Tight muscles increase the risk of strain injuries. Strengthening should be a part of your daily routine in order to maintain proper posture. Weak muscles put joints and other tissues at risk of injury and make it difficult to maintain proper posture.

A number of things can cause muscle weakness including injury, immobility, neurological conditions, nerve entrapment and arthritis. When you do exercises for strength, focus on key areas of your body, including your shoulders and upper back, core, hips and legs.

Strengthening work should lead to muscle fatigue, but not pain. Astrid DiVincent PT, DPT, OCS. Move Better Feel Better Home Mind-Body. In fact, improving the way you position your body can help you to avoid tension, fatigue and strain on your tendons, ligaments and muscles.

Here are six things you should know about good posture and how to maintain it. Good posture is essential whether you are standing, sitting or lying down. There are simple exercises you can do to correct your posture. Posture check: Sit with your feet flat on the floor.

Deon suggests visualizing an invisible string that extends from your tailbone up your spine and out the top of your head. Your abdomen should be pulled in. Knees should be soft, not locked. And you should be looking straight ahead, not down. The string visual applies when you're sitting, too.

Aligning your spine means that you're using your muscles properly, which reduces stress on your bones and joints, Deon says. This decreases abnormal wear and tear that, over time, can lead to osteoarthritis as well as lingering aches and pains. Joints in your neck, shoulders, low back and hips are some of the most vulnerable.

If your posture hasn't been good, correcting it might feel uncomfortable for a few weeks, but stick with the effort.

Your core muscles — the muscles in your back, hips, abdomen and pelvic floor — work together to stabilize your spine and provide a foundation for your body's movement. Pilates and yoga classes provide excellent core-strengthening exercises, Deon says.

It's actually much harder work than you think! Your lungs are made of soft tissue, so the more space you open up for them in your chest by standing tall and pulling your shoulders back, the more they'll be able to expand and allow you to breathe deeply. Research investigating the connection between posture and emotion has shown that good posture can actually make you feel better.

Posture affects our emotions and thoughts, and vice versa. Slouching makes it easier to think negative thoughts, while sitting or standing in a strong, upright position encourages empowering thoughts. Standing tall instead of scrunching up also means that you occupy more space and radiate more energy to others, which in turn can make you feel more confident.

The Power of Good Posture. Targeted muscles: Upper cervical extensors and Suboccipital Plus strengthening cervical flexors. This exercise will activate and strengthen your deep cervical muscles front of the neck muscles.

The last exercise of the series is focused on posture. This will help strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades and on the back of your shoulders to ultimately allow you to have the strength to maintain proper posture.

This stretch helps to lengthen tightened hip flexors that are often seen in individuals with anterior pelvic tilt. How to do it: — Begin this stretch by kneeling on a soft surface. How to do it: Begin lying on your stomach with your forearms against the mat.

Aim for 10 repetitions of this stretch. Add self massage techniques into your routine. By using a foam roller or massage ball, you can really dig into the specific muscles that may be too tight or overactive.

You need to be aware of your posture through out your day, so that you can fix your posture for the long term, and live a pain free life.

Even now as a full-fledged adult with an office job, I've caught myself sinking further and further down into my desk chair until my eyes are nearly level with the keyboard. All the teasing and unsolicited advice over the years has turned my posture into the greatest source of my self-consciousness, and I've tried again and again to correct it.

I've gone through day-long spurts of holding my shoulders back, only to relapse to my slouching state the next day with a side of mild back pain. Heck, I've made it my New Year's resolution and failed to actually follow through on it every year since I was I'm not alone in my struggle to maintain proper posture, either.

According to a national survey , 47 percent of people say they are concerned about their posture and its impact on their health. But that might not even be the full picture: "I think everyone has issues [with posture] if you think about it," says Karen Joubert, P.

Even though slumping over in a desk chair and walking around with rounded shoulders feels more comfortable, and frankly easier, than teaching myself the best way to correct my posture, it's not doing my health — or yours, if you feel the same — any favors.

At the very least, all this slouching can make you feel fatigued when you're simply sitting, lead to headaches and slight pain, or cause numbness and tingling in the legs and arms, says Joubert.

You won't be getting proper air and oxygen, and that's why we feel fatigued," she explains. But it can also lead to serious health implications — slumping over can wear away at the spine, making it more fragile and prone to injury; cause back, neck, and shoulder pain; decrease flexibility; and misalign the entire musculoskeletal system, according to the U.

National Library of Medicine NLM. Think of your head like a pound bowling ball — when you lean forward, the gravitational pull on the head increases, which can cause the weight of the head to put up to 60 pounds of pressure on your shoulders, says Joubert.

TL;DR: Even a slight misalignment can place unnecessary strain on your body. Technically speaking, posture is how you hold your body while standing, sitting, or lying down. Good posture involves maintaining, but not increasing, the natural curves of your spine at your neck, mid-back, and low-back, according to the NLM.

Though models and celebrities look like they're walking around with boards strapped to their backs, trying to replicate their posture isn't your best bet. It's different from your neighbors and best friends," says Joubert.

And if you do slouch, your genes are probably not to blame, says Lindsay Newitter , an AmSAT-certified teacher a certification from the American Society for the Alexander Technique, which is a method of changing faulty postural habits and owner of the Posture Police.

Instead, it's due to a structural issue think: scoliosis or habits you've developed over time, she explains. These posture-wrecking patterns can start to develop as early as elementary school, when you're a small kid working at a desk made for someone twice your size. Without your feet on the floor, you learn to use your upper body to hold yourself up and lift your shoulders to reach your desk, says Newitter.

In your adolescent years, you might develop social anxieties or insecurities that make you self-conscious, which can further worsen your posture. Add in all those hours you spend sitting as an adult, and maintaining poor posture becomes as second nature as brushing your teeth.

Even though your friends and family have good intentions when they tell you to stand up straight, it's not as simple as that.

Neither of these are helpful. Good posture is having a full range of motion in joints and being able to easily find a place that's centered and neutral," she explains. In fact, pushing your shoulders back and tucking your pelvis can do more harm than good, resulting in "backward slouching" and unnecessary strain, says Newitter.

The following tips from Joubert and Newitter, however, will help you find the natural posture that's best for your body. If you make an effort to improve your positioning and consistently correct any flaws, you can start seeing changes in your posture in as little as a month, says Joubert.

Trying to break a nearly life-long habit of slouching and then practicing a new position can be overwhelming and frustrating — but it doesn't have to be.

To avoid getting discouraged, start by focusing on one or two things, such as the positioning of your shoulders or weight distribution, then building upon them, recommends Joubert.

Using these tips can help you achieve your goals too. Remember, if you're feeling any pain or discomfort while adjusting your posture, make an appointment with a physical therapist, who can give you guidance and help you prevent injury.

Step 1: Start standing with feet shoulders-width apart. Distribute weight equally in the balls of both feet. Step 2: Gently pull lower abdominal muscles up and in, as if moving the belly button toward the backbone, to achieve a neutral spine.

Another way to picture this is to imagine slightly tucking the stomach in. Step 3: Gently lower shoulder blades back and down as if tucking them into pants' pockets.

Step 4: Adjust body so knees are pointed forward and relaxed or slightly bent. Align knees over feet, hips over knees, and shoulders over hips. gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Good posture is about more than standing up straight so you can look your best. It is an important part of your long-term health. Making sure that you hold your body the right way, whether you are moving or still, can prevent pain, injuries, and other health problems.

The key to good posture is the position of your spine. Your spine has three natural curves - at your neck, mid back, and low back. Correct posture should maintain these curves, but not increase them.

Your head should be above your shoulders, and the top of your shoulder should be over the hips. Be mindful of your posture during everyday activities, like watching television, washing dishes, or walking Stay active. Any kind of exercise may help improve your posture, but certain types of exercises can be especially helpful.

They include yoga, tai chi, and other classes that focuses on body awareness. It is also a good idea to do exercises that strengthen your core muscles around your back, abdomen, and pelvis. Maintain a healthy weight. Extra weight can weaken your abdominal muscles, cause problems for your pelvis and spine, and contribute to low back pain.

All of these can hurt your posture. Tight muscles can lead to imbalance, in which some muscles are short and strong, and others are long and weak. It can cause pain not only in the muscles themselves but also in the joints and nerve tissues.

Tight muscles increase the risk of strain injuries. Strengthening should be a part of your daily routine in order to maintain proper posture.

Weak muscles put joints and other tissues at risk of injury and make it difficult to maintain proper posture. A number of things can cause muscle weakness including injury, immobility, neurological conditions, nerve entrapment and arthritis.

When you do exercises for strength, focus on key areas of your body, including your shoulders and upper back, core, hips and legs.

Strengthening work should lead to muscle fatigue, but not pain. Astrid DiVincent PT, DPT, OCS. Move Better Feel Better Home Mind-Body. In fact, improving the way you position your body can help you to avoid tension, fatigue and strain on your tendons, ligaments and muscles.

Here are six things you should know about good posture and how to maintain it. Good posture is essential whether you are standing, sitting or lying down.