[bluehorseray]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I find the discussion around "reminding" yourself to have good posture off-base. It's like saying that if you want larger biceps, you should walk around with your biceps flexed all day. I feel like the important part is strengthening your postural muscles, and then just living normally

[jahewson]

You can’t strengthen muscles that haven’t been stretched properly. Bad posture limits the range of motion, shortens the muscles and causes trigger points. Bad posture is like training the wrong way for 8 hours a day. It’s a problem that has to be attacked from all angles - posture, stretch, massage, core strength.

[vladvasiliu]

This.

I've been fairly active for the last five or so years, lifting weights and walking more. While it has absolutely improved my overall posture, I still regularly catch myself slouching in front of the computer.

It's just so easy to let yourself go, especially when I'm deep in thought for prolonger periods of time. Paradoxically WFH has had a negative effect on this particular point, since I can go for hours on end without anyone distracting me (but it's been positive on the whole since I can easier program my workouts and meals).

[aflukasz]

Have exactly same issue. I use a stopwatch on my watch, set it for 45 minutes, and every time it goes off, I force myself to do some short useful activity. This may be:

- a short stretch,

- a short light weight lifting session,

- making a coffee,

- cleaning up a small part of the house,

- doing a small step of any other physical chore.

Those can take 10 seconds or 5-10 minutes, depending on the activity. Usually there will be 1-2 longer breaks of this kind, and the rest are the shorter ones.

I especially like how some house chores goes away thanks to this!

[wreath]

What does the accumulation of muscle strength have to do with stretching?

[nroets]

For many people it's a bad habit possibly due to performing certain tasks like manufacturing things at a desk. Similar bad habits: chewing with an open mouth, mouth breathing or using filler words.

By spending enough time in the right position, you will instantly know when your posture is wrong.

[chis]

If anyone’s wondering this is totally incorrect. In fact any guide for posture correction on the internet will recommend tons of focus on body awareness until you retrain movement patterns.

[mnky9800n]

How do you recommend strengthening your postural muscles

[numpad0]

If nothing works, and you’re so lazy and powerless that you might as well be a human crash dummy, and you don’t mind it being childish, buy a Nintendo Switch(removable Joy-Cons are required!) and play Ring Fit Adventure for 10 minutes a day. Note, you should cheat the squatting; that part isn’t well designed and will damage your knees.

Feel free to pick workouts that seem to disproportionately rewards your progress. Absolutely ignore that the game might say “very light workout: 50 calories burned”.

In a week or two, you will find yourself no longer having absolute zero core muscle && lower body mobility && sense of balance. Allowing yourself to easy workouts isn’t a self disservice either, it leads to training more diverse muscles, which would not occur by just looking up a single be-all workout solution to train specific muscles then failing to follow through.

Standalone USB controller charger and a cheap USB soundcard might be useful too in conjunction with above.

[carom]

YTWLs with a light band are the #1.

Stretch and open your chest. Loop a band around a rack and around your head and turn your head side to side against the band's resistance.

Rows. Flyes. Good mornings. Shrugs. Wide pull ups.

Practice moving with good posture. Do you lose it when you pick something up?

Roll your shoulders up, back, then down. Walk with your chest forward. It will feel exaggerated.

[__MatrixMan__]

Core and back stuff. Dead lifts, planks, rows, climbing.

[CPLX]

It doesn’t work that way.

I mean you’re not wrong, being stronger is certainly relevant to being able to hold posture.

But I got myself up to lifting quite large amounts of weight and it had literally no effect on posture at all, at some point or another you have to also change your habits.

[01100011]

Each person is different, but for me weight training helped a bit with back pain and a little bit of posture, but fixing my posture is a completely separate(and ongoing) activity.

For me, good posture starts with awareness. I have poor proprioception so unless I see myself hunched in a mirror I'm not aware I'm doing it. I am a very narrow-focused person though.

The other part of posture is just working at it long enough to build a connection to those important muscles. Teaching someone to have good posture is like teaching someone to wiggle their ears. Some people were born with that control and other people just don't even know what to do, mentally, to activate those signals.

Final part is to adjust what feels 'right' so that keeping your chest out more, your head back, spinal curves not too far in either direction, etc, all feels natural. I fight with the feeling that I look like a jerk when I'm just holding proper posture.

That all said, I think focusing squarely on your lats and lower traps can be a good starting point for folks looking to fix their posture. Yes, it's more than that, but it was one thing that helped, in addition to everything above, for me.

[numpad0]

It also helps to sit on a good chair, which isn’t necessarily the most comfortable. I currently sit on a used front seat from some ~1995 Subaru, and it used to be horribly uncomfortable but it forced me so hard to face forward and upright that I eventually got used to, which likely is not too far from a correct posture. That implies how wrong I am to be on this prestigious forum - but it helped my posture far more than a comfortable chair that faithfully held my body at a “sack of potato” posture.

[smolder]

I went from an office chair with arms I would lean on, to a regular folding steel chair with a cushion on it. It has forced me to hold myself upright and has thus fixed some occasional pains I was having from bad posture.

[__MatrixMan__]

For me, something about having the muscles near my problem areas be stronger put me in a mode where I was suddenly more conscious of my posture. It was like I couldn't even remember what normal felt like, so consciously guiding myself to a more healthy normal was easy because there was no habitual state to fall back to.

[winrid]

Daily morning plank helps me a lot. I try to do a minute every day.

You need to consciously fix your posture. Talk to a specialist. They will show you how you are supposed to sit/stand, and it will take months of work to fix it and create the new habit of standing/sitting properly and not like a potato :P

[__MatrixMan__]

+1 for "talk to a specialist". I try to stick with insurance that doesn't require a referral so I can just walk into a physical therapist.

[thenerdhead]

You can have a strong core and still have bad posture.

Being more aware helps you correct it. Mirrors are a great way to do that. Not honestly sure how your bicep comparison is relevant, but people look in front of mirrors to correct form for their bicep curls too.