Follow Up: Good Posture Exercises For Extra Health Benefits

It’s time for a follow up to my post on the benefits of good posture with good posture exercises! I realized it’s silly to tell you about how awesome good posture is, but not tell you how you can help it. So, here are a few exercises to try for encouraging and maintaining a healthy posture.

Good Posture Exercises:

Shoulder Rolls. Standing straight up, roll both shoulders forwards, up, backwards and down in circular motions. Good posture exercises like this one help you one open your chest and keep your shoulders back for a nice, tall, open stance.

Neck Stretch. Good posture exercises increase your range of motion and allow the muscles to relax. Stretching your neck is really great because you can usually feel the stretch all the way down the spine. Stand straight up with shoulders back and drop your chin to your chest as far as you can, relaxing as you drop. Hold for ten seconds, then bring chin all the way back up to tilt the head back just barely. Return to neutral, then drop the right ear to the right shoulder. Come back to neutral and drop left ear to left shoulder. I like to repeat this one 2-3 times, depending on how awesome the stretch feels.

Round Open On Knees. Many yoga poses are intended as good posture exercises. If you do yoga, this exercise will be familiar. Get down on all fours, then open the chest, arch the back and press your chin to the air. Slowly switch to a rounded back pushed high with chin down and bum tucked under. Practice big, deep breaths and smooth movement while you do this exercise.

Strengthen Core. Exercises that strengthen the abs are also good posture exercises because the abs support the spine and allow you to stand tall. I recommend doing lots of sit ups and plank holds. :)

Strengthen Back. Since strong abs are good for posture, the back muscles need to be strong too. Back muscles support the back and balance out the strength of the abs. Kneel on all fours, reach right arm straight out in front and left leg straight out behind and hold for 10 seconds. Switch and hold with left arm and right leg. This is great for both strengthening and stretching the back, two in one!

These good posture exercises are great to help maintain healthy, normal posture. If you experience any extraordinary pain during any of these good posture exercises, go see a professional. If you think you might have a very specific posture issue, a chiropractor or doctor can help determine what exercises are best to help correct your posture. I hope you are able to enjoy all the benefits of healthy posture with these basic exercises!