How to improve your posture and work out more effectively

“ If you follow these guidelines you will improve your posture, reduce your risk of injuries and achieve much better exercise results ”.

In order to maximise exercise effectiveness and reduce the risk of injuries it is necessary to warm up/down, maintain the correct posture, use the right technique and engage the correct muscles to lift and stabilise. This article focuses on maintaining the correct posture.

During any exercise you need to be aware of how your body is positioned and if necessary make adjustments by engaging your core (pelvic floor) muscles, bracing your stomach abdominals, retracting your shoulder blades and elongating your neck. Your objective is to maintain a neutral pelvis position, hold a natural spinal curve and position the shoulders in their most stable position at all times.

Core muscle engagement was covered in a previous article and the way to find your neutral pelvis position is shown in picture 1. It is simply the half way position between rotating the pelvis towards the ceiling and into the floor. A natural spinal curve is shown in picture 2. This can be achieved by standing as shown and imagining that a piece of string is tied to the top of your head and gently elongating your neck so that your head tilts forward slightly and you stand taller. Picture 3 shows how your shoulder blades need to be brought together by the muscles between them. Your shoulders will follow and your chest will be enlarged.

Picture 4 brings everything together. Even as the body is lowered the natural spinal curve is maintained with the core strongly engaged, the abdominals hollowed and the buttocks tensed. It is also worth noting that the knees do not move further forward than the toes and the buttocks are pushed rearward as if you are going to sit down.