5 Exercises To Improve Your Posture

If you live a fairly sedentary lifestyle or spend most of your day sitting down chances are you have poor posture.

Poor posture puts you at a much greater risk of injury, comprimises your performanc ein physical activities and makes you look less youthful, confident and attractive than you actually are.

Here are some simple exercises which even if done for as little as 10 reps per day, will markedly improve your posture:

The push-up is a classic calisthenics exercise that everyone will be familiar with.

It is an excellent exercise for strengthening the supporting muscles around the shoulder girdle and also improving core stability.

If the basic push-up is too challenging then start on your knees or with your hands on a raised surface before progressing. If you get bored with the basic push-up there are tons of other more challenging variations out there.

This exercise dynamically lengthens the hip flexors, improves core stability and strengthens the VMO and gluteals

It will help reduce the likelihood of knee, hip and back injuries, reduce swayback posture and also improve jumping power and running speed.

This exercise is relatively unknown but an excellent one nevertheless.

It activates the lower trapezius muscle, which is underdeveloped in many people.

It will help reduce the rounded shoulders posture and likelihood of shoulder injuries and may also help improve your military press numbers.

The bird dog is another exercise that receives little attention, but one that everyone should be doing.

It will help activate and strengthen the gluteals, hamstrings and improve core stability.

It will help reduce the likelihood of knee, hip and back injuries, reduce swayback posture and also improve jumping power and running speed.

You've probably seen athletes and runners doing this one before.

This exercise dynamically lengthens the hip flexors and adductors which are often tight and immobile in most the population.

It will help reduce the likelihood of knee, hip and back injuries, reduce swayback posture and also improve running speed.

The simplest way to put this together is to do 10 reps of each upon waking and/or before going to bed and before exercising as part of your warm-up. That said the more you can do them the better i.e. if you can do a few exercises every hour between work or study breaks then you notice faster and greater improvements in posture.

The simplest way to put this together is to do 10 reps of each upon waking and/or before going to bed, as well as before exercising as part of your warm-up.

That said the more you can do them the better i.e. if you can do a few exercises every hour between work or study breaks then you notice faster and greater improvements in posture.