By now in the modern-day and age, everyone either sits behind a desk all day or lies on the couch at night. Moreover, spending hours in the same position can contribute to bad posture. Prolonged bad posture leads to muscle stiffness, and over time this can cause chronic pain that is hard to get rid of.
Any physical movement or position that is maintained over and over for hours on end restricts your range of motion because certain muscles tend to be favored. This includes running long marathons or mowing the lawn for an extended period. If you battle with your posture, these four simple workouts are easy to perform and will have you feeling better in no time.
The Child’s Pose
This simple pose should be performed every morning and every evening. It helps to elongate your spine and stretch out the muscles. It can be helpful to correct bad posture that has been around for years. You will stretch muscles that you didn’t even know existed.
To perform this pose, start by sitting on your hands and knees. Make sure your knees are the same width as your shoulders but extend your feet so that your big toes are touching. Slowly move forward on your hands and stretch them straight out as far as you can until your forehead is directly on the floor. Hold this pose for about seven to 10 deep breaths.
Do the Mew
A strange term indeed, but mewing is a new trend of exercising your facial muscles to help with jaw and neck pain from bad posture. This exercise involves placing your tongue on certain spots in your mouth to help reshape your face and stretch muscles.
Start by closing your mouth with your teeth just slightly touching each other. Next, move your tongue to the roof of your mouth and push lightly. If you are performing this exercise correctly you should feel some pressure on your jaw. Keep this pose for a few minutes and perform constantly throughout the day. Here you can see how to mew with a visual illustration but just remember to breathe as normal through your nose.
Forward Standing Fold
This next exercise is commonly performed by athletes to stretch out their hamstrings, hips, and back muscles. Also to be performed a minimum of twice a day, the forward standing fold should be done for intervals of 30 seconds for a total of three to five minutes.
Stand up straight with your feet the same width as your hips. Bend your knees just slightly to support your body weight. As you exhale out, bend down from your hips towards your feet while keeping your knees slightly bent. Stretch your torso until your head is in line with your knees. At first, you won’t be able to stretch very far, but with every exhale, you should try to go deeper into the pose.
Stretch Your Chest
Working at a desk and computer means that your arms are constantly stretched out in front of you. This workout works in reverse to correct any poor alignment of your neck and shoulder muscles. The majority of tension headaches are caused by muscles in your neck and shoulder tightening anytime the range of motion is restricted.
With just one simple motion, extend your arms behind your back and try to interlock your fingers together. Your hands should connect just below your lower back, so don’t try to lift them up any higher. For added measure, once your fingers are interlaced, lift your chest so that it is facing the ceiling while your hands move closer to the floor.
For the best results perform all of these simple workouts in the same session morning and night. These will exercise every important muscle in your back, shoulders, neck, and spine that may be contributing to your poor posture.
