Many office workers spend hours a day slumped in their seats. Overtime, this leads to weakness in some muscles and tightness in others.
I am talking specifically about this common posture:
When in this posture, the upper back muscles are stretched out and relaxed. The chest muscles are tight and shortened.
Simply remembering to sit up straight is a step in the right direction. Yet, this is not the best solution. Yes, overtime, if you sit with perfect posture, your posture will improve.
But just as it took months and years for you to develop bad posture, it might take months and years of your conscious effort to correct this postural deficit.
Thus, a better solution will be to incorporate exercises, which you can do at home, to strengthen the muscles that have weakened overtime. By using exercises to correct your posture, improvements will come faster.
As I have already mentioned earlier, the muscles that weaken the most when adopting a bad posture is the upper back muscles.
In this article, I give you three exercises you can do at home.
The First Exercise is this, Resistance Band Pull Apart.
It strengthens the upper back muscles. To do it, take a resistance band and stretch it out.
See the image below:
Starting Position:
Hold the resistance band as per the position above. It should be about chest level and your arms should be almost straightened. Also, take note that your grip of the resistance band is just like mine, i.e. your thumbs point outwards.
Ending Position:
Slowly stretch the resistance band outwards. Go slow through the movement. Hold the end position for 3 seconds before slowly returning to the starting position. All movements should be slow and controlled. This is 1 rep.
If your posture is bad, I recommend doing 3 sets of this exercise a day – once before you leave home in the morning, once when you get home, and once an hour before you sleep.
Try to build it up to about 25 reps. If you can do 25 reps, consider getting a tougher resistance band if you posture is still not improved.
The Second Exercise is a stretch. It is a Thoracic Spine Stretch.
This part of the spine gets very tight if your posture is hunched forward.
The Starting Position:
Kneel by your bed and place your elbows on the bed. Let your fingers touch one another. Try not to arch your lower back too much in this stretch.
Ending Position:
Move your upper back downwards. Follow the arrow pointing downwards.
Next, avoid hitting your head into the bed. Let your head go down and not be obstructed by the bed. At the same time as you do this, try to open your hands as far as you can. Hold for 20 seconds and do two sets of this daily.
If you want a deeper stretch, get a partner to gently push your upper back down. Exhale as the partner pushes. Note: GENTLE!
The Third Exercise is a Chest Stretch.
This is a very generic chest stretch that you have likely done before. Nothing much to explain here. Do it for 20 seconds for 2 sets on each side daily.
Conclusion
These exercises can be done in the comfort of your own home. I know I recommend doing them daily. Yet, if you find yourself not able to, doing them twice or thrice a week should also help.
There are other exercises and stretches that can help with posture. In fact, they can be quite comprehensive. I have listed the easier ones to do so here. Do these exercises and give it some time, your posture is likely to improve!
Thank you for reading. Here is to a better posture. Cheers!
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