How to Actually Fix Your Posture Forever

Yes this was a clickbait title.

Posture is something that I see confused constantly. We all know what it is when it's bad, and we have an idea of how to fix it. But we need to go back and look at how we got it in the first place. Kids have good posture, but they don't start out with it.

I was a baby once, as we all were. As I grew up my mobility and activity were good. Plenty of recess and P.E. helped that.

Then what happened? What happens over time to all of us? The answer most of us would answer is sitting. It places your hips in a non-ideal position. Now with modern "comforts" of phones, TVs, cars and sitting to eat, it's amplified when our heads are hunched forward (and even down).

So how do we fix it? We've seen the stretches and yoga moves and maybe we want to go to a chiropractor. Those are great, but there are a few problems with those. Stretching alone weakens a muscle. It lengthens it too, but it doesn't train the weak side to get stronger. As an example if your hips are tight, your glutes are going to be weak. But If your glutes never get strong, now both sides are weak. If you get a chiropractor adjustment, you can re-align yourself. That sounds great in the short term (I'm not sure how long an adjustment lasts), but then if you go right back to your same bad sitting and slouching habits, what do you think will happen?

We need to get our posture back, but how did we get our posture in the first place?

Is there a way to get it back so that it runs on autopilot?

There is, and you need strength to do it.

In the beginning…

In about 2013 or 2014, I stumbled upon a training system called Original Strength created by Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert. Huh? It's basically a "strength training" program all babies do to be able to join the ranks of the walking. If you've observed a baby or have one of your own, you know that they all go through the same things:

• Deep breathing (this is automatic, but they breathe better than we do, into their bellies)

• Head control

• Rolling over

• Rocking

• Crawling

After that comes a bunch of walking attempts and they're basically sprinting within a blink of an eye.

"That's easy for them, they're kids!" you might protest. But guess what? Despite babies and kids being incredibly mobile, all babies are born weak. They can't even hold their own heads up. Through working through all these movements, they strengthen their bodies constantly.

I dare you to find a 1-3 year old with bad posture. It's hard to do. It's also hard for them to slouch because their heads are so big compared to their bodies they have to stand upright so that they don't fall over.

Then what happens? We start sitting too much. We entertain ourselves while sitting. Eat while sitting. Drive while sitting. Work while sitting.

The good news is this: we can regain our posture, or our Original Strength, by engaging in the same movements that babies do.

"But I just want to get stronger!"

First of all, you're probably reading this because you want to be stronger, so who cares about your posture? Well, you should. Your posture is the foundation of everything else you want to do. Good luck having a good squat, bench or overhead press if your back looks like a C when just standing still. I'm all for pushing it in the weight room, but make sure to maintain your body so you can push it harder.

This won't take long and it will actually force you to move around more in the day. It can be used as a warmup, a cool down, before bed or when you're bored.

OS for Lifters (and everyone else too)

I say "for lifters" because I had to think about what can be added to your life without causing too much damage. Lifting is hard enough as it is, but as a side note, you could really do any of this stuff as much as you wanted.

The crawl is slightly different. It's something that can be made harder by getting up on your hands and feet (no knees) and doing it for time and distance. (This is brutal by the way.)

Since I want this to recharge you, we won't worry about that. If you want to take that on, it's up to you to figure out how to add it into your training. Example: use it on off days or after your main program or as an intense warmup. Either way, I've heard from the creators of OS and from my own experience that you can push crawling almost "too much" and not be taxed at all the next day. Besides, it's just your bodyweight.

Let's make this super simple so that it doesn't interfere with your hard training. Do as many reps of these as you want, but I'll give you some guidelines.

• Lie on your belly, put your head on your hands and breathe 10 times. (Huge stress reliever.)

• Nod your head up and down 10 times

• Rotate your head side to side 10 times

  • Head rotations can also be done on your back or while standing. It's a different plane of motion when you try this.

• Roll front to back and back to front with each limb 3 times.

• Rock back and forth on your hands and knees 10-20 times

• Crawl on your hands and knees. It can be for time or for a certain amount of steps.

This shouldn't take too long. About 10 minutes. You've got 10 minutes per day right? Right.

Play around with these, seriously.

Go forth and play.

This has been a nice little summary of the Original Strength program.

The biggest lesson I can give you is this: play around with each of them and see what you need. These are all great, but maybe you need to spend more time rocking because your hips and feet are tight making your squat uncomfortable. Maybe you need more nods because you sit at a computer all day and this is the only head movement you're going to get. Maybe all you can muster is breathing into your belly for 10 minutes because you're stressed out and want to make sure you're relaxed for sleep.

As with any program, let this serve you and not the other way around.

Regain the body you originally had.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions, please feel free to respond to this newsletter and I'll try my best to answer any questions you have.