How to Improve Your Posture

Let's be real: the conditions of the modern workforce aren't exactly conducive to good posture. While constantly slumped over our computers at the office and squinting at our smartphones on our commutes, our spinal alignment has taken a serious hit. The good news? There are things you can do about it.

According to Dr. Rahul Shah, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon, the habits that are most likely destroying your posture involve holding your head out of alignment with your pelvis. When this happens, it causes a vicious cycle of issues. The back muscles have to work harder to bring the head back in line, which then causes the muscles to fatigue, causing the head to become even more out of line.

“Nowadays, we have many reasons for this cascading effect in our technology-driven lives,” he explains. “It can be from being on our devices to sitting craned forward while at a desk.”

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Having good posture can make you appear taller and more confident — both of which make you more attractive. But of course, slouching or slumping doesn’t just affect your appearance — it can also lead to a slew of health problems, including:

• Neck, shoulder, and back pain
• Spine fragility
• Muscle tension
• Decreased flexibility
• Digestion difficulties
• Reduced circulation

Fortunately, it is fixable. Here are Shah’s top tips for improving your posture once and for all.

Make Time for Cardio

“One of the best ways to maintain healthy posture centers around maintaining an active lifestyle, which primes the muscles to assume their optimal posture,” says Shah. “A lack of physical activity, in and of itself, will culminate in fatigued muscles and poor posture.”

It’s also worth mentioning that exercise can help with weight loss, which can sometimes help improve posture. That’s because according to Shah, having any excess weight (especially near the abdomen) can pull the body forward and cause increased fatigue on the back muscles to keep you upright.

Shah recommends starting by participating in aerobic activities like running, rowing, cycling, or swimming several times a week.

“These all work to send blood flow to the large muscle groups in our body,” he explains. “By increasing the blood flow to all muscles, the muscles will assume a more natural posture and be primed to adapt to the day's different demands while remaining resilient.”

As a general rule of thumb, Shah says you should aim to achieve 60-80% of your target heart rate for 20 minutes during these cardio sessions.

Try Yoga or Pilates

You can’t beat yoga and Pilates for increasing muscle flexibility and endurance, because they require you to hold postures for extended periods of time. As a result, Shah says they help your body build up muscle memory that can then be replicated in your everyday movements.

“Both yoga and Pilates have an added advantage in that many of the poses work to loosen the hip flexor muscles,” he adds. “The hip flexor muscles tend to be overactive and tight in our sedentary lives. We tend to contract these hip flexor muscles when we sit, bend forward, or lean forward. With yoga and Pilates, the individual maneuvers of opening up the pelvis work to elongate these hip flexor muscles and thus allow for more natural alignment of the head over the pelvis.”

To get started, try searching “yoga for posture” or “Pilates for posture” on YouTube and check out one of the many free video tutorials.

Switch It Up

Sitting or standing in the same position for long periods is one of the worst things you can do for your posture, according to Shah, because it can contribute to muscle fatigue. As a result, he highly recommends changing your posture every 20-30 minutes or so.

This change can be as simple as just getting up from your desk to take a walk to the bathroom, water cooler, or around the office or house.

Whenever possible, it can also be helpful to gently stretch your muscles every few hours to help relieve any muscle tension.

Optimize Your Working Space

There are several steps you can take to help support your posture goals at the office.

“To limit back pain when working from home, it's essential to ensure one is not slouching over the laptop or phone,” explains Shah.

Ideally, when looking at a screen, Shah says you should be holding your head at a 10-30 degree downward gaze to maintain an optimal neck posture. If you work seated at a desk, make sure to find a comfortable and ergonomic chair with appropriate cushioning. Adjust it so that the desk surface is at torso level, with your knees and hips bent at about 90 degrees and feet firmly touching the ground.

“In an uncomfortable chair, the head is often out of line with the pelvis in terms of the way it sits with gravity,” Shah says. “The body is constantly working to bring the head in line with the pelvis to keep one from falling. When the body is overworking, the muscles will, in turn, fatigue a bit faster. A vicious cycle can then ensue.”

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Lastly, avoid craning forward at the pelvis or shoulders while working.

Be Mindful

The best way to improve your posture is to start paying attention to how you’re sitting and standing.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while sitting:

• Make sure your feet can touch the floor, and if your chair height doesn’t allow for that, try a footrest
• Keep your shoulders relaxed
• Avoid crossing your legs
• Keep your ankles in front of your knees
• Use a chair with an ergonomic backrest, or use a back pillow for support
• Make sure your chair has a well-padded seat
• Keep thighs and hips parallel to the floor
• Keep elbows close to the body, at a 90-120 degree angle

And here are some tips to heed while standing:

• Keep your shoulders back
• Put most of your weight on the balls of your feet
• Keep your head level as much as possible
• Imagine an invisible string is attached to your head, gently pulling you tall and upright
• Keep your feet shoulder-distance apart
• Allow your arms to hang naturally at your sides
• Lock your core

Use Posture Correctors Sparingly

Posture correctors have exploded in popularity in recent years as a seemingly simple fix for slouchers and slumpers — but Shah warns that you should be cautious and mindful of how much you rely on them.

“This is a somewhat tricky intervention,” he says. “While posture correctors can help achieve the immediate goals of holding the head over the pelvis, they can also predispose to wearing out the muscles that are integral to bringing the head in line with the pelvis.”

As such, Shah recommends only using posture correctors for less than one hour daily. Don’t expect immediate results with these strategies, and keep in mind that consistency is key. However, if you regularly switch up your position, stay active, and optimize your working space to support your back and minimize muscle fatigue, all of those combined efforts will surely pay off. And if you’re having trouble correcting your posture, particularly after an injury or surgery, a physical therapist or chiropractor may be able to help.

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