Kyphosis and posture

Training the big muscles in the back aren't really going to do much for it.

Check out Elliot Hulse on youtube and his video on corrective deadlifts. ( http://youtu.be/RWDznh9SHgA )

Use resistance bands to work the smaller muscles of the rotator cuff. (edit to add, keep them light, if you feel it in your rear delts, you are using too much resistance.)

Stretch your chest, especially the pec minor. ( http://youtu.be/bO224K6mS2c )

Foam roll your thoracic area. ( http://youtu.be/SxQkVD0UQNg )

Monitor your posture while sitting to make sure shoulders are at a neutral position.

Resistance bands while stretching are probably the opposite of what you need as far as stretching goes. There are yoga sandbags you can use that help pull parts down to stretch. An example would be to lie with a bolster under your upper back and hold sandbags with your arms or put them on your shoulders (sitting on you like you are a table, lol).

But I'd definitely suggest active stretching where you have to push the body part in the direction you want. Try camel, cobra, upward dog. Sphinx pose is great if you concentrate on pulling back even in that one. Camel is awesome when you can let gravity work for you. Cobra is the easiest one to get to use your arms to do the work and get a better stretch because of it, imho.

Fish pose is really helpful if you can get into that one. Bow pose is wonderful for the shoulders, but it may be a hard one, too.

Using a chair (etc) is really helpful, too. My shoulders weren't flexible in that direction due to a back problem, and I did stretching like this with a physio:

I'm not going to go into specific drills or exercises, as there are many that will work, however consider this:


You've had bad posture for 5+ years?
You sit at a desk for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, or similar?

You do corrective exercises for maybe 30 mins 5 days a week?
You've been doing this for 5 months?

Can you see the imbalance here. It takes time to undo the bad posture, just as it took time to get it. It also requires being concious and adjusting and moving all the time to make sure you have better posture, otherwise the corrective side of it is just a drop in the ocean compared the the bad work being done.

Thanks for the tips.
Unfortunately I've had a hamstring injury for months, which has stopped me deadlifting for a while, but I'll give everything else you've said a go.

The hamstring (pull?) is a symptom of the problem. The anatomy train that begins in your neck and travels down the back of your body, and down the back of each leg to your Achilles tendons is weak (thus the hamstring problem). As you know, years of sedentary lifestyle weaken that anatomy train. I had a "dowager hump" (where the head is pulled forward), advanced kyphosis and lower back and extreme knee pain before I started doing water exercise. The program I am on is specifically designed to counteract all of those very common problems and it is working. There are things you can do in the water with a foam belt on that would be next to impossible to do on dry land. Our instructor spends a lot of time doing work on our rotator cuffs with "water dumbbells" (two-headed paddles). That has helped a lot with the "dowager hump" and the kyphosis. For the time being, I have avoided trying to specifically strengthen the muscles on the front of my body (pectorals, biceps, abdominals and quads) until the back of my body "catches up". My hubby says my posture has returned to what it was when I was young AND, the best part is that my neck, shoulder and lower back pain is gone! (My knees are a lot better too).

I'm pretty good with thoracic extension when I exercise (I think). I don't drive, but I sit at my laptop pretty much all day (more than even 9-5 as I'm a student), and find it near impossible to keep my back straight and my shoulders back. My body is so unused to it, I may as well be sitting on my head for how unnatural it feels.
I'm scared to do overhead squats as I reckon I'd either fall over or drop the weight, or both, but I may give them a try and see.
Yeah, I have a curve in the lower back too, which gives me a lot of lower back pain if I'm on my feet for very long. My core is also really weak, giving me a constant 'bloated' look as the muscles are always loose.

I think the hamstring was mostly to do with bad deadlift form, and overreaching. I have had really tight hamstrings for as long as I can remember though. I stretch them but it seems to make little difference.
How long did it take you to improve your posture? I don't have access to any sort of water training, or an instructor, but it at least gives me some hope that it is possible.

If your hamstrings are tight, your quads are probably even tighter--they work in opposition to each other to keep you standing up, but the muscles on the front of the body are almost always stronger because we use them more and they are bigger to start with (although I'm told that bigger doesn't necessarily mean stronger). To answer your question, it took about six months of work going twice a week for an hour to "straighten me out" lol. I bought a membership to the class--was $150 for twice a week for a year--a bargain. If you are a university student, do you not have a phys ed department and pool?

ETA: By the way, I'm 65 years old, so the changes would probably happen faster in a young person.

You should do yoga I heard it helps with posture, or see a chiropracter

You can do overheat squats with a broomstick or pvc pipe. I'm of the impression that they are more a tool to measure progress than something to further progress.

It sounds like you need to spend a significant amount of time on mobility. Check out Kelly Starrett or Omar Isuf or Elliott Hulse for some mobility exercises. Kelly Starrett has some pretty crazy looking stuff but you should see noticeable improvement in short periods of time.

I had to do lots of physical therapy for various shoulder issues related to my posture, at the end of the day it came down to some really tight pec minors. I had to stretch morning and night to get it sorted.

Ah, ok, I'll give the overhead squats a go.
Yeah, I think I need to do a lot more stretching and mobility work. It's just hard to keep doing it every single day, especially when I don't see results.
I've had some good suggestions from people on here though, which helps. Thanks everyone.

It's like lifting, adding a small amount of weight each workout does not seem to be much change, but look back over the last year, and your lifts will have gone up massively.

Each time you work mobility, you may get 0.5mm more of movement, it's only when 6 months of this have added up that you see the difference.