When I first started playing music on a stage, I felt confident in my delivery, and I imagined that I was projecting self-confidence to the audience. One weekend I sat in a room off-stage with the band and reviewed a video of that night’s performance. I began a checklist of self-critique as I not only listened to my vocals and instrumentation but also took note of my body movements and posture. I was pleased with most of what I observed about my performance, but when I exited the stage, I noticed something I hadn’t anticipated. The side profile of my stride as I was returning my guitar to the stand and walking off stage revealed that my shoulders were slightly turned forward, giving me a somewhat hunched and less-than-confident appearance. As we reviewed that portion of the video, I shouted to my bandmates, “I walk like a sasquatch!”.
While watching that performance video, I was awakened to 2 key things, one of which was that my posture was nowhere near as strong and confident as I had imagined. Secondly, was the extraordinary benefit of being able to observe myself when playing back that video recording. Without that perspective, I’m not sure I ever would have realized my poor posture or the physical mechanics that went into my slight lean forward while walking. At that moment, I was on a mission to create a mind-muscle connection to the mechanics of good posture. Not only was my poor posture not projecting confidence and strength, but I suspected that the disparity between mind and muscle could have adverse effects on my health over time.
How Posture Correlates To Health
As it turns out, I learned that because poor posture can also decrease your flexibility, it influences how well your joints move and impacts your balance. The adverse effects on flexibility, joint movement, and balance can also impact your ability to do things for yourself as you age. Not only that, this chain of events that starts with poor posture can increase your risk of falling.
Poor posture can affect your health in the following ways:
- Decreased flexibility
- Loss of joint mobility
- Compromised balance
- Increased risk of falling
- Difficulty in digestion
- Difficulty breathing
Knowing that poor posture can have this negative domino effect, what are some simple things to help improve posture?
6 Simple Ways To Improve Posture
The good news is that there are many things we can do to help improve posture, and it’s never too late to start. You might find that starting with the simplest changes can also lead to more significant changes in your routine, like exercises that can have positive, lasting effects on your posture.
1. Move As Much As You Can During The Day
If you have a job where you’re on your feet all day, you might already be able to check this off the list. However, for most of us, lots of movement throughout the day is a challenge when you’re working a desk job or a job that might require a lot of standing but not necessarily movement. Be mindful of moving and changing positions as frequently as possible to avoid those repetitive slumpy positions that can happen when sitting or standing at your workstation.
2. No More Slouching
When I saw myself on video after that music performance and realized that I was slouching even while I was walking, I knew I needed to act. This event reinforced the importance of being aware of slouching whether I was sitting, standing, or walking. Not only is it bad for your health, it takes away from your confidence!
3. Change Your Cell Phone Position
This one might be easy to overlook, but statistically, the time spent on our phones every day has increased exponentially in recent years. Whether texting or scrolling through your favorite articles, lift your phone up and away from your lap. Be mindful to hold it at eye level and face forward. No more slumping or slouching while on your phone.
4. Practice Breathing
One of the health risks of poor posture is that slumping forward or slouching can make it more difficult to breathe or to take a deep breath. Shallow breathing can turn into panic attacks, cause dry mouth and fatigue, aggravate respiratory problems, and can be a precursor for cardiovascular issues. Shallow breathing patterns also create tension in other parts of the body that can lead to a lot of other common problems. At the same time, you’re becoming aware of slouching or slumping forward, make a practice of breathing deeply. Understanding the benefits of deep breathing makes this a simple strategy for posture and overall health.
Here are some ideas for deep breathing:
- Improve Your Health With This Simple Breathing Exercise
- Give Your Brain a Break with Mindful Breathing
5. Muscle Stretches
The best way to retrain muscles that have become used to a slouched position is to actively work against the default to stretch and open those muscles.
Here are some easy stretches to help improve your posture that can be done anytime and anywhere:
- Shoulder rolls
- Chest release
- Seated elbow grasp
- Shoulder squeeze
- Seated side bend
6. Resistance Exercises
Resistance exercises, whether with added weight or body resistance, are the most effective at helping improve posture. As you lift weights or engage in body resistance exercises, you’re also training your mind-muscle connection. You’re improving strength, increasing body awareness, and retraining muscles that have developed bad habits over the years.
Here is a list of simple resistance exercises that you can do to help improve overall posture:
- Plank
- Half-kneeling single-arm row
- Dumbbell bent over rows.
There are many additional exercises that can be done in the gym or with additional equipment, but adding these 3 simple exercises to your daily routine will be enough to retrain your brain to resist slouching and strengthen the muscle groups connected to those slouching tendencies.
Take Action For Optimal Posture And Health
When you think about it, it’s the small, repeated things we do every single day that have the most impact on our health, whether negative or positive. This means that even the smallest changes carried out over the long term can have exponential positive impacts as we age. So, stand up, sit up, and fight fight fight for better posture and your health.
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