Portrait of a young woman at the desk with books on her head, sitting straight, reading a book. Education concept photo, lifestyle

Your mom was right when she kept telling you to straighten your back! Posture is fundamentally important to health and just as important as eating well, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly. Here at HFR, we believe good body language – such as posture – can improve physical and mental performance. Good posture makes you more disciplined and in control of your own lifestyle by making healthy and fit choices. Here are the Top 10 tips to improve posture:

Do Yoga and Pilates – Poor posture can lead to spinal complications such as a permanent hunchback or loss of bone strength. Yoga and Pilates can improve your posture with positions like the tree pose, downward facing dog, even a simple plank pose can do wonders.

Shoulder and chest exercises – One tip to improve your posture is to practice round shoulder and chest exercises. Sitting too long in one position can cause tightness in the chest region which can lead to poor posture. By practicing shoulder and chest exercises, it can loosen stiff muscles. A great and simple shoulder and chest exercise is to hold both arms out horizontally and swing them in a circular motion ten times for two rounds.

Uncross your legs – Crossing your legs can lead to spider veins. A correlation has also been shown between back and neck pain and crossing one’s legs. As most people know when your neck or back hurts the natural reaction is to slouch away the pain and put one in bad posture habits.

Pull back your shoulder blades – Your shoulders are the building blocks of your posture. By pulling them back, it allows free movement for shoulders to aid in straightening your posture.

Get up and move every so often – One way to improve your posture is to be active, it’s also a good idea to avoid bending forward too much or lifting heavy objects. This kind of stress on the back can stunt one’s posture. Great posture helps you prevent fatigue, as well as future back pain.

Be aware of your posture – Notice whenever you are slouching or sitting for a long period of time, it’s easy to forget to sit up. One must be aware of how they are sitting or standing. Take action and straighten your posture right away.

Do not slump when sitting or standing – Try not to slump over when having a conversation with someone, we tend to lean over when we are talking. This aligns the body poorly can lead to headaches, as well as shoulder, jaw and back pain, along with gastrointestinal and heart issues. This not only bad for one’s back but it also makes you look less professional.

Keep your phone in your hand when calling someone – When you talk on the phone, do not tilt your head or use your shoulder to elevate the device. This can mess up your shoulder blade and posture.

Try not to be overstressed – Stress can contribute to poor posture. Stress sends a negative receptor to the body, Cortisol actually weakens bones and over works muscle tissue which can make keeping good posture even more difficult. Try to minimize the amount of stress in your daily life and your posture will thank you.

Swim – Swimming is an all-around great way to help you strengthen your muscles because it’s such an intense activity. Swimming works all the glutes including the back region/core. By swimming, you are creating/stretching the core which is a great way to either correct your posture or maintain your good posture.