Q. Can you recommend any posture correcting exercises? When I walk normally, I always tend to slouch and I would like to be able to stand up straight.

There are a lot of good exercises that you can do to help with your posture, most of them relating to the core (your midsection) and your back. These are the areas most people need to improve on and are the major cause of slouching posture.

For the back, I would recommend exercises such as hyperextensions, deadlifts, seated cable rows and bent-over rows.

The first two exercises will work on the strength of your lower back while the last two will work more on the upper and mid back.

The rowing movements should be done with a moderate weight, keeping your lower back arched and tight and concentrating on squeezing the shoulder blades together behind you at the contraction of the rep. This squeezing will help strengthen the muscles that pull your shoulders back, helping to correct the slouching.

Working your rear delts (located at the backs of the shoulders) can also help with bringing the shoulders back. Doing bent-over laterals will accomplish this.

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Working your abdominals is very important as these are the muscles that help to support your spinal column and torso. If they are week, you body will have a tendency to hump over and slouch because of lack of support.

The main exercise used to target the abdominals is the crunch. For information on how to do crunches more effectively, click here.

The best exercise I would recommend for strengthening your postural midsection muscles, however, is the Dumbell Side-To-Side.

Here are instructions on how to do it:

Sit on a flat bench so your legs are perpendicular to the bench (not straddling it).
Set a dumbell on end right beside you on one side (start with a fairly light dumbell until you get the movement down and get stronger at it).
Take a a breath and hold it just before you do this movement.
Make sure your legs stay pointing directly forward throughout the movement.
Keeping your lower back arched, your abs tight and your chest high, turn to the side and pick up the dumbell with two hands.
Keeping the dumbell in close to your body, turn 180 degrees to the other side and set the dumbell down on end again, releasing the tension in your abs and releasing your breath.
Repeat the action back to the other side for 6 to 8 reps. Do 2 or 3 sets of this.
As you develop strength in this exercise, increase the weight of the dumbell you are using.

This movement works the transverse abdominus muscles, which are your body's natural weight belt. It keeps your midsection tight and strong and is one of the best exercises for improving posture because of the increase in spinal support you get from improving the transverse abdominus muscles

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Remember, posture is not just a matter of strengthening muscles. It's also a matter of keeping tabs on your body position throughout the day and taking steps to correct it when you notice your posture is poor.

Since you've already noticed that you slouch when you walk, focus on not slouching when you walk. Even if it takes some effort at first, you will teach your body to maintain this position when you concentrate on doing it consistently.

Maintaining posture also applies to sitting in a chair. I'm sure everyone has been told to "sit up straight" at some point in their lives. By keeping an eye on how you sit, you can also teach yourself to always sit up straight.

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Home -> The Library -> Questions & Answers -> Posture Exercises

Q. Can you recommend any posture correcting exercises? When I walk normally, I always tend to slouch and I would like to be able to stand up straight.