A couple weeks back, we discussed a few key points to good posture.  In today’s white collar world, many have found themselves somewhat permanently hunched over.  I say somewhat because with the tips we reviewed, anyone can achieve perfect spinal alignment.  Today, we’ll examine some of the best exercises and mobility drills for those looking to achieve ideal posture.

Shoulder dislocations are one of the best exercises when you want to start fixing your posture. Grab a broomstick, a smallish piece of PVC or an elastic band in both hands, starting with a wider than shoulder-width grip. Keeping your hands on the implement, rotate your arms overhead and behind you. As this gets easier and you do more sets, move your hands in closer.

Band pullaparts are another great exercise, and a good reason to choose a jumpstretch band as your next investment rather than a piece of PVC. Pipes and broomsticks are great, but you can’t pull them apart like you can with these durable elastic bands. Start holding the band just as you were during the dislocations. Bring your arms up, parallel to the ground, and while keeping the elbows straight, pull the arms back until your body makes a ‘t’. You can also pull the band apart overhead. Rotate your arms to point at the ceiling and pull the band apart. With these, try both straight arms, and also perform them like a pulldown or pullup, where you allow your arms to bend. With both overhead pullaparts, focus on keeping your shoulders pulled back and together (retracted).

I do this next exercise every morning shortly after waking.  I got it from a Steve Maxwell DVD, and it's super easy and effective.  Just reach your hands up high overhead.  I like to shrug a little bit to wake my traps up, and then you can let the shoulders come to a more 'relaxed' position with hands overhead.  Rotate your arms as though you were scrubbing the ceiling.  Try 10 rotations one way, then reverse and do 10 more.  Steve recommends that you do as many reps as your age, and judging by his incredible mobility, I bet he's onto something.

My favourite new exercise for shoulder mobility is the ‘no money’. Stand with your arms at your sides, then curl the forearms up as if you were holding a tray in front of you. With your palms facing up and your upper arms staying close to your sides, rotate backwards so that your hands swing around following your thumbs. You can add a band to this to increase resistance. I like to do them up against the corner of a wall or power rack, as the presence of the corner between my shoulder blades adds to my ability to ‘feel’ the movement.

Last but not least (for today, anyway) are ‘scorpions’. Lie on your face with arms outstretched (like a ‘t’, but on the ground). Swing your foot across the other side of your body and reach for the opposite hand. One swing of both feet/legs counts as one rep. You can vary your arm position (make a ‘Y’ or point down in a kind of ‘A’), and you’ll feel the stretch differently. This one’s great for opening up your chest, and I do it before every squat workout.

Start doing these mobility exercises every day for a while. You can do one or two of them when you get up from your desk each hour, and you’ll be amazed by the improvement in your posture. Stick with INNERLEVEL.net and watch your body transform!

We’ve all seen a guy who practically looks like he left a hanger in his shirt when putting it on. You know, the guy with a perfectly flat upper back, whose clothes all look custom fit. The secret to his swag is something that a lot of us need work on: posture. With most people spending at least a third of their lives hunched over a desk, it can be challenging to stand tall and proud with your chest up. Let’s look at some of the ways that we can go about ending our postural devolution back to cavemen.

1. First off, if you spend 23 hours a day in bad posture, then go to the gym and hope your one hour of power cleans is going to fix everything, you’ve got another thing comin’. However much you can shrug or row, it won’t matter if you spend the remaining 90%+ of your day in a less than advantageous position. So, as simplistic as it seems, the key to maintaining good posture is to . . . maintain good posture!

There are a bunch of ways to help with this, starting with getting an ergonomic chair. Now, you don’t have to buy a fancy Herman Miller or one of those crazy swiss ball chair thingies, but it’s well worth the couple hundred dollars invested in a chair that gives you excellent support. You’ll want something that provides lumbar support, allows your shoulders to stay back, flat against the chair, and maybe something with a pillow for your head. Taller people need to take care with most pillowed chairs, as they’ll find the pillow hitting along the shoulder blades and forcing them to round forward. Instead, look for chairs marked ‘big & tall’, and consider specialty stores.

Now that you’ve got the correct chair, remember to get up and stretch at least once every hour. We’ll be doing an entire article on shoulder alignment exercises and stretches soon, so check back for some more ideas. You might want to set a timer on your computer (Outlook ‘tasks’ can work well for this) to remind you at first, and then it will become natural. Taking five to ten minutes every hour to stretch and refresh your body by moving around and getting away from the screen will make you more productive overall. Another good idea I’ve used is to put coloured stickers around your office and home. Each time you see the sticker, you’ll remember to check your posture and correct it if necessary. Put ‘em on the fridge, beside your mirrors and other places you’re sure to look. Now that we’re more conscious of posture on a continuing basis, let’s consider some other tips and tricks:

2. Practice low bar squats. You already know how to squat, and the low bar form is great for opening the chest and keeping your shoulders back. Some people have a hard time assuming the form at first, because it requires a hard shoulder retraction and good mobility. You can use the low bar position to stretch out your chest and increase your awareness of the upper back. I will frequently load the bar with 100%+ of my 1RM and walk it out of the rack. This provides a nice stretch and helps my body to handle heavier weights whilst squatting. Holding a 1RM+ load for 30 seconds or so will make walking around with good posture feel like a breeze.

3. Balance your back and chest strength. Brahs love to bench, but you gotta keep it in check. Not only will pushing more than you pull leave you hunched over, but it will also stall your process in increasing your bench numbers. Make sure to do one pulling exercise like a barbell row or inverted bodyweight row for every bench/incline press variation so that the front and back stay balanced.

3b. Practice incline shrugs and trap dips. For incline shrugs, get an incline bench at 30 or 45 degrees (you can switch it up), and perform shrugs with dumbbells. Pull the shoulders back rather than up as in a standing shrug. This will strengthen your lower traps and help keep your shoulder blades back by balancing them with your chest strength, as will trap dips. Find dipping bars and hold them with your arms locked out. Keep your arms locked out through the whole set, and practice lowering yourself as much as possible, then shrugging the shoulders back and down hard to push your body weight up.

4. Alternate how you carry your bags. Many of us constantly tow briefcases, laptops and other bags, and this repeated load can result in postural imbalances. The simple answer is alternating sides. If you’re wearing something on both arms/shoulders like a backpack, ensure that your shoulders are in a good position. Get used to the feeling and avoid pulling your shoulders forward to pitch the center of gravity.

Now that we know a little more about how to stay in good posture, keep it locked to INNERLEVEL.net for more tips, including a whole series on shoulder mobility and flexibility.