Posture is important and it’s something that most of us could all stand to spend a bit more time working on, especially those of us that spend long stretches of the day sitting at a desk.
Fortunately, you can improve your posture through your regular core and back workouts and mobility sessions, but it also pays dividends to do a more focused posture workout from time to time.
This doesn’t have to be a long session — this 10-minute workout from YouTube fitness trainer Jeremy Ethier will work wonders for your posture if you can do it two or three times a week.
The workout doesn’t need any specialist equipment beyond a resistance band, though since you do some stretches on the floor a yoga mat could be useful, and you need a bench or table to lean on for one move.
The workout is broken up into two sections. The first focuses on mobility with three back stretches, then the second section involves doing two strength exercises for your back. Ethier goes into great detail demonstrating each move in the workout. Giving form tips and explaining how it will benefit your posture.
Watch Jeremy Ethier’s 10-minute posture workout
Each move in the workout is designed to help fix common posture problems like hunching your back or rounding your shoulders, which can lead to neck and back pain.
While it can take regular workouts done over several months to correct long-term posture complaints, you’ll feel the benefit of a session like this in terms of stretching out your back immediately.
The mobility section of the workout starts with the prayer stretch, which targets the upper back and lats. You’ll need a bench or low table to lean on for this stretch. The second move involves rotating your back with the quadruped reach, and you’ll need something to hold between your thighs during the move — Ethier suggests a pillow or foam roller.
You round off the stretching part of the workout with a set of shoulder dislocations, which you’ll need a resistance band (or a bedsheet) for. Keep hold of that band for the first strength move in the workout, which is the band pull apart, then you round it all off with the YWT exercise.
Once you’ve done the workout and got used to the moves you can incorporate a couple of them into your day even if you don’t have the time to do the full session. Doing a set of shoulder dislocations is a great way to break up the working way and wake up your muscles, for example. They also feel really good after an hour sitting at a desk.
If you’re looking for other ways to improve your posture then Pilates workouts are worth considering. Strength workouts that focus on the core and back can also help, as can breaking up any long spells of sitting with some stretches or movement to wake up your muscles — it’s worth paying attention to the inactivity reminders you get from fitness trackers.
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