most of my life. The two things that sorted it out for me were strengthening my core (pilates, in my case) and yoga.

cphillpot

rainbowbow wrote: »

I cant say for certain without having seen you in person or in images, but i believe what you're describing sounds like upper crossed syndrome.

I'd never heard of this before but I think that may be what I have. My traps and lower traps are always sore, though the uppers ones are the ones that feel tight constantly. I definitely have the rounded shoulders and the forward neck posture. Thank you for posting these videos!

Cherimoose

Good posture comes from practicing good posture, and there is no substitute. Use a reminder app to do a posture check every 5 minutes, until it becomes habitual.

To release the tight muscles involved, these are the 2 best stretches i've found:

Pectorals:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bO224K6mS2c

Ribs, neck, upper spine:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUrfdsJV2sY
Use a 45 cm (18 inch) ball.

The effects of stretching don't last long, so those should be done every 1-2 hours, at least the first year or two. Again, use a reminder app.

Posture involves endurance, not strength, so for strength training, just follow a normal, full-body strength program designed by a pro, like NROL4W, Stronglifts, a personal trainer's plan, etc.

cphillpot

@rainbowbow I took a couple quick photos of myself in my normal posture and my attempt at "good" posture. Can you confirm that this is upper crossed syndrome? I'm looking forward to trying the exercises you recommended. @Cherimoose and @SonyaCele thank you for the advice! I will try to be more conscious of my posture throughout the day as well as when I am exercising.

prekwrangler

Following. Great question! Great advice!

rainbowbow

cphillpot wrote: »

@rainbowbow I took a couple quick photos of myself in my normal posture and my attempt at "good" posture. Can you confirm that this is upper crossed syndrome? I'm looking forward to trying the exercises you recommended. @Cherimoose and @SonyaCele thank you for the advice! I will try to be more conscious of my posture throughout the day as well as when I am exercising.

Yep! Forward head, forward rounded shoulders, yep yep yep. Even in your "good posture" photo you have forward head placement.

That stretch in the second video for the deep cervicall flexors will likely be painful for you as you have pretty bad forward head posture. I would recommend doing this minimum 2x a day to start with.

You'll want to strengthen the rhomboids and lats so you can start with the bodyweight movements (I think in the first video he does a thumbs up cobra) and the work your way up to back extensions, pull downs, assisted pull ups, etc.

I also highly recommend investing in a small massage ball (I would do a smooth small ball for now and upgrade to a spiky ball later) or a theracane.

A combination of strengthening those under active muscles, stretching the over active muscles, deep stretching with proper postural alignment, and purposeful mindful correction of posture throughout the day should help tremendously.

I think I mentioned it in the first post I posted, but being mindful that this is something you want to change and actively forcing yourself / corrrecting yourself to sit and stand with good posture is a necessity. You can do all of the above, but if you aren't actually holding yourself throughout the day with proper posture you won't have much success.

p.s. the stretches cherimoose posted are also excellent and ones I employ daily in my practice.

P.P.S. if it's any consolation, my boyfriend started with your posture and looks about 3 inches taller now that he's corrected it. We did it through the method i detailed above.

emille88

cphillpot wrote: »

I have had terrible posture my whole life. I also have mild scoliosis, though nothing serious enough that I've worn a brace for. But I suffer from chronic upper back pain and for the life of me cannot sit up straight for longer than a few minutes. I almost immediately return to my hunched over "troll" position without thinking about it. I also work as a tattoo artist, which hasn't helped my posture/pain at all.

I'm pretty new to working out, so I'm not sure what I'm doing. What exercises can I do to stregthen my back muscles and potentially help correct my posture? I'm fairly flexible and try to do some light yoga whenever I go to the gym. (I go for 2-3 hours 4 or 5 times a week.)

Maintain a good posture is very much essential for every people in their life. Here are a few helpful video and articles that will help you to fix your posture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7ZWPCWv0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbGSvAEkE68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfSCZbb9MOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JbY8kpHEqo
https://www.postureg.com/straighten-your-back-while-sleeping/
https://www.today.com/health/quit-your-slouching-how-fix-bad-posture-1D80232323
https://www.builtlean.com/2016/05/02/fix-bad-posture/
https://www.postureg.com/maintain-good-posture-working-computer/

lukejoycePT

You appear to be kyphotic, it is totally correctable. You need to do two things... Stretch and strengthen.

Stretch - Do wall angels every day. Stretch your chest area so there is less tension.

Strengthen - lots of resistance training using your back muscles (Pulling exercises).
Seated, bent over, single arm or chest supported Rows
Reverse Flys
Chin up, pull ups, lat pull downs.

If you are experienced then deadlifts and barbell back squats are superb for this.

elisa123gal

I've been working on this also..there are great youtube videos of exercises you can do.

puffbrat

This thread is 2 years old.

grimendale

puffbrat wrote: »

This thread is 2 years old.

It's a zombie thread, but also weirdly helpful that it popped back up for me. Some useful information in here I hadn't seen before, which could help my lordosis, so I'll chalk it up to serendipity.

whathapnd

I've never been so happy to see a zombie thread! I was just talking about this issue with a friend on Saturday, and I was going to search for exercises.

lukejoycePT

It’s ok to be picky man, happy to be called out when I’m not 100% accurate. In Most cases kyphosis is correctable. Normally if it’s not you can definitely reduce it with the above exercises or at least mask some of it.

greyhoundwalker wrote: »

lukejoycePT wrote: »

You appear to be kyphotic, it is totally correctable. You need to do two things... Stretch and strengthen.

Stretch - Do wall angels every day. Stretch your chest area so there is less tension.

Strengthen - lots of resistance training using your back muscles (Pulling exercises).
Seated, bent over, single arm or chest supported Rows
Reverse Flys
Chin up, pull ups, lat pull downs.

If you are experienced then deadlifts and barbell back squats are superb for this.

I’m sorry if this is a bit nit picky but just wanted to add, though the OP from two years ago likely has a kyphotic posture which can definitely be improved by the correct exercises not all kyphosis is correctable. If you have a degenerative spinal condition it may be fixed and not treatable with exercise.

hixa30

I haven't read all of the replies but get hold of the book Posture, keep it straight by Janice Novak. You might be able to interloan it through your library's network.