Online Posture Exercises to Improve Posture

As we get older, bad posture becomes a problem for many people. This isn’t just a cosmetic issue. Our posture influences the alignment of the spine and this in turn affects our overall health of your body. New research is indicating that good posture is important for staying healthy throughout life. The spine is the central channel of the nervous system, and for people with bad posture, a hunched back, or forward head posture, the flow of nerve information and vital is impeded, as is breathing, and the ability to move freely.

The good news is that it’s never too late to improve posture. No matter what your age, your body can always change, as long as you take the necessary steps to correct posture. For this, corrective posture exercises are particularly helpful; in addition, wearing a posture support brace throughout the day can be a helpful reminder to correct posture and help you dump the slump.

Improving Posture Can Help You

Feel Better. People with a good posture and a healthy, strong back are often happier, more confident, and have more energy; they may even be less prone to worry, depression, and anxiety.

Prevent Chronic Pain. Correcting posture imbalances often offers effective prevention and treatment for back pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain by releasing chronic tightness in the muscles of the back and neck.  

Live Longer. With advancing age, bad posture may develop into a hunched back, also referred to as hyperkyphosis or dowager’s hump. Research has shown that elderly with hyperkyphosis are more prone to fractures and they more likely to lose balance and functionality as they get older. A seriuosly hunched posture puts pressure on the rib cage and restricts breathing, creating shortness of breath. In the elderly, shortness of breath is associated with numerous health issues, including increased anxiety and depression, and it is considered a main factor in the overall health deterioration in elderly. One research study found that older men and women with a hyperkyphosis, i.e. a forward hunched posture, had higher death rates; as much as 44% higher.

Yoga Exercises Can Help Improve Bad Posture 

Corrective posture exercises will not just help you prevent back, neck and shoulder pain and joint stiffness. As you increase the health of the back, strengthen the core posture support muscles, and improve the alignment of your spine, the health of your entire body will benefit. As nerve information flows more freely through the central channel of the spine, you will experience more energy and vitality and greater well-being.

Research has shown that therapeutic yoga exercises can help improve posture and overall back health. Yoga improves posture by increasing flexibility and strength, and by creating greater body awareness and a greater sense of alignment and correct posture. Yoga exercises don’t just improve posture, they are soothing and wonderful to do and offer relaxation and stress management as well.

Online Posture Exercises to Improve Posture

Best Corrective Posture Exercises to Improve Posture

It’s important to take steps early to improve posture to prevent bad posture from develop into the hunched back of hyperkyphosis, or dowager’s hump.

Particularly useful to improve posture are yoga poses that strengthen the core posture support muscles and also target the muscles and joints most affected by bad posture, including shoulders, spinal erectors, abdominals, and neck. It’s difficult and cumbersome to do corrective posture exercises from a book. Instead, we have created a downloadable series of yoga exercises to improve posture. The gentle exercises in these sequences can help restore strength and fluidity to the spine, while counteracting bad posture and a hunched back.

The Healthy Back, Healthy Body Program

For best results, try this 3-part series of corrective exercises from the Healthy Back, Healthy Body program designed to reverse the early stages of hyperkyphosis. The program consists of three 20-min. download yoga practices to delivered weekly for three weeks. The sequences include:

Week 1. Heart Opening. A soothing and relaxing heart and chest-opening sequence, which helps improve posture and reverse forward head posture.

Week 2. Core Integration. This core integration sequence of yoga exercises lays the foundation for better posture by building a strong foundation of core posture support and correcting posture alignment.

Week 3. Back Strengthening for Posture Support. This sequence of gentle yoga backbends helps improve posture by strengthening the main posture support muscles of the back.

 Healthy Back: Yoga Exercises to Improve Posture

Click here to download Healthy Back: Yoga Exercises to Improve Posture

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While we tend to think of forward posture, osteoporosis, hyperkyphosis (back hunch), and other such health issues as concerns for the older generation, the truth is, the habits that define our long-term structural health start when we’re young.

Kids in this day and age have many advantages that previous generations of children didn’t; however, when it comes to posture, our kids also have an extra burden to bear.

Physical therapists recognize that computers and heavy backpacks are two of the leading culprits when it comes to our children’s poor postural health. While it may be easy to dismiss concerns over slumping computer posture and improper backpack wear, bad posture is more than just unattractive: in 2007 alone, approximately 20,000 kids visited a doctor or ER due to back pain caused by heavy backpacks.

With a new school year at hand, now is the time to start establishing the corrective posture that will protect your child’s back for years to come. Here are 9 tips to help you and your child improve posture and ensure a healthy back:

1.    Wear both backpack straps. Using both backpack straps will help distribute the weight of the pack evenly, preventing asymmetrical stress and muscular strain.

2.    Tighten the straps.  The backpack should sit along the middle and upper parts of the back. Wearing a backpack too low can cause the spine to arch unnaturally and certain muscle groups to strain.

3.    Use the waist-strap, if the backpack comes with one. The waist-strap helps to distribute the pack’s weight more evenly.

4.    Monitor pack weight. Kids should never carry more than 10-15% of their body weight on their backs. This means that if your child is 80lbs, her or she should carry no more than 8-12 lbs of textbooks at any time. Research has shown that any more than this will place excess stress on the neck, shoulders, and back.

5.    Minimize. Schedule a regular time to sort through the backpack and eliminate unnecessary items that may be contributing to the bag’s weight.

6.    Classroom textbooks: ask teachers if they can keep in-class textbooks so that the kids can leave their textbooks at home, instead of shuffling them back and forth. Some parents may want to consider purchasing a second text book for their child when necessary.

7.    Internet textbooks: if an in-class text is not an option, sometimes textbooks are available online. In this case, children can leave their textbooks at school and use the online version at home. Which brings us to…

8.    Develop healthy computer posture. There are several tips to help establish corrective posture for at the computer, which can be viewed here: corrective posture exercises. With the hours today’s children spend in front of the screen, it’s more important than ever to improve posture when at a computer or desk.

9.    When needed, consult a PT. If your child complains of pain in their neck, shoulders, or back, consult a physical therapist. PTs can not only help figure out what the problem is, but they can also provide effective solutions and exercises to promote long-term structural health.

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The effects of bad posture go further than that, however. We’ve written elsewhere about the effects of one of the most common posture imbalances: forward head posture, which is the precursor of age-related dowager’s hump. However, there are many other ways in which poor posture affects your physical health.

One group of researchers, led by John Lennon, BM, MM. C. and Norman Shealy, M.D. put it this way:  “[We believe] that posture affects and moderates every physiologic function from breathing to hormonal production. Spinal pain, headache, mood, blood pressure, pulse, and lung capacity are among the functions most easily influenced by posture.
The most significant influences of posture are upon respiration, oxygenation, and sympathetic function. Ultimately, it appears that homeostasis and autonomic regulation are intimately connected with posture. The corollary of these observations is that many symptoms, including pain, may be moderated or eliminated by improved posture.” (See quote source below.)

Translation? Posture impacts all bodily functions, in particularly breathing and therefore whether or not the body’s cells get proper oxygen supply. Posture also affects the sympathetic function of the body, and thereby its ability to regulate its internal environment in response to outside changes.

To elaborate: The spinal cord is the central channel through which flow all the nerves of the central nervous system. The central nervous system, of course, is the central command center which coordinates the activity of all parts of the body.

The spinal cord houses the nerves, which carry messages between the brain and the rest of the body. The central nervous system is responsible for maintaining the homeostasis, or internal balance, of the body. Through the flow of nerve information back and forth, it monitors, detects, interprets, and responds to changes in the internal and external environment. The nervous system then responds by sending electrochemical impulses through nerves to muscles, glands, and other parts of the body needed to respond to changes in the external environment.

Osteopaths and chiropractors have told us for many years: structure impacts function.  Bad posture may impact the health of the body by hampering the function of the central nervous system—the proper flow of nerve information from the peripheral parts of the body to the brain. If the integrity of the spinal cord deteriorates due to poor posture, the integrity of the flow of nervous system information to the brain may be affected. Structure impacts function.

As the researchers further state: “Posture and normal physiology and function are interrelated. Abnormal posture is evident in patients with chronic pain-related conditions including backache, headache, and stress-related illnesses.”

The bottom line: Doctors of osteopathy and chiropractic have long maintained that structural imbalances put people at greater risk for functional imbalances, i.e. it increases the susceptibility to disease. The most common structural imbalance people face is bad posture.

The good news of course is that bad posture is also the structural imbalance over which you have the most control. The poor posture cascade can be reversed by taking steps to correct your posture.

Corrective posture exercises, posture support braces, and core strengthening activities are a great place to start—as is simply paying attention to your posture and bearing throughout the day.

Remember, bad posture is created moment by moment, predominantly by poor habits and weakened posture support muscles. Good posture is created moment by moment as well—by reversing your moment-to-moment posture habits and strengthening core posture support muscles, you will be able to gradually reshape and improve your posture.

Source: John Lennon, BM, MM, C. Norman Shealy, MD, Roger K. Cady, MD, William Matta, PhD., Richard Cox, PhD, and William F. Simpson, PhD, American Journal of Pain Management, Vol. 4, No. 1, January, 1994

Download Corrective Posture Exercise video for increased posture support strength:

Click here to buy Posture Strength

Great Posture Brace to Reverse Forward Posture and Rounded Shoulders:

Click here to buy Body Rite Posture Pleaser

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