Nothing Will Make You Look and Feel Young (or Old) Like Your Posture
Do you know what I’m doing right now … from a physiological perspective?
My forward head posture and slumped rounded shoulders are setting me up for neck problems, shoulder pain, knee and hip problems and inevitably lumbar disc degeneration… in other words posture that will make me look and feel far older than my chronological age.
This will be most people’s physiological fate … but it doesn’t have to be yours.
I will share the four steps I used to develop good posture habits to make you look and feel years younger in just a few weeks.
Poor Posture is Everywhere and Getting Worse
Whenever I’m at a mall or standing in line at a supermarket, I see people whose postures tend to defy their age.
I’ll see the hunched-over body of someone who I think would be in their later years, only to see that it’s a middle-aged person or perhaps someone even much younger.
Or I’ll see someone walking with a young child who I might assume is the child’s parent, but when I get close enough, I realize it’s actually the child’s grandparent, but their “perfect” posture belies their age.
We tend to associate poor posture with getting old, but old age and poor posture are quickly losing correlation in our world of cell phones and computer screens.
I see teenagers everywhere suffering from forward head posture, or what’s more commonly called text-neck. Their heads are bent over, their back and shoulders rounded and slouched.
In fact, the bent-over posture of a 50-year-old with a dowager’s hump has its seeds in the posture of a 15-year-old staring at a cell phone or computer screen for hours on end.
Most people with poor posture (which nowadays is just about everybody) don’t realize they have a problem. Our Smartphones, sitting habits and computer screens are destroying our posture and aging us prematurely.
Nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly rare to see someone with great posture, but when you do, you can’t help but notice how they move, how they carry themselves, and inevitably, how they look years younger than their chronological age.
Pain is a sign of tissue damage or some other malfunction in the body.
In fact, poor posture is a major cause of fatigue and stress, and it’s no wonder. Have you ever seen your posture while you’re texting? Chances are your head is jutted forward, and your shoulders are rounded and stooped.
The average head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds, and when we bend our necks forward 60 degrees … as many of us do to use our phones … the effective stress on our neck increases to 60 pounds!
In text-neck posture, every inch forward your head moves off your shoulders adds an additional ten pounds of pressure on the spine.
I had no idea my posture was so bad.
A couple of years ago, I was editing a video of a seminar I had just given, and I was shocked when I saw myself in profile; I had no idea that I had developed a severe case of Forward Head Posture or text-neck; I had the head posture of a vulture, only I didn’t know it … until I saw that video.
And that’s my point; most of us have no idea how good or bad our posture actually is. In fact, when I mentioned posture, you may have straightened up ever so slightly.
How often did we hear our parents tell us to stand straight or stop slouching?
So, what do we do? We straighten up for a minute or two, but before long, we’re right back to our rounded shoulders and forward head slump.
The thing is, our posture is primarily unconscious. Hence, the first step in developing better posture is to become acutely aware of it.
Now, to do that, you will need a reliable technique to help you become posture-conscious, so that you can retrain how you stand, sit, hold your head, and move your body … and you have to be able to do all that at a non-conscious level.
How to Reprogram Your Posture
Step One. Purchase a roll of bandage tape from your pharmacy, which looks just like this …
Step Two. Stand tall with perfect posture, shoulders back. While holding that posture, have someone place a strip of your bandage tape across your shoulder blades in your upper back area … just like this.
Step Three. Wear this tape under your shirt all day. Now, what happens is this; every time you stoop or round your shoulders, you will feel a little tactile pull from the tape, to remind you to straighten up and pull your shoulders back.
The beauty of this simple exercise is that you will be gently reminded all day long whenever you slip into poor posture.
How to Sit Correctly!
Sitting “correctly” is a habit we need to develop because, after all, we do it for hours and hours each day, so let’s make sure we’re doing it right.
Sitting Correctly
- Lower your back into your chair so that you’re neither overarching nor rounding your waist.
- Position your chair so that whatever you need to see is directly in front of your eyes.
- The idea is not to have to tilt your head up or down for an extended period of time.
- Imagine a string attached to your head pulling you upward as if you were a puppet.
Remember, for every inch your head moves forward, it increases the force on your neck and spine by 10 pounds, which, over time, will result in degeneration and wearing of your spinal discs and joints.
I use the following technique in my regular fitness program with great success.
When you go for a walk, wear your tape for at least a dozen sessions.
When you begin, pull your shoulder blades back so that you can run a straight edge from the back of one shoulder blade to the other.
Begin walking with your head high. Look forward to the horizon rather than down.
When you hold this position for the duration of your walk, you will quickly strengthen the muscles that have grown weak from poor posture.
You’ll find it surprisingly easy to hold this position for the duration of your walk. When you posture-correct yourself for a 45-minute walk, it won’t take long before this “good” posture becomes your new natural posture.
Good habits take time to form, just as bad habits take time to break. Wearing the tape will be a constant reminder whenever you slip into poor posture, and before long, you’ll develop a wonderful new habit of good posture.
Two Exercises that Will transform your posture and help you look and feel years younger
Contrary to common belief, aging doesn’t cause pain; in most cases, the pain results from a lifetime of neglect of our health, fitness and posture.
Most people have unconsciously developed forward head posture and rounded shoulders because of the time spent staring at computer screens and smartphones.
Here’s a fantastic exercise that has helped me fix my shoulder muscle imbalances because of my forward head posture.
EXERCISE NUMBER ONE: Band Pull Apart
The purpose of this exercise is to engage the muscles involved in external shoulder rotation, which is the exact opposite of what we do most of the day, which is, of course, internal shoulder rotation.
To do this exercise and to maximize your external shoulder rotation, take an underhand grip, and as you pull the band apart, the key is to lead with your thumbs.
As you do so, you’ll feel the muscles of your shoulder and rotator cuff working.
Another thing you’ll want to do is pull from a high to a low position, which will engage all the muscles in your rotator cuff. At the same time, you’ll begin to retrain the muscles that you haven’t been using if you’ve developed a forward head posture.
I love this exercise because it only takes a couple of minutes to do 30 reps or so (which is all you’ll need to do), and if you make a habit of doing this simple exercise EVERY DAY … like I have, you’ll re-strengthen those muscles that have gone dormant from forward head posture and rounded shoulders.
EXERCISE NUMBER TWO: The Dead Hang
To do this exercise, you’ll need a hanging bar. It’s worth the investment because the benefits are PLENTIFUL!!!
The dead hang not only decompresses and stretches out the spine, but it also strengthens muscles in the upper back, shoulders, core, forearms, hands and wrists.
To perform a dead hang, follow these steps:
- Use a step if you can’t reach the bar with your arms because you don’t want to jump into a dead hang.
- You want to grip the bar with an overhand grip with your palms facing away from you.
- Slowly let your arms hold the entire weight of your body.
- Keep your arms straight, and feel the stretch in your spine and core. (it feels sooooo good!)
The goal is to hang for a full minute. When you first start, try to hang for 5 to 10 seconds or longer if you can. Be patient; it may take a few weeks to reach 15 seconds or more. Practice this once or twice a day, and you’ll soon be there.
When you reach your limit, gently reabsorb your weight to your legs. Try to do 3 reps at a time, and be sure to do this every day.
Practice these exercises, and you’ll restore your youthful appearance in just a few weeks.
Conclusion
Invariably, I notice that I seem to be getting taller compared to people my age or older—people that I’ve known for many years, who used to be taller than me.
Obviously I’m not growing taller, but an erect posture – as this picture demonstrates – prevents a loss of height.
We live in a sitting society.
Sitting is the twenty-first-century posture, and staring at computer screens and cell phones for hours each day, combined with poor posture, takes its toll in the form of premature aging, poor posture and the epidemic of back pain.
If you develop really good posture, you’ll prevent or correct much of what ails so many of us … regardless of your age!