Derek Burnett
Derek Burnett is a Contributing Writer at Bottom Line Personal, where he writes frequently on health and wellness. He is also a contributing editor with Reader’s Digest magazine.
Having good posture is not just about aesthetics. While we generally do find people with proper posture more attractive, it’s because good posture…like shiny hair, glowing skin, visibly firm muscles, or white teeth…signals health and vitality. People who slump or lean as they sit, stand, walk, or run are displaying an imbalance or weakness somewhere in their musculature. You undoubtedly know the signs of poor posture…slouching, rounded, slumped shoulders…the head thrust forward…the lower back swayed. Fortunately, improving posture can be done at any age. It takes some concerted effort, but if you know you’re suffering from poor posture, there are cheap and attainable ways to correct it.
It’s hard to assess your own posture, partly because you can’t see yourself from every angle and partly because we tend to see what we want to see when we look in the mirror. Ask someone trustworthy to take you through the following assessment of both your standing posture and your sitting posture. Try to assume a natural, habitual position, without being “on your best behavior.” For the seated scan, use a rigid, straight-backed chair.
Correct posture standing (scanning from head to toe). The head should be up and centered, meaning that it neither sticks forward nor backward, nor does it lean toward either shoulder. The shoulders should be relaxed and not thrust forward, tending slightly (but only slightly) back. The chest should be high and proud, not concave. The belly should not stick out. The lower back should have a natural, not excessive, curve. The knees should be relaxed and should not be locked when you’re standing casually. The feet should be parallel, with neither the heels nor the toes lifted off the ground.
Correct posture sitting (scanning from shoulders to feet). For proper seated posture, the shoulders should be relaxed and squared back. The back should be straight. Each of your hips should be supporting an equal proportion of your bodyweight. The butt should be touching the chair’s back. Your legs should form a 90-degree angle at your knees. Your feet should sit flat on the floor.
If your primary concern is to improve your daytime posture, then attempting to keep a certain position throughout the night is unlikely to bear much fruit. Most people have deeply engrained preferences that are hard to break free of…especially while they’re unconscious. While experts are hesitant to pronounce one best sleeping posture, of the four main sleep positions…face down, face up, right side, and left side…the side positions are generally considered best for spinal alignment, snoring control, sleep apnea, and digestion. If you habitually sleep in another posture, you might try falling asleep on your side and seeing if you can maintain that position comfortably throughout the night.
We often think of posture as being the mere result of habit. If we allow ourselves to slump, then we’ll slump, the thinking goes…so we just need to remain constantly mindful to stand or sit up straighter and we’ll develop good posture habits. That line of thinking is not entirely misplaced. After all, generations of graduates of basic training or finishing schools came away with their shoulders squared and their heads held high…but don’t forget that for every waking moment, for months on end, someone was hovering about prepared to punish them if they slouched for even a few seconds. Unless you have a drill sergeant or headmistress to follow you around through life, you’ll have a hard time just thinking your way to better posture.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to keep your posture in mind while you’re standing in the grocery line or sitting in a waiting room. A good mantra for a quick posture check is, “Higher and lighter, head over shoulders.” What it means…By “higher and lighter,” we mean that you should visualize your head rising upward like a helium-filled balloon, taking some of the weight of your body up with it. And by “head over shoulders,” we mean that the head is centered above the body in all four directions.
But being mindful of your posture will only get you so far. If you’ve performed a sitting or standing posture-scan that revealed a deficit in some area, that strongly suggests a muscular weakness that must be addressed to make meaningful corrections to your posture. That weakness will be somewhere within the region of the body commonly referred to as “the core.” If, in addition to poor posture, you also experience lower back pain and muscle weakness, your core almost certainly needs work.
When most people think about having “a strong core,” they immediately picture six-pack abs. But those classic abdominal muscles are just one component of the system of muscles that holds us erect. The core consists of 10 muscle groups that wrap all the way around the torso, the abdomen, the hips, and the pelvis.
The muscle groups of the core are:
Because “the core” is a rather loosely defined term, some experts include two more muscle groups which can have a huge impact on posture:
To get a rough idea of how strong your core is, try the 30-second sit-to-stand chair test. Begin from a seated position in a straight chair with your feet on the floor and your arms across your chest. For 30 seconds, repeatedly rise fully to a standing position and then sit back down, keeping your arms across your chest through the entire movement. Count how many repetitions you can complete in half a minute.
Our posture gets thrown off when one component of this intricate core muscular system is stronger or less flexible than its neighbors. For example, someone with a very strong rectus abdominis (a six-pack) who has underdeveloped spinal erectors may naturally hunch forward when standing. A righthanded person who doesn’t exercise might naturally have stronger muscles on the right half of his core than on the left. And one of the most common reasons for poor posture among middle-aged and older adults is tightness in the hip flexors and hamstrings, which throws off the proper functioning of the gluteus muscles and the muscles of the lower back (a telltale sign of this problem is an unusually short stride).
The key, of course, is to exercise the core muscles to keep them balanced, strong and supple. Fortunately, you don’t have to be laser-precise in prescribing yourself an exercise regimen. So rather than sizing yourself up and saying, “It looks like my iliopsoas is 30 percent stronger than my transverse abdominis, therefore…”, you should undertake a general exercise program that works your core comprehensively. Hitting all of those muscle groups together will almost certainly even out any imbalances and ensure that the entire core gets stronger.
Two great ways to strengthen the core comprehensively are yoga and Pilates. A qualified instructor will take you through exercises that hit every aspect of your core musculature.
If that’s not your cup of tea, there are plenty of exercises you can do on your own. Here is a sample routine that you can do at home with no specialized equipment that will hit your entire core. Note…These brief descriptions are enough to point you toward some useful exercises, but it’s critical that you seek out instruction from a qualified expert to teach you how to perform them safely and effectively.
Lie on your left side with your left elbow on the floor and your head resting in the palm of your left hand. Knees straight, right leg atop the left. Right hand on the floor before you for balance. Slowly raise your right leg, keeping it straight, about 15 inches. Hold while you count to 20, then lower slowly. Come as close as you can to completing three sets of 10 repetitions. Then switch sides.
Lying flat on your back, hands flat on the floor by your sides, engage the muscles in your abdomen as you raise your buttocks up from the floor, all without arching your back or pulling in your pelvis. Try holding for 30 seconds, working your way up to three sets of 10 repetitions.
Lying on your back with knees slightly bent, feet on the floor, and hands flat beside you, engage your abs while you lift one foot just higher than the opposite knee and perform 5 clockwise circles with that leg, then 5 counterclockwise. Set that foot down and repeat with the other leg. During your reps, don’t hold your breath, and imagine that there’s a cup of hot coffee balanced on your belly that you would rather not spill.
Lie face down with your arms extended in front of you and your toes extended behind you like an Olympic diver in flight. Carefully lift your arms, shoulders, feet and legs up off the ground, imagining stretching your body toward a shallow U position, holding for three seconds. You should feel the muscles of your buttocks and lower back engage. Repeat for up to 10 repetitions.
From a pushup position, shift down onto your elbows, at 90 degrees, so your body weight is resting on your elbows and forearms. Your hands should meet on the floor just beneath your eyes. Keep your back as straight as possible, taking special care not to let your hips sag. Hold the position for a five-count. Repeat three times, resting for 30 seconds between each rep.
Seated in a chair with your knees bent 90 degrees and feet on the floor, raise one foot at a time as high as you can get it to go, straightening the knee, and hold it there for three seconds. Switch sides. Do three sets of 10 on each side.
In a standing position, place your hands on a countertop, wall, or chair slightly higher than hip level. Place one foot forward, flat, and the other behind you, toes forward. Without moving your feet, and while keeping your back straight, slowly push your pelvis forward while engaging the muscles in your buttocks. If you’re doing it right, you’ll feel the stretch in the front of your thigh and possibly in your calf. Hold the position for 20 seconds, relax and repeat for three repetitions. Then switch sides.
