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One of the major issues that we are facing today is deterioration of our physiques. Since the dawn of technology we’ve been sitting all day gazing at screens for hours together and wonder why we feel tightness and pain in our lower backs, knees and even shoulders, not ignoring the fact that poor posture looks horrible!
Most of our work is done in front of our bodies and rarely do we focus on what’s happening with our posterior.
Add to that the recent Covid-19 lockdown, it has stopped whatever 1% movement we used to do paving the way to further sitting and binge eating all day long.
All this leads to a bad posture, primarily seen as a rounded upper back( due to being glued to the computer screens all day) and a large inner curvature in the lower back with weak hips from sitting (leading to a pelvic tilt with hips and lower belly protruding out).
All of this coupled with a lack of time to be dedicated towards mobility and physios charging a huge lumpsum money worsen the cause.
The rounded upper back is a result of tight front muscles - namely chest and front part of the shoulders and weak back muscles.
Whereas the pelvic tilt in the lower part of our bodies is due to tight hips, weak abdominals and extremely tight hip flexor muscles (muscles that join the thighs with the upper body)
Know what to do !
Simple, you basically have to open up the front and strengthen the back.
In other words, to fix your posture, you need to stretch the tight muscles in the front of the body - chest, front shoulders, hip flexors and mobilize(free or release from tightness) the upper spine causing the rounded upper back.
You will also need to strengthen the smaller stabiliser muscles of the upper back and hip muscles to keep the spine in place.
The Mini Posture fix drill !
You will do two exercises for the upper body and two for the lower body.
Drill 1 - This exercise is called “Blackburns”
Lie face down on your stomach, feet on the floor and neck neutral.
From this position bring your hands behind your head palms down (like a prisoner). At this level, you will feel your upper back muscles contracting and upper spine(thoracic spine) loosening. You may hear weird cracking sounds of gases escaping from the joints but that’s ok.
From the hands-behind-the-head position, move your hands in a circular motion to behind the lower spine (palms up), not allowing them to touch the floor. This is one rep.
Repeat the motion by bringing the hands back behind the head (palms-up)
You can do these for 2 sets of 8-10
Drill 2 - Chest-Bicep-Front Shoulder Stretch against a wall
Stand at an angle against a wall and place your hand (which is on the same side of the wall) palms away and down on the wall.
Now slowly move tilt your body away from the wall while keeping your hand intact. Here, you will feel an intense stretch right from your inner forearms, your biceps, chest and front shoulders.
Stretching pains a bit, keep the tension on and breathe deep during the stretch. You will gradually relax into the stretch.
Do this for 2 sets of 15-20 sec each hand.
Drill 3 - Split Squat hip-flexor stretch.
Remember Hip-flexor muscle is located between the thigh and the upper torso on either side of the body.
Stand in a split squat or a static lunge position with knees at 90 degrees to the floor (you can use soft pad under your other knee which is on the floor if the floor is coarse).
From this position, raise your arm that is on the opposite side of the front knee to an overhead position.
From there gradually tilt your torso towards the opposite side giving the hip flexors a good stretch.
For an even intense stretch, simultaneously assume that both your front foot and back knee are pulling towards each other. This will also help you maintain the stretch without overextending your lower spine which is what we are trying to fix.
Do these for 2 sets of 15-20 sec each.
Drill 4 - Hip external rotation stretch
Find a bench or a chair that is just about knee level. Place one leg on it with an externally rotated hip. Knee could be anywhere between 30-45 degree. Your back leg should be relaxed and extended behind with knees bent.
Now gradually bring your chest over and above the leg lying on the bench. Basically lean into the stretch. You will feel an intense stretch in the entire hip and upper hamstrings.
Do not over push, lean as down as you can and build up to a full lean as your flexibility improves.
Start with 2 sets of 10-12 sec each leg and build up from there.
If you don’t have a bench/chair available, do this on the floor.
This entire mini drill will take around 8-10 minutes of your time and can be done anytime anywhere even when pressed for time. If you are busier or you feel that 8 min is again a challenge, break the drill in two parts and you can do one set of each drill in the morning and one in the evening as per your convenience.
If you are really facing a challenge with your posture and would like to improve your physique not just in looking good but also performing in the best possible ways in your day to day tasks and feeling more energetic and an inspiration to the society, follow @liftnwander on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube and keep exploring more content on www.liftnwander.com. There are thousands of different techniques to help you ease out of chronic pain and injuries and perform optimally.
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