Do you have bad posture? Maybe you have a tech neck, or a hunchback, or an exaggerated anterior
pelvic tilt that you'd like to fix? If so, this video is for you. Hey, my name is Lucas. I'm a
yoga teacher. In a typical yoga class, if I did a show of hands how many people have bad posture
at least 80 percent of the hands would go up. And you know what? Most people are wrong, most people
don't have bad posture. In this video we will talk about number one, myth versus reality. Do you have
bad posture? Or are you just chasing some ideal that doesn't matter and that you'll never achieve?
Number two, we'll talk about why a lot of the quick fixes you find online aren't so effective
long term. Number three, we'll take a look at a three day per week 15 minute per day exercise
routine that can make a big difference in the next month or so. As usual, I'll put a link to a PDF
down below if you'd like to skip forward to those exercises. Let's talk about myth versus reality
of perfect posture. The first thing is there is no perfect. I've been teaching yoga for 20 years,
I've seen tens of thousands of bodies, they're very different. Some people are long, some people
are small, some people have exaggerated lumbar curves, some people have a rigid flat back. In
fact, even if you look at posture trends over the ages the idea of perfect posture is also a
moving target. If you went back 500 years ago to Michelangelo's David statue, for example,
the sculpture, many people today would look at that David sculpture and say "Wow, this person
has terrible posture. There's an anterior pelvic tilt." And yes, there is, but no, that posture is
not bad. If we look back at the Victorian era in the 1800s and you saw women with very, very tight
corsets, is that perfect posture? No, not at all. In fact, many people actually had compressed ribs,
obstructed breathing, this is far from perfect. And what about today? Well, if you go on social
media you might find people with enhancements on the back, enhancements on the front,
maybe people with exaggerated tilts, maybe people with military spines. The truth is, pop culture is
always representing popular ideas that doesn't have anything to do with your biomechanics,
that doesn't have anything to do with your ideal posture. Here's what you need to ask yourself.
Number one, is your posture causing you problems from a movement perspective? Can you sit? Can
you stand? Can you walk? If you can, it's probably not a problem. Number two, is it causing you pain?
If, when you sit for an hour in front of your computer you get pain, OK, you've got
a problem. If, when you go for a one hour walk you get terrible neck or shoulder pain, OK, now
you've got a problem. If standing in line for more than 10 minutes at the grocery store causes your
knees and your hips to ache, OK, now you've got a problem. So with that lens, instead of eighty
percent of people having bad posture, maybe we get down to five or ten percent of people. And then
from there you get pretty frustrated, you start looking around for solutions. When you go online
what you'll find really quickly are some little hacks and some little tricks. Some people suggest
that every hour, on the hour, you should pull your chin in towards your chest to correct tech neck
from hunching over your computer or your phone. OK, that might give you some symptom relief, but
that's not going to fix the underlying problem. Other people suggest sitting on top of an exercise
ball to work. Not a bad idea for your core strength, but again, it's not going to fix the
problem. There are electric sensors and posture chest straps, all kinds of different things that
are really working on very, very small details, and really they're relieving symptoms, not
treating the underlying problem. The underlying problem, if you've got a real postural imbalance,
usually comes back to strength, muscle. Muscle matters. Here's the way to think about this:
if you went out into the world and you started looking for examples of groups of people who
consistently have good posture, you might look at the cyclists, no you wouldn't find great posture,
you might look at the runners, no, not really great posture, you might look at
the yoga teachers, so-so, but if you were to look at bodybuilders, they've got other problems but in
terms of posture their bones are stacked and a big part of that is because people who lift weights
they tend to do deadlifts, they tend to do rows, they tend to do pull downs. That pull motion is
a functional fitness movement that's crucial for building up the back side of your body.
You'll hear the term posterior chain and it's a fancy term for the chain or the group of muscles
that start on the back of your neck and run all the way down the back side of your body to your
heels. Dozens of different muscles that act like scaffolding, like rebar, to hold your spine in
place. And, if you don't have those muscles, there's no specific ergonomic chair, there's
no magic chin-to-chest exercise that's going to fix that. You really need to build that muscle to
support your spine and your posture when you're sitting, when you're standing, and when you're
walking. And that's very hard to do if you're not rowing, if you're not pulling, if you're not
hinging and lifting. Most of us do zero activities like this in our daily lives. Now, many of you are
thinking: "That's great, but I don't want to go to the gym, I can't go to the gym, or I'm scared to
go to the gym." That's totally valid, you don't have to, you can do all of this stuff from home
without weights, but you do need something to pull on. So, I'd like to show you now how to
use exercise bands. If you don't have exercise bands you will need to purchase them. The good
news is they're very inexpensive. For less than $10 on a website like Amazon you can get a five
pack of exercise bands with varying resistance and this is enough for you to get started right
away. You need an exercise band, you need a door, let me show you how it works. We'll look
at a routine that involves three different pull motion, hinging exercises, and these are designed
to be very simple, very short. You do them three times per week and the idea is you can simply use
your resistance bands, like we mentioned, and a door. Now, you can see I have multiple bands
set up here, but you only need one. I'm simply showing you with multiple so that the setup's a
little faster. For the first one we'll do a hinge exercise and I'll show you using this band. Now,
if your band looks a little different than mine you might need to arrange it a little differently,
but you get the idea. I will put the band around the arch of my feet, I'll step my feet wider than
my hips, now reach down with both hands, but I will hinge at my hips and keep my spine really
long, and strong, and braced. I'll grip down low near my feet, I'll inhale and, as I stand up,
I'll push my hips forward. Inhale on the way down and then I'll exhale as I stand up. That's two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
and seven. Your goal is to do somewhere between seven and fourteen per set and then we'll switch
exercises. Whichever exercise we're doing this will be your rep range, somewhere between seven
and fourteen. Now, again, I have multiple bands here, you might have the exact same band. Let me
move on to my band that's slammed in my door in a high position. You might find that in your home
you position this on something else, but the idea is that it's overhead, that's the most important
thing. And I'll stand with my feet a little bit wider than my hips, and I'll slightly bend my
knees, and I'll reach up close to the door, and I'll wrap my hands around the bands, and
essentially what I'm looking for is a pull down motion. So, my feet are wider than my hips, my
hands are extended up, I'll inhale, and as I pull my elbows stay in and down. And then I inhale,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
and seven. Again, we're working somewhere in
the seven to fourteen rep range. I'll now sit down on the floor.
I've got this positioned now on the doorknob and essentially I'd like it at about head height.
I'll put my heels down on the floor, my knees are bent at a little more than a 90 degree angle,
I'll keep my spine upright, and again, I will double wrap my hands around the band. If your
exercise band is a little different than mine, don't worry, you figure out a way to practice.
Pause here, sit up tall, inhale, and now exhale, and row with your elbows in and back,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
and seven. Again, the rep range that we're looking at is anywhere between seven and fourteen. And
here's what you're looking for - I did one round of all three exercises, I'd like you to do five
rounds of all three exercises, and I'd like you to do that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so three
days per week. Remember, what we're attempting to do here is replicate that functional fitness pull
motion practice that strengthens the muscles on the back side of our body, that helps us to stand
up more straight. Now, the great thing about these exercise bands is you can take them to work, you
can have them in your closet, you can have them in your bedroom, you don't need a gym membership, and
they can be really effective if you're consistent over time. Now, along with this make sure that you
are walking. What I mean by walking is 30 minutes per day is really ideal. That can happen all in
one go or that can be collectively over the span of your day, but if you're interested in improving
your posture you can't do that without putting your posture into action, which means walking
around. Hope you find this helpful. If you'd like more science-based yoga videos, hit subscribe down
below. I'd love to hear your questions, comments, feedback down below, and you can always find my
teaching calendar at yogabody.com. Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you in the next video.