Choosing Posture-Friendly Exercises to Suit Your Body

When choosing exercises for your workouts, have a little think of which muscles groups they are working, and if they are helping to compliment your busy weekly schedule.

A lot of clients I see in clinic experience pain or problems from how they spend most of their day. Think office workers at a sitting at desk, people who spend hours travelling too and from work, a chef or retail assistant that spends a lot of time standing over a bench. All of these professions have something in common. 

We spend a lot of our day using the front of our bodies, which leads to tightening of these muscles and can lead to weaker back muscles over time. This can present as someone who experiences tension headaches and neck pain, someone who has a lot of shoulder pain with overhead movements, someone who feels weaker to lift or carry their groceries or someone who experiences lower back pain throughout the day.

Choose posture friendly exercises to compliment your busy weekly schedule.

My top four tips for helping your body stay nice and balanced:

1. Add in some band work as part of your strengthening program. A simple little piece of equipment you can have at home which provides all different levels of resistance for a wide range of pulling based exercises. 

2. Setting aside some time for a little yoga or stretching sequence that focuses on lengthening the front of the body. Include stretching that concentrates on the chest, torso, hips and quads.

3. Get familiar with Pilates! Pilates focuses on breathing, core stability and is very technique based with a lot of back and glute work to help strengthen the back of the body.

4. Stay nice and balanced with your workouts. If you are strengthening your chest, also work your back in the same session. If you are feeling all your exercises in the front of your legs, make sure you balance it out with some exercises that target the back of the legs.

Focusing on these points, rather than just getting sweaty each session will really make a big different to how your body looks and feels, keeping you happy & motivated. Try adding in any ‘pulling’ based exercises & get creative with bands in your weekly workouts and see how your posture improves and your body feels.

Tarsh McCallum

Physiotherapist & Pilates Instructor

Soul Physiotherapy & Movement at The Nourish Nook.