Getting a good posture might not seem important, but it’s one of the healthiest ways to get rid of back pain and increase your muscle strength. Over time, because of several bad habits like slouching over a computer all day or staying glued to our screens for a major part of the day, our postural muscles have weakened and many of us struggle with bad poture.
To get rid of the bad habits and find healthier and more sustainable ways to get good posture, this article discusses a detailed step-by-step guide you can implement right now to embrace good posture in your life. The 30-day steps have been scientifically proven to result in good posture, so you can start them from today and see the changes it brings to your life.
1. Check your posture
According to this post by Healthline, here’s how you can do a posture check:
- Stand with the back of your head against the wall and place your heels 6 inches from the wall. Your shoulder blades and butt should be touching the wall.
- Measure the space between your neck and the wall, and the space between your lower back and the wall. There should be less than 2 inches between both spaces. A larger gap indicates impaired posture.
2. Do poses that help you have better posture
Some exercises help lengthen and stretch your spine. Since it is used to slouching after years of bad posture, these exercises done in sequence will help you improve your posture.
- Child’s pose: Get on all fours and crawl forward on your hands and extend your arms straight out toward the front of the mat. Lower your hips so your torso is touching your thighs.
- Standing forward and hold: Bend down and touch your toes keeping your back straight.
- Cat cow: Get on all fours. Tuck in your abdomen while looking up at the sky. Then, loosen your abdominal muscles and look below. Keep alternating for a few reps.
- Chest stretch: Stand straight with feet shoulder-width apart and stretch your arms behind your back, opening up your chest.
- Standing cat-cow: The same as the cat-cow, but instead of being on the ground on all fours, you’re standing up with your hands on your knees.
3. Strengthen your core
Strengthening your core is a great way to have good posture as your core muscles connect your upper and lower body. There are multiple benefits of having strong core muscles, including enhanced balance and stability, good posture, and less chance of developing back pain.
You can learn from the experts at Better Humans how to develop core strength to get a good posture.Get strong, lean abdominals by doing shorter workouts twice a day.
I dropped my waist size from 32″ to 28″ almost exclusively with this 2x exercise plan designed to strengthen my core.betterhumans.pub
4. Start standing while working
Investing in a good standing desk can be a great way to proactively work on your posture. If you don’t have a standing desk, you can always stack cardboard boxes and books on top of your desk and convert them into a standing desk.
5. Hold your cellphone at eye level
One of the major reasons why so many people have bad posture today is the way they are always facing their phone screens, their necks hung low, staring at their hands.
To counteract this bad habit without giving up your phone or restricting its usage, you can start holding your phone at eye level. This will help prevent neck pain and also give you a good posture, without the need to give up on the time you spend staring at your phone.
6. Start Yoga
As science has proved over and over again, Yoga is a great way to embrace fitness without working too hard or devoting too much time. You can follow the steps outlined in this post to incorporate Yoga into your life.
7. Be consistent
You’re starting something that you’ve never tried before. Don’t be inconsistent as it will be even harder to keep yourself accountable. Missing a day or two when something major comes up is alright, but missing entire weeks or months in the name of “not finding time” is not. Download a habit tracker to track your progress.
8. Don’t go into it all alone.
While it’s possible to start working towards a good posture alone, having an accountability partner makes it easier. This can be a friend or colleague with whom you decided to start the new habit together.
Or it can be a certified meditation coach who will guide you through the process and help you on days you feel like you can’t stick through with it on your own.