So many of us live chronically-hunched over lives—and our (collective) posture is proof. Whether you work a desk job or have a nighttime scrolling habit, it’s too easy to spend hours of each day straining towards screens.
Bad news: Just straining your head towards your phone at a 45 degree angle is equivalent to lifting 49 pounds. You can do the math: As most of us spend hours on our phones each day, this weight can really add up.
Experts even have a word to describe the chronic neck pain that we can develop from being hooked to our devices: “tech neck.” Unfortunately, bad posture can extend beyond just tech neck. It can cause headaches, back pain and breathing difficulties. Other unexpected side effects can include constipation, urinary incontinence, and heartburn or slowed digestion.
Maintaining good posture can help you appear more confident and decrease chronic pain, among other benefits. However, boosting your posture doesn’t necessarily mean standing up straight—there’s way more to it. For one, exercise can do wonders for your posture and the way you move through the world. We talked with obé instructor and mobility expert Adam D. to understand the benefits of better posture—and how to achieve it.
Bad Posture vs. Good Posture
While most of us have been told to “stand up straight” at one point or another, you don’t need to perpetually do so to have good posture. Living our daily lives requires mobility—while slouching isn’t going to help you reach the cereal on your top shelf, you will have to bend over to tie your shoes.
Issues pop up when we find ourselves stuck in one position more than others. In general, your posture is healthiest when your spine is neutral, your chin’s parallel to the floor, your shoulders are even and your body weight is distributed between your two feet.
Good posture reduces pressure on the muscles and joints. Straining your neck forward too much, the infamous tech neck, is a form of poor posture. People who sit a lot might develop a form of poor posture called swayback—which causes your pelvis and hips to tip forward.
Ultimately, the best way to assess the quality of your own posture is by how it’s making you feel, says Adam. “If there’s daily pain from the posture, I would say it needs work,” he says. “No pain can sometimes mean ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’”
So why prioritize working towards maintaining better posture at all? “One of the main benefits is that it can contribute to a pain-free life,” says Adam. Good posture can decrease stress on the joints, which can lower the risk of aches and pains as you age and help you breathe more easily.
Interestingly, some research suggests that better posture can in and of itself help you think more positively. Slouching might increase negative thoughts, while sitting up straight can increase self esteem and lower fear.
Tips for Working Out to Improve Your Posture
1. Show up for yourself.
Working out in any way—even if it’s a team sport like pickleball—can help boost your posture, says Adam. “If your focus is to maintain a strong posture, any type of workout, when done with that intention, can help your posture,” he says.
The key is to find something you really like to do—and keep doing it! obé has a large selection of classes to choose from (16,000+, to be exact), which can make it a little less stressful to find the right fit for you.
2. Show up for yourself.
Strengthening both your back and core muscles can help you improve your posture, Adam says, by improving your spinal alignment. He recommends exercises like planks (including side planks), crunches, shoulder rolls, and prone back extensors.
Workouts like Yoga and Tai Chi, which increase flexibility and also encourage body-mind awareness, are especially beneficial.
3. Do the opposite of what your body is used to.
As working at a desk, or scrolling on your phone, for at least some period of time may be inevitable for you, Adam recommends moving your spine in the opposite direction when you workout.
“The longer you spend hunched over your desk, the longer you should spend reversing the positioning of the spine,” he says. He sometimes recommends walking pads or standing desks to clients, and encourages movements like cobra pose, where you lean your upper body back, to counter the inertia of how you might be spending your day.
4. Perfect your form.
Adam stresses the importance of focusing on completing different movements, whether that’s in a strength training or Pilates class, correctly.
“Not many workouts will make your posture worse on their own, but performing any workout with poor posture can lead to a decline,” he says. “The trick is to keep the spinal alignment at the forefront of your mind while working out, and don’t get discouraged when you have to reinstate it every few minutes.” In other words, focus on your posture as you move, and if you get distracted, just reset and come back to it!
And by the way, it’s always okay to take things down a notch if they’re feeling too challenging. Lowering the number of reps you’re doing, or the amount of weight you’re carrying, can give you more space to focus on form as you gain strength.
The 5-Minute Posture Workout You Should Do Every Day
If you’re not sure where to start, Adam’s got you covered. His 5-minute Upper Body Posture Warm-Up is a must for your daily movement rotation. This seated activation and stretch (which you can totally do at work, at home on the couch, or even on-the-go) checks all the boxes.
Move through a shoulder external rotation, seated pulls, shoulder rolls, chest lift, seated forward fold, and seated neck stretch for amazing relief. You can—and should—try to do this daily!
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, if you’re experiencing aches and pains in your back—bad posture might be to blame. It’s hard to avoid certain movements, like straining your neck, when we manage so many things online.
But you can combat the pain, and improve your posture, with different exercises geared towards strengthening your core and back. You’re sure to find a class you enjoy—that targets your needs—on obé (and pro tip: you can always use the ‘core’ and ‘upper body’ class filters, as well as the search bar, to find a perfect class match). Trust us, you’ll be walking around more confidently in no time.
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