Could Poor Posture Be Making You A Slouch In The Gym?

When it comes to going to working out, one of the things that has the biggest influence on how effective your efforts in the gym are is something you don’t even do while you are at the gym. In fact, if you’re like most people, you probably don’t even bother do it at all – and you’re definitely missing out because of it. 

There are some sports, like gymnastics and dance, that place a lot of emphasis on your posture and carriage. They tend to be female-dominated in terms of numbers, but people who've carried them to a high level can be spotted later in life by their neat, erect posture. Sports like wrestling and Olympic weightlifting – more typically male-dominated – also strongly influence posture for the better, though not quite so much as something like dance, since in these sports it’s taught as a means to an end rather than as part of the end in itself.

Bad Posture is Everywhere You Look - Including in the Mirror?

We all know that bad posture isn't good for us, but, the truth is, the vast majority of us have never received any real instruction in how to properly stand or hold ourselves, and parents telling their children to sit up straight smacks of Victorian strictness for strictness’ sake to younger people. What training in posture we do receive is accidental: sitting hunched over laptops, as so many of us do, or looking down at our work on the bench or desk or counter, sitting in cars, on public transport, and at home.

Next time you’re walking around the streets, just take a look at all the people around you. Most of them are to some extent kyphotic, meaning that their thoracic spines are curved over too much. That comes from regularly sitting in front of a computer screen – just like you and I are doing right now.

Most of them have cervical lordosis too, meaning that the neck is curved too sharply to make up for the sharper curve of the thoracic spine. And that’s usually matched by lumbar lordosis – the lower back curves in too sharply. After a while, the muscles learn that this is their correct resting length – their tonus – and pull you back into this position.

There are two reasons why posture actually matters, though they’re intertwined.

One is the effect lousy posture can have on your health and well-being, long term, and the other is the effect good posture can have on your training.

Bad Posture Causes Chronic Injuries, Weakness, Pain and Shortness of Breath

English comedy writer Charlie Brooker wrote a piece for a newspaper in 2008 detailing a visit to a doctor, who told him he had degenerating cervical vertebrae at the bottom of his neck, resulting in chronic pain, tingling and numbness in his fingers, throbbing sensations in his arms and neck and shoulder pain, all derived from damage to the nerves emerging from his spine at the damaged vertebrae.

The cause? Looking at computer screens. 

A kyphotic thoracic spine increases the pressure inside the chest cavity, resulting in more labored breathing. Head Forward Posture (HFP) – also referred to as Anterior Weightbearing – contributes to the problems caused by kyphosis and the two are often found together.

Those are high figures: loss of 30% of your lung capacity is regarded as a symptom of mild to moderate asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.And it doesn't go into the damage caused to other internal organs or the low back and neck problems that plague people with poor posture.

Good posture positively impacts your performance in the gym. That’s partly psychological, with studies suggesting a link between good posture and self-confidence resulting in better training outcomes. And it’s partly physical. When you stand wrong, you lose strength as your body pulls against itself instead of the load.

Imagine a paper tube: you can stand something quite heavy on one end and put the other end on the floor and it will hold up just fine – until you bend it. Then, the line of force doesn't run top to bottom, but out the side, and the whole thing collapses. That’s the effect poor posture has on your body in the gym, and fixing it can push up all your numbers, giving you better endurance, better strength and better power – and it makes you look better too.

Three Methods For Improving Your Posture 

These methods will help you build better postural alignment, and that will help you both in and out of the gym.

1. Wall presses

Stand with your back to a wall, your heels against the wall, shoulder width apart. Touch your butt and the base of your skull against the wall. Now, try to place the rest of your spine against the wall. As simple as this sounds, many people have trouble with it. It’s made easier by slightly Flexing your butt muscles and your abs, and by consciously extending your back and neck – imagine there’s a string attached to the crown of your head, pulling your whole body upward.

When you can hold your spine against the wall for thirty seconds at a stretch, the next stage of this exercise is to put your shoulders against the wall too. Make sure that your whole shoulderblade and the head of your shoulder touch the wall!

2. Pull ups

Pull-ups require a strong contraction of the trapezius inferior, which attaches the scapular spine to the thoracic spine – or, in English, the shoulderblade to the backbone, as far down as the waist.

In most people, the upper trapezius muscles are comparatively too strong and the lower ones too weak, resulting in a tight neck, elevated, hunched shoulders and a weak upper back. Pull-ups are the ideal solution. Ideally you’ll use a bar that you can hang off full length without touching the ground. When you hang, pull your shoulderblades down and extend your neck, feeling the upper back contract.

Use a ‘palms-away’ grip to prevent muscling through the move with your arms. Inflate your chest and pull your elbows to your hips as you pull your shoulderblades back and down. If you can’t do a full pull-up yet, try hanging in the bottom position and allowing your back to stretch out while your lower traps take the weight. In time you can transition to the full exercise.

3. Chin retractions

Finally, something you can do at your desk! Chin retractions just consist of sitting up as straight as you can and pulling your chin back into your neck. If you find that you’re just ending up looking down into your lap when you do this, choose a spot on the wall level with your eyes and keep focussed on it as you perform your retractions. Try to think of it as moving your whole skull, rather than just your chin, and inflate and lift your chest while you do them. Try doing these regularly – a dozen repetitions three or four times a day, every day, isn't excessive.

Try these tips for improving your posture to improve your health and fitness and your performance in the gym. If you have any questions, comments or stories to tell us, please post them in the comments section below!