Do Posture Correction Exercises Work?

Harpoon - Here is how you walk around all day- you “PUSH DOWN TO GO UP”. It is the natural way of moving. You can use this idea while sitting at a desk as well. Dancers are taught this technique and they have great posture:

Also, you need to consider your ENTIRE spine. You can’t just fix one area in isolation. You need to work, at the same time, on
1)lumbar
2)thoracic
3)cervical.
You need to think about straightening the entire spine- like flattening the whole thing out- which you just can’t do one area in isolation because it is all connected.

But try to just stand by pushing down and see what that does for you. Maybe that is all you need-

(I didn’t read the replies so this might have already been covered) If you are really that worried about it look into something called structural integration. Rolfing is a type of this manual therapy. It’s a ten session series that can have a lasting impact on posture. The problem might not be originating in the pelvis, it might be the feet or ankles, fascial lines, or all of the above. Obviously all the things you are doing are going to be needed to maintain the alignment. Stretching and strengthening individual muscles and muscle groups is great, but it will have little impact on fascial lines. Yoga is a great way to do this yourself, as the postures utilize several types of stretching principles, and stretch the fascial lines that cross many joint articulations, rather than one or two as most stretches do.

It is also going to take time and consistency. If you are doing the wrong things for posture 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 1-2 accumulative hours a week is not going to reverse everything right away.

Lastly, your posture is not that bad, relatively speaking. My advice would be to spend 10 minutes pre and post workout on the problem areas. Add in some of the corrective exercises you are already doing, some foam rolling a few times a week, throw in a 1 hour yoga class a couple times a week, and don’t worry too much about it. Just make those things a part of your routine and enjoy life.

Posture can be a bitch.
In my case, bad posture coupled with frequent and intense lifting led to a few nasty injuries.

I’ve been trying to improve my posture a few times the past couple of years, but my efforts didn’t bear any fruit, so far.

Until I started to build my training around my abdominals, glutes and scapular manipulators.
For about a month, I did two-a-days: 50 % glutes, rectus d. and transversus a., 50 % ‘normal’ lifting.

Nothing fancy for the core, btw: I just made sure to hit the glutes, the rectus and transversus abd. and the rhomboids hard enough on a daily basis - but not too hard.
I also incorporated ring work and related stuff, thereby making sure that my whole body kinda became ‘the core’ during pulls.

Long story short: my posture improved dramatically. I’m convinced it was my high frequency approach that changed things.

I had a worse posture than you and now it’s a little bit better than in your second picture. Yes posture correction exercice work but it takes years. Taking yoga classes and seeing an osteopath is better though.

The way I see it, if you work a desk job that involves you sitting down for 8 hours a day, and you do it for, say 20 years, that’s 8 hours per day for 20 years that you hip flexors have been shortened and your glutes weakened.

In order to counteract this, you would need to do glute strengthening and hip flexor stretching for 8 hours a day for 20 years.

Isn’t that right? So the reality is that people who work in desk jobs will NEVER be able to fix their anterior pelvic tilt?

[quote]alternate wrote:
The way I see it, if you work a desk job that involves you sitting down for 8 hours a day, and you do it for, say 20 years, that’s 8 hours per day for 20 years that you hip flexors have been shortened and your glutes weakened.

In order to counteract this, you would need to do glute strengthening and hip flexor stretching for 8 hours a day for 20 years.

Isn’t that right? So the reality is that people who work in desk jobs will NEVER be able to fix their anterior pelvic tilt?[/quote]

It’s doesn’t quite work that way. Trauma and rehab do not require a mutual exchange to be balanced. There are a number of factors involved. One of which is the type of therapy. Direct facial manipulation is superior to stretching for instance. Stretching improves the degree at which a joint moves, yet it doesn’t ensure the entire muscle’s “adhesions”, or what have you, are going to be addressed. So a muscle can allow a joint to move to its maximal degree, but still be dysfunctional. However, there is a point at which maintaining and even reversing trauma needs to be achieved. So a minute of rehab might not reverse eight hours, but 15 minutes might. It all depends on the problem, and the type of rehab being utilized.

Holy Schnikies!! I can go deep into a sprinters stretch for my hip flexors, and thought I was getting my Hip Flexors to loosen up some and then I tried that 90/90 and just on the floor and my HF’s were screaming at me to stop, apparently I wasn’t hitting them like I thought I was in my sprinters stretch.

Thank you whoever posted that up.

Bump

OP, can you come back and report your results? I’m also wondering about what OP has stated – Namely, I also want to know if youcan improve ‘resting’ posture or if you have to be like OP and continue to cue yourself every waking hour

My case is a bit worse than OP also, as even when I try to ‘fix’ posture, you can still see the kyphosis/forward shoulders – I want to know if people have actually fixed these problems, since I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someoen fixing many of the common posture problems(atp, kyphosis, forward shoulders/forward head, etc)

I have had a forward head, slumped posture no matter what I do.
Then I had this treatment called ABC or advanced biostructural correction.
Check out this video of a body-builder getting 1 treatment. I have had ongoing treatment and very happy w results…

Before - Body builder before treatment ABC™ - YouTube
After - body builder next morning after 1 ABC™ treatment night before - YouTube
Explanation of how it works - Spine 101 - Why we hurt? - Explaining Bone and Muscular Pain - YouTube