- Are your shoulders rounded?
- Are you developing a dowager's hump?
- Would you like to feel stronger?
- Would you like to appear younger?
If you've answered YES to any of the above then I can highly recommend this simple but very effective posture exercise. Surfing YouTube one day, I came across an excellent video by posture expert Dr Natalie Cordova. I tried it out and almost immediately I noticed a difference.
I've never had good posture. I'm quite tall and I find that if I don't exercise to build core strength my back seems unable to support itself. I often slouch and when I do my shoulders come forward and my back becomes rounded. This collapsed, rounded posture is still there when I stand up.
Like most people I can sit and stand straight when I put my mind to it but as soon as my wind wanders on to something else my muscles relax and before I realise what's happening I'm slouching over my desk or stooping like someone twice my age.
I know how to build core strength in my abdomen and lower back but I hadn't realised how easy it is to work the muscles that keep the shoulders back and the chest open; prerequisites for good posture.
Have a look at Natalie's video and see just how easy it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Obviously Natalie is wearing her sports kit to demonstrate the posture exercise but I do it no matter what I'm wearing: pyjamas, work clothes, jeans. It really doesn't matter. I do this brilliant posture exercise whenever I feel like it. Like all exercises it only works if you do it regularly so I make sure I do it every day.
It only takes a minute or two and I have found that it works well even without the added weights. I don't have dumb-bells but if they're to hand I'll grab a couple of cans of chickpeas. (A couple of cans of Special Brew would work too!) And you can do this posture exercise anywhere. I do it when waiting for the kettle to boil, when I go up and down stairs, when I'm dancing round the kitchen to my favourite music ... I do it every day for just a few minutes because I know that it really works!
When I started doing this posture exercise I noticed a difference after just two days. I sat more upright, I was aware that my back was straighter when I walked and when I looked in the mirror I could see that my shoulders were noticeably less rounded. I felt stronger and my body looked younger. And all with very little effort, no time out of my day and without even breaking a sweat. What's not to like about that?!
There isn't really much else to say except ... Try It ... It Works!
So now you know how to get rid of rounded shoulders. Let me tell you how to get rid of a bloated tum.
