by Dr. Michelle Irwin

Posture is something that we should be aware of every day. Every time I say the word posture people straighten up and they can make it happen, but why do we have to be reminded all the time to make it a priority? Well, I remember when my posture wasn’t great, and it was hard on my muscles to hold myself upright and so I just slumped into the bad posture that they had grown accustomed to. What helped me turn it around was a regular focus on quality postural exercises and having my spine in the correct alignment, now I have grown accustomed to good posture and it actually hurts to sit with poor posture. I have also noticed that even trying to demonstrate poor posture to people has been uncomfortable for a while now.

Some of the simple exercises to work on right away are things to do daily and often.

Here are a few easy steps you can follow for the first postural exercise!

• First, start with sitting up on your sits bones or standing.
• Roll your shoulders back and down, shift your head back so your ears are over your shoulders, don’t work to give yourself a double chin but just pull your head back.
• Now, squeeze your elbows into your sides like you’re trying to hold a single piece of paper under each arm and hold this for about 30 seconds.

Make sure not to squeeze your shoulder blades together but feel the muscles under your shoulder blades activate. This will take pressure off your upper traps and activate your lower traps which have been stretched out by a slouched posture.

For the next exercise, you can follow these steps to help achieve a neutral pelvis:

• For this exercise, you have to be standing.
• Tilt your pelvis back and forth a few times and then find the mid-point of your motion.
• Hold this mid-point and that is your neutral pelvis, the point where your muscles on the front and back of your body are in equal tension and relaxation.

These two simple exercises are the start of good posture and are easy enough to do every day and anywhere. Try it out for a couple weeks and see the difference in how you look, feel, and heal. For more health and wellness tips, you can follow us on social media and check out our other blogs!