Posture????

I am 24yo 5'11'' 155lbs so I am fairly tall and thin. I have somewhat of a bad habit of slouching :( . My whole family has it and it has started to round the backs of the older people in my family. I would like to break the mold of my family and start standing up straight. I have such a hard time remembering to stand up striaght when I am not starring in the mirror. Does anyone know some good exercises, stretches, techniques, tricks that I can do to start imporving my slumping posture? Anyone know something I can do to remind myself to sit/stand straight?

Thanks for the help
 
Just remember that slouching is a.) unattractive, and b.) detrimental to your health in the future.

LOL

But really, I would start doing some plank exercises (holding an upright pushup position for as long as possible is a good start) and if you have access to weights, I would be doing deadlifts, squats, bent over rows, power cleans, as well as various pressing exercises. Squats, rows, deadlifts, and powercleans because these are exercises that you need to have good posture in mind at all times. Bending back while trying to clean is just as bad as bending your spine doing deads and squats.

Bench pressing will develop your chest so you're more prone to show it off by pulling your shoulders back and expanding your chest out, LOL.

But, if you don't have access to weight equipment, definately work on your core. When you breathe, remember to breathe with your diaphram. Good posture should follow.
 
BACK EXERCISES:

I have been doing these and i tell ya it's impossible NOT to stand straight. or sit straight. or run straight. or eat striaght. watever.

-DEADLIFTS and HYPEREXTENSION work out your erector spinae. THIS MUSCLE will FORCE you to keep your back straight whether you LIKE IT OR NOT BITCH. Don't over do it or else you will be a paralized idiot for the rest of your life.

-Bentover rows: This workout is like orgasm for your back muscles. It is good practice at keeping back stragith too cuz u gotta have it straight when you do the exercise. Recommended you don't do this when you workout ur erector spinae.

GOOD LUCK!!
 
Also tightening ur abs wen u work out helps, i read in men's health magazine that u can imagune ur head trying to be as close to the ceiling as possible. if u work out with a good posture ur body will use the same posture wen not at the gym. doing spine stretchin on the that use ball u seee at the gym helps as well
 
The exercises mentioned above definately do help, im 6'4 and have had bad posture forever, but slouching (at least standing) is pretty much gone after strengthening my back alot, though i have the habit of not having my neck straight up, thats a whole nother posture problem though and I gotta find someway to fix that too.
 
if your already having one of those round backs or a slouching posture
you should consider correcting it first before strengthening them

in most cases the shoulder is where all the problem begins
so try keeping your chest out and shoulders firm behind and relaxed

you could try this exercise
pinch your shoulders behind and compress you back muscles
this helps with rounded backs

do this regularly and you could see improvement in your posture
also strenghtening the back muscles and the abs can be very beneficial as mentioned above
 
about the shoulder thing, wont strenghtening the trapz, which are kind of behind the shoulders help keep the shoulders back natrually?
 
Karky said:
about the shoulder thing, wont strenghtening the trapz, which are kind of behind the shoulders help keep the shoulders back natrually?

any strengthening of the back imo is good for long term posture developments

the exercise i mentioned in prev post is to correct the roundness of the back
generally the shoulders droop downward in many people therefore correcting this problem prevents any further problems in the future
 
Hey thanks alot guys for all the feedback, I am definately not ignoring my back while at the gym, so hopefully I can start to feel a difference with my posture in the weeks to come. I am going to atleast for now force myself to stand tall at the gym and hopefully that will work those muscles into remembering when I am not constantly thinking about it. My main problem is that I work in front of a computer 8 hours a day and I slouch horribly during the work day.
 
I sure do, but the problem is when I am working on a computer, it is more comfortable for me to slouch forward and type than to lean back in my chair. After years of slouching, my back is not used to being straight and it is hard for me to hold my back upright for long periods of time.
 
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