Good posture is considered attractive, but more importantly, it’s an aspect of overall good health.
To feel well, be free of pain, able to move and remain active and do the things we want to do, posture and spinal stability are essential.
I was reminded of this recently … when I could barely move.
It was silly how it happened. I was wallpapering an accent wall in my son’s room, and when I bent down to slide his bed over a few inches, my lower back locked up. There was a brief spasm of pain, and then I was frozen. I stayed hunched in place for probably a full two minutes before slowly melting to the floor and very literally considering my next steps.
The injury was purely muscular, and I was back to normal within a few weeks, but it made me appreciate spinal health. I was lucky that the setback in my lifestyle and the project was brief (shoutout to my parents, who finished the polka-dot wall), but I want to avoid this kind of thing. It renewed my desire to actively work on building good posture, which has been feeling really good.
So, I thought you might want to get in on that, too.
As part of my initial healing, an orthopedic surgeon friend suggested I try Airrosti. It’s a healthcare group of trained chiropractors who purport to “fix pain fast … with no needles, surgery, or invasive procedures,” according to their website.
I hadn’t been before, but I went to an Airrosti office in Bellaire, and it worked so well that I went back for help with my chronically rounded shoulders, jutting forward head, and general slouch.
Dr. Alexander Escamilla showed me where and how to stretch and open and where/how to build strength. He says my issues are fairly typical.
“(I tend to see) tight pectoral and neck/upper back muscles. Once that’s corrected, we can then focus on strengthening neglected areas of support. These are the muscles that support good posture, like your midback muscles or deep neck flexor muscles.”
Escamilla says addressing all these areas and issues can “reduce your risk of injury, take stress off your bones and joints, and promote a healthy lifestyle.” Headaches, chronic back/shoulder/neck pain, even how well we’re able to breathe, are all related to the quality of our posture.
So, here are a few exercises to work on opening tight pecs and upper back muscles and strengthening the middle back and neck flexors. Grab a foam roller to give them a try.
Foam roll the thoracic spine
“Place a foam roller horizontally under your midback,” Escamilla says.
I think this feels best when I cross my arms in front of me, like I’m giving myself a hug.
Lift hips off the floor and bend and straighten your legs to gently massage your middle back (the back of your ribcage) against the roller.
“The goal is to reduce muscle tension and increase range of motion in the midback,” he says.
Thoracic release
This one is my favorite.
Place the foam roller horizontally under your middle back. Interlace hands behind your head. Tuck your tailbone to lengthen your low back, then recline your head and shoulders back over the roller. Keep tailbone tucked. Hold for 10 seconds, then return to the initial position and move the roller up a few inches (toward your head). Recline and hold again.
Do four to five rounds of this, incrementally inching the roller up bit by bit. For the final round, the roller should be toward the top of your shoulder blades.
Pectoral stretch ‘doorway stretch’
“While using a door frame or the corner of a room, place your hands and elbows on the wall while gently leaning your body forward. You should feel a light stretch across the chest. The goal here is to undo the tension that rounds your shoulders forward,” says Escamilla.
Cervical retractions ‘chin tucks’
I call this “the double chin.”
“Perform either sitting or standing in space. You will naturally let your head/chin drift in front of your body. Then you will use the muscles in the front of your neck to help retract your head (back). The goal is to bring your ears to sit on top of your shoulders.”
Escamilla recommends doing these exercises twice a day, for at least a few weeks. They only take a few minutes, and in my experience, they make a big difference. I could barely breathe the first few days of doing that thoracic release, but it actually feels really good now. It’s a lot less sticky, and I feel significantly more open and flexible.
Of course, there are a lot of factors that play a role in healthy posture.
“If (you have) a weak low back or core, then maintaining good posture while sitting or standing would be extremely difficult. Good posture is the product of an overall well-balanced spine,” says Escamilla.
But these exercises can help you start refining your posture and feeling more open. Definitely a stand-up cause.