3 Easy and effective exercises to improve your posture

Hey Team,

I thought I would touch on something that I feel I talk about on the daily with clients and patients...Posture.

In this day and age of computers and smart phones, more and more everywhere you look you are bound to see someone with rounded shoulders and forward head like this

or like this



So much of our daily activities require us to work with our arms out in front of us like typing, driving, or writing. Over time we begin to slump which rounds our shoulders and places our head in a forward position, the longer we stay in this position our postural muscles become weaker and chest muscles become tighter rounding our shoulders more.

Over time we may begin to develop shoulder pain, neck pain, or even headaches as a direct result of this muscle imbalance.

Well I have a cure for you.....it's not in a pill or magic potion though, it's actually good ol consistent work on your part to correct the issue.

3 easy and effective exercises that you can do anywhere to begin to correct this muscle imbalance and start improving your postural awareness.

1. Doorway Stretch- This is a very effective stretch to decrease the tightness in your pecs, do it daily.

Position yourself in a doorway from a wheelchair position or standing, put your hands on the frame of the door as pictured and lean into the doorway until a comfortable stretch is felt.

Hold for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.

2.  Scapular Retractions

From a seated or standing position, position your arms 90 degrees at your side. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, sticking your chest out and return to start position.

Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions each with a 2-3 second hold on the squeeze.

3. Scapular Wall Slides

This one is definitely not as easy as it looks.....

Position yourself against a wall, pull your wheelchair so that it is completely against the wall.

Place your head, shoulders, and bottom against the wall. Now position your arms in a W position as pictured.

Keeping all of the above points of contact (head, shoulders, and bottom) as well as the back of your hands on the wall as you slide from a W position to a Y position.

Perform3-5 sets of 10 repetitions.

As mentioned earlier, the above exercises are extremely effective in decreasing tightness and improving postural awareness, it won't happen with just 2 times or even 5 times of performance. This is something that you have to be consistent with in order to begin to see the effects shine through.

Think about it, your at your work desk for 8 hours of the day on the computer...that's 8 hours of forward rounded posture, just 4 times of completing the above exercises is not going to cut it.

Be consistent, do it daily. They are quick and easy and can be done anywhere, start improving your posture today.

Try them out right now and tell me what you think, and yes that handsome devil in the first pic is me doing my doorway stretch in case you were wondering.

That's all for now,

Keep Fighting, Never Give Up!

-Devon

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