How this one exercise can help your posture

We all have to sit for long periods of time, some of us more than others but at certain points in our lives, all of us.

Sitting affects your posture in many ways, shortening of the quads and hip flexors tilt your pelvis like a bowl spilling water out of your belly button, in turn to counter act the anterior tilt, you shift your pelvis forward to try to get back to a neutral position. While this works to address the tilt, it puts a good bit of work on the muscles of the back side of the body causing them to shorten. And because our spine is like a slinky, we can’t shift our pelvis forward without having a counter movement in the spine above the hips. This leads to to a rounding of the upper back and a neck that juts out.

How do we start to fix these things? Standing in neutral practice.

When I first started standing in neutral practice, I found the hardest part was remembering to practice.  I would find myself slipping back into a bad posture and then suddenly remember and get to work.   The more you can practice the technique, the more you will find your old posture habits uncomfortable.  If you are unsure that you are doing this right, feel free to take a snapshot of your practice and send it to me!

Check out this video to help.