Improving Your Posture

[surfsteve]

I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a thread on posture.

As I work out more and more I continue to loose weight and body fat but I've noticed that sometimes I look great and other times I do not. Particularly when I am feeling tired or even stressed. I know this is due to my posture. Sometimes it is good when I am not thinking about it and sometimes it's not. It's easy to have good posture when I am thinking about it but I'd like to be able to do it all the time. Even when I'm not.

A couple of days ago I started taking Holy Basil. It relaxes me but I've also noticed my posture has gotten much worse since I started taking it. It would be a shame to have to stop taking it for that reason. The only thing good about it is that it makes me aware that in some way posture may be related to diet.

I think there are also exercises you can do to improve posture. I've read that dead lifts are supposed to be good for posture. I've never done them. Maybe I should give it a try.

Posture seems to also be related to age but why does it have to be that way? My girlfriend's mom is only 15 years older than me and she is so bent over she needs to be propped up on pillows because she can't lay flat.

Exercise, conscious awareness, forming good habits and diet. I'm going to head off to google and youtube and see what I can find that will help me develop better posture and try to make it an unconscious habit.

[surfsteve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/28/good-posture_n_3983053.html

[surfsteve]

Surprisingly when I did a Youtube search on the word posture this was the first video that came up. It seems pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQqgf8kB6R8

[surfsteve]

Since I spend so many hours on the computer I thought maybe I should start out by improving my posture while using it. After watching this video I put it up a few inches higher but since it's a lap top I think I need to get an external keyboard now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnpHLxlj3fQ

[surfsteve]

I did some dead lifts at the gym for my first time today. Turns out I'm pretty strong in the dead lifting area. When I was done I thought to myself. Why haven't I been doing these my entire life? It worked out pretty good because I worked in with several other guys and they made sure I was doing them correctly. I also noticed that pretty much all of the guys doing dead lifts had pretty good posture compared to the rest of the guys in the gym and in general had much flatter stomachs. There were quite a few girls doing them too. I made sure to spend plenty of time checking out their excellent posture. Purely for educational purposes; of course!

Here is a pretty good video on weight lifting for posture that focuses mostly on dead lifts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ghzmmF_FA

[surfsteve]

I was always afraid to do dead lifts out of fear of hurting my back. I wish I hadn't let my fears concur me all these years. The main thing I think I need to do is concentrate on form and get it totally down before I start adding lots of weight. It would really suck if I over do it and made my fears come true.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWDznh9SHgA
Corrective Deadlifting

[surfsteve]

I have my computer propped up on books but till my external keyboard arrives I have to take it down to type. I really notice the strain on my neck when it's this low compared to up on the books.

[surfsteve]

Proper deadlifts are much harder to do than I realized. I had a few spare minutes while in town and hurriedly went to the gym to do some dead lifts. I used the same weight as before only I pulled something in my back. I thought I was going to be out of commission for a while but it feels a lot better this morning so I probably just over strained a muscle.


When I think back about what I did wrong I realize I was lifting my butt first and then straightening my back. It's supposed to be one solid motion. I think pausing to check form just before lifting it off the ground till the bar is under full tension is necessary but I was hurrying to get them done. A dead lift is supposed to be done with the legs not the back. Good think I didn't have too much weight on the bar or I could have done some serious injury.

It would really suck to hurt my back doing an exercise that is supposed to be helping it. Though that's what I sort of did anyway. I've noticed that when getting out of a chair I tend to round my back and not use my legs and core strength so I guess I've got some bad habits to break both in and out of the gym.

I'm hoping that it will be ok to use my sore back muscle to my advantage and practice deadlifting with minimal weight using only core and leg strength without activating my back muscles. I realize now that I should also be doing squat exercises which use different muscles that complement dead lifts and think about the proper form while I am sitting in a chair for hours on end.

Another thing I noticed was that a strained lower back feels much different than kidney pain even though they are both in the same general area.

[surfsteve]

I been doing deadlifts every day since I hurt my back Saturday, only taking the next day off. It seems to have made if heal faster than if I totally stopped lifting all together. It's only been a few days and I can't even tell I did it today. Still planning on going back into it gradually.

[political atheist]

i read that posture is regulated by thyroid and hormones... if your thyroid is healthy and hormones balanced your posture will improve dramatically on its own, without special exercises

[tding]

I read somewhere that Eastern spiritual types teach that we should stare at ourselves in the mirror for 5-10 minutes per day while standing with good posture.

[madnomad]

To improve posture I have found it is beneficial to sit and sleep more naturally. I try to avoid sitting on chairs other than when I absolutely have to, and preferably to prop the feet up so it's more of a squat. I usually sit on the ground/floor and I no longer sleep on a bed or mattress. I sleep on a thin yoga mat on the floor covered with a cotton sheet and use a small rolled up towel for a pillow. I would suggest checking out this article : Instinctive sleeping and resting postures by Michael Tetley. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/

[norawnofun]

I think the best way to fix a maligned posture is by going to an experienced chiropractic. This can fix many things very fast. A bad posture can have an effect on the whole body such as the organs, hips, knees, back, breathing and so forth. Once everything is back in it´s proper place one should then maintain that fix by exercising, proper sleeping, yoga and what not. If some bones are out of place or one leg is longer than the other no normal massage can bring that back in place imo.

[Onlymistert]

Happiness will improve posture. Sun gaze and sun bathe will help. Look up eric bugenhagen. Try deadlifting everyday. Dont do conventional every day but behind back, trap, romanian, zercher. Know ur body eat alot and warmup properly. Do some warmup sets and then do 1 full intensity set. 1-15 reps. Every day add weight and do as many reps as u can. When u get too fatigued to make any progress or if ur too fatigued to lift, switch the deadlift variation to a deadlift that compliments your biggest weakness. Or like a row or pullup or something, and do another cycle of adding weight every day til u cant make progress then go back to your favorite deadlift. conventional take too much energy to do everyday so id start with trap or behind back.

[Onlymistert]

Also do yoga everyday for posture. Best posture u can during the poses. Breathing exercises too. when i take acid my
Posture gets better. Acid is like serotonin. More serotonin=happier=better posture.

[political atheist]

Also do yoga everyday for posture. Best posture u can during the poses. Breathing exercises too. when i take acid my
Posture gets better. Acid is like serotonin. More serotonin=happier=better posture.

what do u mean when u take acids?

[Sol^Sa]

He means he is on drooogs. That's why he needs to detox for 40 years mb? It is ironic though when mystical, "spiritual" yoga people take acid. Kind of cliche. Only two cliche C words are missing, who can guess which one?


About posture I think if you are healthy your posture will follow. I had that experience myself. My posture declined after my health declined.

[Dwighthar]

That sounds almost too easy, Sol. Maybe there's a correlation, but that can't be the cause.