The Relationship Between Posture and Exercise

Many people slouch unintentionally, perhaps as a result of sitting throughout the day or a lack of regular physical activity.

However, poor posture is not an isolated incident. It’s often an indication of weak core muscles and further affects how well you retain form during exercise.

Long term, maintaining proper posture may help lessen the number of exercise-related injuries you experience and can support consistent progress with posture.

What Is Good Posture?

Standing up straight and tall, your weight sits right over your feet and keeps your body in balance. Ideally, your chin and shoulders should be parallel to the floor and your spine straight. As for the rest of your body, both elbows and hips should be even and your knees pointing straight ahead.

Core muscles, which connect your upper and lower body, are key to maintaining proper balance. When this area is weak, your upper body is more likely to fall forward. Hence, your shoulders hunch and the balance needed for good posture is thrown off. Having stronger leg muscles makes it easier to stand and remain in balance, while weaker upper back muscles may contribute to slouching.

Good posture involves more than standing up straight:

• Having a strong core affects how well you move and can help prevent back injuries. Good posture makes it easier to stand up from a chair, carry items, climb stairs and turn around.
• If your core is weak, the rest of your body has to compensate. This not only affects your core but may also lead to pain in other muscles.
• Disrupted balance can lead to injuries in tennis, running, dance, skiing, golf and weightlifting.

Factors Affecting Posture

While injury could be the cause of poor posture, more often than not it’s due to bad habits. For instance, working at a desk without proper breaks or looking down at your phone for long periods.

In fact, the average American adult spends about 6.5 hours sitting per day, based on data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Beyond these obvious factors, poor posture may be a result of:

• Insufficient support when you sleep
• Muscular imbalances
• Shoes with insufficient support
• Being overweight
• Occupational stress, often due to poor ergonomics
• Prolonged sitting

How Poor Posture Affects Your Body

Slouching or slumping is just one side effect of poor posture. There are other physical consequences:

• Because poor posture throws off your body’s muscles and bones, signals from the sciatic nerve cannot flow as freely. Over time, individuals may develop sciatica, characterized by pain along the back of the thigh, calves and feet.
• Poor posture places significant strain on the lower back muscles, especially the posterior chain. Long term, a weak core affects hip stabilization and extension, which limits your range of motion and can lead to a condition called hyperlordosis.
• Looking down at a computer screen or phone places a high amount of pressure on the surgical spine, shoulders and neck.
• Along with your muscles and nerves, poor posture affects how well fluids circulate through your body, including blood. Long term, poor circulation may lead to high blood pressure and cholesterol, varicose veins, deep vein thrombosis and can affect digestive and vascular systems.
• If you don’t work to correct the imbalances causing poor posture, this position could affect your movement while working out, leading to further muscle and joint damage.

While you can try to correct your posture with a supportive brace or reminders to stand up straight, exercise assists with strengthening your core and upper back muscles. In turn, you develop the strength to keep your body in balance and avoid slouching.

Exercises for Targeting Posture

Balance-related exercises assist with improving strength and loosening tight core muscles. Some routines include:

• Planks: Begin in a push-up position with your hands placed below your shoulders. Keeping your back and rear flat, pull in your abdominal muscles. Try to hold this position for at least 30 seconds.
• Medicine Ball Twists: Starting with a medicine ball in your lap, take your legs off the ground and place your weight on your tailbone. Rotate from side to side through your core, touching the medicine ball to the ground each time.
• Reverse Dumbbell: With a dumbbell in each hand, keep your feet shoulder width apart and bend slightly at the waist. Move your arms straight down and return the weights to shoulder height.
• Downward-Facing Dog: This popular yoga pose targets your calves, glutes, hamstrings and spine muscles. Once your hands are under your shoulders and knees hip-distance apart, lift your hips up and back, holding the position for at least three breaths.
• Hip Flexor Stretch: This exercise addresses muscle tightness and limited motion in the hips. Start in a lunge position with one knee directly below your hip and the other below your ankle. Hold for 30 seconds before switching sides.
• Foam Roller Bridge: Lying on your back with your arms out and palms up, place a foam roller beneath your heels. In this position, push your pelvis into the floor, reducing any space around the lower portion of the spine, holding your glutes and focusing on your legs. All the while, make sure the foam roller doesn’t move.

If you’re looking to improve your posture and physical performance, work with our team of Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialists to develop an individual routine.