woman slouching and standing correctlyRealign Your Posture: Stand Up Taller. L Blue

As you age, acquiring rounded shoulders and a hunched stance does not have to be your lot in life. You can stand up taller. 

But rounded shoulders are not just a condition of aging. Postural influences contribute to having rounded shoulders at any age.

Muscles Matter:

Muscles are essential to lifting your frame and keeping you upright. If the core muscles in your back and abdomen have grown weak from inactivity, it causes you to lean forward.

Gravity will pull the muscles forward because they become too weak to pull themselves back up. The result makes you stoop and bring your shoulders forward.

You will not be able to change your bones, but you can build muscle mass to help improve your posture.

Poor Posture:

  • Poor posture develops from practices like working prolonged periods in front of a computer, slouching, or constantly carrying heavy objects. Such activities overstrain and weaken the muscles in the back of your shoulders also shortens the muscles in the front of your shoulders. 
  • Too much stress on your musculoskeletal structures, slouching, slumping, a hunching stance, all contribute to poor posture.
  • Sitting improperly for protracted periods is also habit responsible for of poor posture.  
  • Poor posture can lead to spine degeneration, pinched nerves, and muscle strains.
  • Poor posture can result from degenerate or broken bones in your back or compression fractures.
  • Collapsed vertebrae causes the spine to bend forward and become rounded.

Poor Posture Impacts Your Health and Well-being:

Stress on your shoulder joints causes pain in the upper back around the neck. 

You experience, achy shoulders, headaches, trouble breathing, knees, and hip painor trouble walking.

In addition, such posture negatively impacts your appearance.

Tips to Stand Taller:

Proper body alignment is necessary to reduce and get rid of undue stress on your spine. You will need to realign you body.

  1. The key to fixing poor posture is strengthening and stretching muscles in the upper back, chest, and core.
  2. Posture exercises help prevent your center of gravity from going forward and help reduce your risk of falling. 
  3. Practice movement to improve head and neck posture.Keep your head upright while standing.
  4. Strengthen your shoulder with scapula squeezes by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Do this for thirty seconds at a time. 
  5. Stretches help prevent or improve a rounded upper back. Stretch your chest muscles with an appropriate exercise.
  6. Pull back your elbow to stretch like rowing movements. Use a resistance band for this exercise.
  7. Sit upright and use a pad behind your shoulders to maintain your position.
  8. Tighten your abdominal muscles. Pulling in your navel towards your spine can strengthen and tighten the muscle. Tuck in your stomach to avoid arching your back.

Improved Posture Effects:

You will see improvement in posture by changing activities and strengthening your muscles.

An improved posture helps you stand taller and breathe easier. Upright posture improves your balance your energy levels and reduces the risk of falling.

As you age, take care of your spine. If you had back surgery to fuse or remove bones or have a spinal cord injury you will have limitations to improve your posture.

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