![P5298742.JPG](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQKngaKrSSMz5GNq69hDdMoGnHEa1WF6EjKEhMA6WFmG3)

 It is the very rare person who has truly “proper” posture. Why is this? Simply put, bad habits!

Many of us spend hours in front of a computer of some sort, and especially if that computer is your smart phone, you’re almost certain to be hunching over that screen. Even when we stand and walk, most of us have developed postural deficiencies as the result of bad habit over a period of years or decades.

So what can we do to improve posture? Well, as with any physical activity, the answer is to practice. Posture is especially tough to change, though, because we don’t just do it for short periods of time a few times a day – we are constantly sitting, standing or walking if we aren’t sleeping. So we need to be practicing correct posture a lot more than we practice other things, like our golf swing, tennis serve, bicep curls, etc.

So here are some easy posture tips and exercises that will help show you what good posture feels like and some mental cues you can use to remind yourself of how to get back to that proper alignment.

- Start with your feet – Stand barefoot in your normal standing position. Notice your feet – what surfaces are in contact with the ground? Do your feet and ankles “tilt in” – known as pronation? Do this: Sit in a chair and cross your left foot over your right thigh so that you can look at the bottom of your foot. Take your pointer finger and start on the ball of your foot under your big toe. Press there. Now move your finger across the ball of your foot to your little toe. Press there. Now move your finger down and along the outside pad of your foot to the middle of your heel. Press there. These are the three points your body weight should be evenly distributed on when you stand. When you connect them, you form a “7″. So, remind yourself as often as you can think of it to “stand on your 7′s.”

- Move up to your hips. Is your body weight evenly distributed on both feet, or do you tend to shift more onto one leg? If you do, you’ll notice one hip sitting a bit higher than the other. Now focus on the front and back sides of your pelvic girdle. Think of it as a bowl of water. Do you slouch, sticking your belly out and tipping water out the back of the bowl like the guy on the left in the photo? Or is the curvature in your lower back over-exaggerated, tipping water out of the front of your bowl as pictured on the right? Tighten your abs, front thigh muscles and glutes a bit until you get that bowl just level, and tell yourself a hundred times a day, “Don’t spill the water!”

![P3128317.JPG](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQgBt94LtUHLV2gkqZVHTi5zcBd1853fQCJBu7aB4uwfd)

- Putting it all together. Now lets look at truly proper standing posture. Stand with your back against a wall, arms down at your sides, both feet about 12 inches away from the wall and knees bent slightly. Touch your tailbone, back of the shoulder blades and back of your head to the wall. Notice what is most difficult for you. Do you have to strain to get your head back without tilting your chin up? Do you hike your shoulders up around your ears to get your shoulder blades against the wall? Hold this position for a few seconds while you try to relax tight muscles and fall into this natural posture (as pictured in the center, above). Now, walk your feet back so that your heels touch the wall. Keeping those three points touching the wall, also touch your elbows to the wall. Notice how that changes things. Try to relax your shoulders back and down. Hold that posture, and step away from the wall. Feel how your weight is perfectly distributed over your hips and feet. Walk around a bit, try to loosen the rest of your muscles as your back and neck muscles keep you in alignment. Go sit in a chair, keep your torso and head in alignment. “Remember the wall.”

Take short breaks from your desk as many times a day as you can and perform these short little drills. And remember to practice, practice, practice all the time!

![P3128312.JPG](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmZi1AsuYR1irtWJKv8kNSfZS4QmKYcTZo8FkTrKnFeDpw)