Forward head, rounded shoulders, and a Donald Duck butt. Look familiar? Honestly, you don't realize how bad your posture has become until someone stabs a pic of you.
Don't worry. Use my new and approved 5-minute posture routine and I guarantee you'll fix this in no time. Let's talk about how you got here in the first place.
So studies have revealed that most people sit on average for at least 6-8 hours a day. And when they do, they're sitting like this. But don't feel the need to straighten up just because I said that. This slouching position isn't necessarily bad.
Some studies suggest it might even help you focus more. In fact, I'm slouching right now as I write the script for this video. The problem is, most people stay locked in this hunched over posture for hours on end every single day. And your body is an adaptation machine. Over time, it'll tighten up certain muscles and weaken others in order to become more efficient at keeping this hunched over posture.
There's five simple yet extremely effective exercises we'll use to reverse this, starting with the upper body. The first exercise will help open up your tight chest and shoulder muscles. I'll show you how to make this work with a towel, blanket, or broomstick, but I'd highly suggest you use a band, and I'll leave a link in the description box to the one I'm using. Start with your hands inside the band with your palms facing away from the sides of your thighs.
But if you're using a towel or broomstick, grab it with a very wide overhand grip. in front of your thighs. Keep your arms straight and move your arms in a circle up and behind your body. Let your shoulder blades and traps shrug up slightly on the way up and then let your shoulder blades come down and back as your arms travel behind your body.
The benefit of using the band is you can widen it by pulling it apart during the spots where you're tightest. But if you're really tight your body will try to cheat by arching the lower back. Prevent this by keeping your core engaged.
You may also notice some clicking in your shoulder or that you can't keep one of your arms fully straight. That's completely normal and it will improve over time. But once your initial grip gets too easy, you can deepen the stretch by looping the band around your palms to shorten it. Or take a narrower grip if you're using a stick or towel. As for how many sets and reps to do, at the end of this video I'll show you the full routine written out.
For now, just focus on the form for each exercise. Next Before we get to strengthening your weakened upper body muscles, we need to unlock your tight mid and upper back. Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. To make this stretch more effective, place a foam roller, ball, or folded up pillow between your legs and squeeze it together. Engage your core to straighten your back and push the floor away to straighten your arms.
Then take a big exhale as you reach your left arm under and across your body as far as you can. You can allow your right arm to bend slightly as you do this. You should feel a deep stretch in your mid and upper back and maybe even your lats. From here, bring your left hand back behind your neck, push the floor away with your right hand, and follow your elbow with your eyes as you rotate it up towards the ceiling only as far as you can.
You should feel some of your mid and upper back muscles working as you do this. Hold the top briefly, then come back down and try to reach a bit further than last time. Once you do both sides, you may notice that one feels a lot tighter than the other. That's perfectly normal.
Just do this consistently and it'll help correct that imbalance over time. So the first two exercises will temporarily open up your tight upper body muscles. But to keep those results and fix your posture for good, you need to pair that with a strengthening exercise. The one we're using today strengthens your weakened back and shoulder muscles to help pull you upright.
Lay on your stomach with your forehead on the floor or held just above it and hands behind your head. Pull your elbows back. Imagine squeezing your shoulder blades together. Once you've gone as far as you can, extend your arms straight out to make a capital Y shape with your palms facing the floor.
Keep your arms straight and held as high as you can above the floor and begin to slowly move them in a big circle around your body. You should feel your mid back and shoulder muscles working as you do this. As your arms come below a T-shape, start to internally rotate your arms so that your palms now face the ceiling. Once your hands are close to your legs, bend your elbows and place the back of your hands on your low back.
Lean one hand on top of the other. Then, reverse the circle by extending your arms and slowly move them back into the Y-shape, and then to the starting position with your hands on the back of your head. I'll be honest, this is quite a difficult exercise. So if you're having troubles with it, for now, try this.
Just keep your arms in that T-shape with your thumb spacing up and use your mid-back muscles to raise your arms as high as possible. Hold that top position for a few seconds while squeezing your shoulder blades together and do about 5-10 reps of this until you build the strength to do the full exercise. Okay so before we move on to the lower body, it's important you don't just do this five minute routine and go right back to sitting in your chair for the rest of the day. This routine will work wonders if you do it consistently, but to fix your posture for good and honestly just feel better day to day, you need to make an effort to move more. Break up your sitting with standing, go for more walks, or check out some of my workout videos to get you in the gym.
In fact, studies have shown lifting weights can improve flexibility just as much as stretching does. And for a science-based program that shows you exactly how to work out week after week to transform your body while improving your posture, mobility, and overall health, after this video, go to buildwithscience.com and take my analysis quiz to find the best program for you and your body. But for now, it's time to move on to your lower body. So the main lower body muscle you need to strengthen is the glutes. These often become weak in those who sit for most of the day.
But before we get to that, it's important to first loosen up your hip flexors. Some research suggests that if this muscle is tight, it can inhibit glutes activation. Start on all fours and set your right knee close to a wall or an elevated piece of furniture like a bench, couch, or chair. Use your hands to help put your back foot up on the wall or bench.
The closer your knee is to the wall or bench, the more stretch you'll create in your quads. So if you're pretty tight, then just start out with your knee further away. Once you've set your back foot, step your other foot forward so your shin is vertical and straighten your hips in front of you.
Then use your hands to help you get into the half kneeling position. From here, brace your core and level your hips as if it was a bowl of water and you were preventing the water from spilling forward. At this point, you should already feel a deep stretch in the quads and hip flexor of the back leg.
The intensity of this stretch should ideally feel like a 4 or 5 out of 10. So to lessen the stretch, lean forward, whereas to deepen it, push your butt back towards your back foot. Just make sure that you don't arch your lower back as you do so. Now you're ready to strengthen the glutes. The exercise we'll use is simple, but to maximize activation, it's important you do it right.
Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Angle your elbows away from you and push them down into the ground. Engage your core to flatten your lower back against the floor. Without arching your back, squeeze your butt muscles hard and then lift your hips up while keeping your glutes contracted. At the top, avoid arching your lower back.
Instead, keep your core engaged and tilt your hips back by squeezing your glutes hard as if you had a $100 bill between them and you were trying to prevent it from falling out. Hold this for 5 seconds before coming down for another rep. Now if you feel this more in your quads rather than your glutes, try walking your feet out further away from you. Whereas if you feel this more in your hamstrings, move your feet a bit closer in. And over time, to make this move more difficult and to help correct any strength imbalances you might have in your glutes, you can progress to working one leg at a time.
Here is the full five minute routine. You can also download this routine onto your phone completely free over at buildtwistscience.com posturefix. Try to do this routine at least twice a day and again just make an effort to move more.
Good luck and give this video watch next for what I believe is the most underrated exercise to lose belly fat that you can literally start doing right now.