6 Tips For Fighting Bad Posture: How To Make Sure You Don’t Slump Down And Lose Inches From Your Height As You Grow Older

If you are sitting on a chair and reading this, you have to read this right through. A slumped back, hunched shoulders and waistlines that jut out and keep spreading are the bane of office workers across the globe. Bad posture is not just ugly its implications on your health are just plain dangerous.

Why Is Bad Posture Terrible For You

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• With bad posture, your rib cage starts pressing down on the major organs – giving them less space to function.

• Your waistline gains a few inches because of that

• And you lose a few inches from your height

• Your stomach will jut out and dieting won’t help

• You’ll suffer from back aches which won’t go away easily

• Flexibility is reduced and one shoulder tends to be higher than the other

• You’ll become injury prone because of poor posture.

• According to some science, bad posture also leads to having more negative thoughts.

• Worst of all, you’ll never feel fresh and rested even after you wake up from a good nights sleep

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But, and here is the big BUT, you can’t correct bad posture by just sitting up straight. You just can’t. All you will achieve is an unnatural looking posture, a stiff(er) back, tense neck and shoulder muscles and that’s as bad as a slumped spine.

Six Tips To Rectify Your Bad Posture

The answer to bad posture is stronger muscles. A regular dose of flexibility and strengthening exercises are all you need to start with. Here are 6 tips that will help you cultivate better posture habits and build muscle strength and flexibility:

1.Audit Your Posture Everyday: Start each day by paying attention to you spine and your posture. Stand in front of a mirror, distribute your weight evenly on both feet and check to see if your shoulders are too hunched or drawn up. Is your head tilting to one side? Note that the stomach gets pulled in and the neck doesn’t droop forward.

2. Posture Tips While Standing: When at ease, you should feel no tension or pull along your shoulders, neck, pelvis or knees. Keep this in mind as you go through your day. When you get up for a break, stretch a bit and take a few deep breaths. Let your shoulders loosen up. If most of your work is done standing up, try not to rest your weight on just one foot. Keep your feet slightly apart and distribute your weight equally. Or place a box in front of you, slightly larger than a shoe box, and rest one foot on it at regular intervals. This takes the stress of your back for a while.

3. Posture Tips While Sitting: In the office, get yourself a proper chair that gives your back enough support. Uncross your legs, or you would be tilting to one side for hours without realizing it.

4. Quick 3 Second Posture Hack: Every few minutes roll up your shoulders till they almost touch your ears. Combine this quick exercise with a short routine in which you bring your elbows to touch each other.

5. Fix Your Posture And Build Strength With Yoga Focus on strengthening your abdomen, lower back, hips and buttocks. Yoga is good for flexibility and strength. Especially the posture called, “The Plank Pose”. It’s easy to do and there are many variations.

6. Lift Weight To Build Strength Go to the gym and start lifting weights to build your strength and fix your posture.