How to Fix Posture For the Longterm

Postural Issues are usually caused by a muscular imbalance that occurs in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, traps and chest. This can happen when some muscles are too weak and others are too tight, causing the muscles to group in an X shape (referred to as upper crossed syndrome) when viewed from the side. This imbalance can lead to joint dysfunction and noticeable, painful results.

Upper Crossed Syndrome

In order to fix your posture you want to stretch the tight muscles of the chest, traps and shoulders as well as strengthen the weak muscles of the lower traps, serratus anterior and deep neck flexors.

Before you strengthen the weaker muscles I'd recommend focusing on stretching and mobilizing the tighter muscles. Once the muscles are mobile you'll have a much easier time retraining some of the irregular movement patterns that caused the poor posture in the first place!

I've attached a short 17 minute follow along video for you below to help get you started immediately with the best stretches for improving your posture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bz5GISe1wk&t=122s