Dr. Mog
Researcher at moggerdom and zoomerology
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Most fat fucks here on the forum are poturecels with a dowager’s hump (also called buffalo hump) and this isn’t an immediate result but takes time. I believe any looksmaxxer tryna looksmaxx has to get his posture right
If you sit at a desk a lot, you likely have some forward head/shoulders and APT. Here's how you can start to work on it! Everything you need to know to get started including some exercise suggestions, plus discussion if you want to understand what's going on.
Here's a list of exercises if you just want to know what to start working on! Forward head/shoulders and/or anterior pelvic tilt (increased low back arch, belly & butt stick out) is very common in people who sit at a desk a lot and don't do much else. I'm posting the first decent video that I come across for each one but I'm sure there are a lot of other great ones. Most of these are easy to do wrong, difficult to do right, so prioritize FORM:
1. [upper traps] Stretch the tops of your shoulders
2. Stretch the front corners of your neck
3. Stretch pecs. - [wall stretch] or [doorway stretch]
4. [chin tuck]or [laying down]or sitting upright [isometrics] Keep the back of your neck long, as if someone is pulling your head up (which is why I think the laying down one is useful, you can feel for the surface; if you physically can't reach, you can roll up a towel under your neck and try again) (yes you look weird doing these!)
5. [wall angel) Go only as far as you can while keeping your back pressed into the wall, and keep your wrists closer to the wall than your elbows.
6. ( For face pulls, do NOT jut your head forward (keep it long and high), do NOT let your shoulders pop forward. You can use resistance bands or even no equipment to start with. For YTA, the hand position is important because it directly influences what your shoulder is doing.
7. [dead bug]: Do NOT let your hips move or get pulled by your legs, only go as far as you can while maintaining the stable pelvis (to make it easier, leave arms by your sides on floor and/or keep knees bent as you lower; to make it harder, straighten legs throughout the whole movement)
8. [hip flexor lunge stretch:]I personally like the one where both knees are at 90deg, and really try to tuck your butt under so the stretch is focused in the hip flexors. Or play around with both versions!
9. [glute bridge] Make sure you keep your pelvis tucked.
For all of these, only go as far as you can before it gets too tiring to perform them correctly. Rest and repeat. If it's way too difficult, look up regressions.
If you have a foam roller, massage ball, or peanut, it can be helpful to work on your thoracic spine (your back, at the bottom of your ribcage to your neck), lats, hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, quads. You would work the area with your tool before you stretch the area.
*If you experience pain, tingling, numbness, pulsing, STOP and go see a physio!*
**If you're trying to improve your posture (or are worried that you're too far gone), here are some things I want you to know:**
* "Posture" is the sum of all of the frequent movements that you do. It is a constantly changing, adapting thing which means it's usually fixable. This is your body doing what it does best-- adapting to better suit the tasks of your body! However, because posture is the sum of your movements, you have to KEEP reminding your body that you need it for more than just sitting at a desk. Consistency is key.
* "Good posture" isn't tiring. Since posture is just a result of the things you do, that means you just have "good posture" or you don't. You don't force yourself to sit upright with your shoulders pulled back (in fact, that's counterproductive-- though there are ways you can sit to mitigate). These exercises aren't meant for you to STAY in these positions throughout the day.
# Now, if you want to dig into things, read on!
BUT, WHAT IS A GOOD POSTURE?
What we call "good posture" is just neutral while standing. Basically, your ears and shoulders should be stacked over your hips all in one line perpendicular to the pull of gravity, with natural (not excessive!) curves in your spine. Keep in mind that our bodies are supposed to MOVE, so it doesn't always mean that your shoulders must always stay under your ears in every movement.
When you spend most of your waking life at a desk, the message that you're sending to your body is that this *is* your life, this is what you've been doing with your body, so this is what you're probably going to continue doing. Your body responds by adapting to make this specific job easier for you. It's more efficient from a brain/muscle processing perspective, like how you don't have to think about how to walk every time you get up.
What happens to your body when you sit at a desk? Your hips bend, you're reaching forward and towards the center of your body so your arms and shoulders are reaching forward and internally rotated (towards your midline). Your body is **supposed** to be doing these things when you're at your desk-- none of these positions are objectively bad! Having "good" or "bad" posture doesn't mean as much as the movement and the range that is available to your body. Think of it like you've "reprogrammed" your default position to better suit your lifestyle, but in doing so, you've lost some other movement.
The problem is that you're taking it everywhere you go. So you've adapted and are now residing somewhere a bit away from neutral. Now you have to *work* to get back to neutral. If you want to do something with your shoulders back (the opposite of where you're stuck), it's going to take more work for you than someone who is starting with shoulders in neutral; you're starting behind the start line. (Don't feel bad though, most people have tight shoulders!)
HOW TO ‘FIX’ POSTURE?
You fix it by doing the things that move you away from position you're stuck in. For a lot of people, these movements are easy to do wrong, and hard to do right. That makes sense, because you're basically trying to swim against the current here. But this *is* the work. You're doing these exercises to tell your body that you want it to do other things besides being a better fit for deskwork. You teach your body new ways of movement; you get rid of a movement pattern by installing something better, and you do this by helping those weakened/lengthened muscles catch up. Remember, your body WANTS to be efficient. Once those muscles are caught up and your brain knows it can use these muscles, you will!
**These exercises are not the positions you're supposed to stay in throughout the day.**
No, you don't stay with your chest sticking out or walk around with your chin smushed in. They're just ways to program different movement patterns to your brain. It's the *sum* of all of your frequent movements that your posture comes from. This also means that "good posture" won't feel like you're working. It also means that it can be changed, and that consistent training is important!
**Exercises: forward head, forward & internally rotated shoulders** *(aka upper crossed syndrome or nerd neck!)*
**Head/neck:** Where is your keyboard/phone relative to your body? The adaptation is to curl your upper body and head over the area you're manipulating. Imagine your skull is like a (heavy) ball on top of a small-ish platform, and that this ball can spin in place. The most energy efficient position is for the ball to be stacked directly on top of the platform right? However, at your desk, the platform (your upper body) is tipped forward which in turn moves your head forward. Then when you want to face directly ahead (like looking up to see where you're walking), the ball spins upward while the platform *stays* tipped forward. Think about how much more work your body has to do to keep your head up!
**Shoulders:** Your shoulders are like a ball in a cup. The ball is the end of your arm bone (humerus) and the cup is actually the corner of your shoulder blade. This whole cup/ball unit sits on the back of your ribcage; your arms, shoulders, and upper/mid back all work with each other very closely. These exercises work the muscles that move your shoulder blades in those directions that are limited by your posture, the main muscles being mid/low trapezius, rhomboids, serratus anterior, and rotator cuff external rotators.
Stretching is nice, but by itself it's not enough. It temporarily lengthens muscles that are chronically shortened, so you can stretch those muscles before you perform these exercises.
**Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT)**
Common signs are if your tummy pooches out, your low back is really arched, or your butt sticks out.
**(Pelvic tilt:** Think of your pelvis like a bucket full of water. In anterior pelvic tilt, your pelvis tips forward, dumping water down the front of your pants. In posterior pelvic tilt, your pelvis tips backward, water going down the back.)
Having furniture is nice because it supports us, cradling the back, the spine, etc. It does such a good job of supporting that your brain, in its never-ending quest for efficiency, will think "*Why do I have to use all this energy stabilizing and supporting our spine and pelvis if we have furniture to do it for us?*" APT usually happens when your core doesn't counter the pull of gravity or tightened hip flexors on your pelvis. Hip flexors are chronically shortened when you sit a lot, because your hips have to bend to sit.
The [transversus abdominus]and [internal obliques]are the deepest muscles in your core. It's hard to feel these muscles working (also why you shouldn't use "muscle burn" to gauge how hard you're working), but you can watch what your hips are doing. There are TONS of deep core exercises; dead bug is just one of them. Here, you're isolating the movement of your legs from your pelvis. You're holding your pelvis and spine in place, while your legs move. This works your deep core because it's getting challenged with the weight and movement of your legs.
If you're struggling with dead bug, you might want to play around with engaging your deep core by itself. Since the TvA wraps all the way around your midsection, it'll look like your belly is drawn in when you engage it. Again:
1. [Deep core activation]
2. [Dead bug] also, careful how you get into the starting position! It's essentially doing the exercise already. Play around with doing this here, or somewhere between the next two.
3. Stretch hip flexors: [lunge](I personally like the one where both knees are at 90deg, and really try to tuck your butt under so the stretch is focused in the hip flexors. Or play around with both versions!)
4. The glutes are the muscle group that opposes your hip flexors: [glute bridge] make sure you keep your pelvis tucked.
You know what else is closely linked to your core? Breathing! This is because the diaphragm (and your pelvic floor!) are considered part of your core! If you have a habit of chest breathing, try out some belly breathing.
BONUS: GUIDE TO LAYING DOWN.
Always lay down in prone position as much as possible. I am in prone position rn in my bed as I type this. My neck is tilted upwards and I feel a pressure in the opp direction of we normally sit on a desk.
If you sit at a desk a lot, you likely have some forward head/shoulders and APT. Here's how you can start to work on it! Everything you need to know to get started including some exercise suggestions, plus discussion if you want to understand what's going on.
Here's a list of exercises if you just want to know what to start working on! Forward head/shoulders and/or anterior pelvic tilt (increased low back arch, belly & butt stick out) is very common in people who sit at a desk a lot and don't do much else. I'm posting the first decent video that I come across for each one but I'm sure there are a lot of other great ones. Most of these are easy to do wrong, difficult to do right, so prioritize FORM:
1. [upper traps] Stretch the tops of your shoulders
2. Stretch the front corners of your neck
3. Stretch pecs. - [wall stretch] or [doorway stretch]
4. [chin tuck]or [laying down]or sitting upright [isometrics] Keep the back of your neck long, as if someone is pulling your head up (which is why I think the laying down one is useful, you can feel for the surface; if you physically can't reach, you can roll up a towel under your neck and try again) (yes you look weird doing these!)
5. [wall angel) Go only as far as you can while keeping your back pressed into the wall, and keep your wrists closer to the wall than your elbows.
6. ( For face pulls, do NOT jut your head forward (keep it long and high), do NOT let your shoulders pop forward. You can use resistance bands or even no equipment to start with. For YTA, the hand position is important because it directly influences what your shoulder is doing.
7. [dead bug]: Do NOT let your hips move or get pulled by your legs, only go as far as you can while maintaining the stable pelvis (to make it easier, leave arms by your sides on floor and/or keep knees bent as you lower; to make it harder, straighten legs throughout the whole movement)
8. [hip flexor lunge stretch:]I personally like the one where both knees are at 90deg, and really try to tuck your butt under so the stretch is focused in the hip flexors. Or play around with both versions!
9. [glute bridge] Make sure you keep your pelvis tucked.
For all of these, only go as far as you can before it gets too tiring to perform them correctly. Rest and repeat. If it's way too difficult, look up regressions.
If you have a foam roller, massage ball, or peanut, it can be helpful to work on your thoracic spine (your back, at the bottom of your ribcage to your neck), lats, hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, quads. You would work the area with your tool before you stretch the area.
*If you experience pain, tingling, numbness, pulsing, STOP and go see a physio!*
**If you're trying to improve your posture (or are worried that you're too far gone), here are some things I want you to know:**
* "Posture" is the sum of all of the frequent movements that you do. It is a constantly changing, adapting thing which means it's usually fixable. This is your body doing what it does best-- adapting to better suit the tasks of your body! However, because posture is the sum of your movements, you have to KEEP reminding your body that you need it for more than just sitting at a desk. Consistency is key.
* "Good posture" isn't tiring. Since posture is just a result of the things you do, that means you just have "good posture" or you don't. You don't force yourself to sit upright with your shoulders pulled back (in fact, that's counterproductive-- though there are ways you can sit to mitigate). These exercises aren't meant for you to STAY in these positions throughout the day.
# Now, if you want to dig into things, read on!
BUT, WHAT IS A GOOD POSTURE?
What we call "good posture" is just neutral while standing. Basically, your ears and shoulders should be stacked over your hips all in one line perpendicular to the pull of gravity, with natural (not excessive!) curves in your spine. Keep in mind that our bodies are supposed to MOVE, so it doesn't always mean that your shoulders must always stay under your ears in every movement.
When you spend most of your waking life at a desk, the message that you're sending to your body is that this *is* your life, this is what you've been doing with your body, so this is what you're probably going to continue doing. Your body responds by adapting to make this specific job easier for you. It's more efficient from a brain/muscle processing perspective, like how you don't have to think about how to walk every time you get up.
What happens to your body when you sit at a desk? Your hips bend, you're reaching forward and towards the center of your body so your arms and shoulders are reaching forward and internally rotated (towards your midline). Your body is **supposed** to be doing these things when you're at your desk-- none of these positions are objectively bad! Having "good" or "bad" posture doesn't mean as much as the movement and the range that is available to your body. Think of it like you've "reprogrammed" your default position to better suit your lifestyle, but in doing so, you've lost some other movement.
The problem is that you're taking it everywhere you go. So you've adapted and are now residing somewhere a bit away from neutral. Now you have to *work* to get back to neutral. If you want to do something with your shoulders back (the opposite of where you're stuck), it's going to take more work for you than someone who is starting with shoulders in neutral; you're starting behind the start line. (Don't feel bad though, most people have tight shoulders!)
HOW TO ‘FIX’ POSTURE?
You fix it by doing the things that move you away from position you're stuck in. For a lot of people, these movements are easy to do wrong, and hard to do right. That makes sense, because you're basically trying to swim against the current here. But this *is* the work. You're doing these exercises to tell your body that you want it to do other things besides being a better fit for deskwork. You teach your body new ways of movement; you get rid of a movement pattern by installing something better, and you do this by helping those weakened/lengthened muscles catch up. Remember, your body WANTS to be efficient. Once those muscles are caught up and your brain knows it can use these muscles, you will!
**These exercises are not the positions you're supposed to stay in throughout the day.**
No, you don't stay with your chest sticking out or walk around with your chin smushed in. They're just ways to program different movement patterns to your brain. It's the *sum* of all of your frequent movements that your posture comes from. This also means that "good posture" won't feel like you're working. It also means that it can be changed, and that consistent training is important!
**Exercises: forward head, forward & internally rotated shoulders** *(aka upper crossed syndrome or nerd neck!)*
**Head/neck:** Where is your keyboard/phone relative to your body? The adaptation is to curl your upper body and head over the area you're manipulating. Imagine your skull is like a (heavy) ball on top of a small-ish platform, and that this ball can spin in place. The most energy efficient position is for the ball to be stacked directly on top of the platform right? However, at your desk, the platform (your upper body) is tipped forward which in turn moves your head forward. Then when you want to face directly ahead (like looking up to see where you're walking), the ball spins upward while the platform *stays* tipped forward. Think about how much more work your body has to do to keep your head up!
**Shoulders:** Your shoulders are like a ball in a cup. The ball is the end of your arm bone (humerus) and the cup is actually the corner of your shoulder blade. This whole cup/ball unit sits on the back of your ribcage; your arms, shoulders, and upper/mid back all work with each other very closely. These exercises work the muscles that move your shoulder blades in those directions that are limited by your posture, the main muscles being mid/low trapezius, rhomboids, serratus anterior, and rotator cuff external rotators.
Stretching is nice, but by itself it's not enough. It temporarily lengthens muscles that are chronically shortened, so you can stretch those muscles before you perform these exercises.
**Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT)**
Common signs are if your tummy pooches out, your low back is really arched, or your butt sticks out.
**(Pelvic tilt:** Think of your pelvis like a bucket full of water. In anterior pelvic tilt, your pelvis tips forward, dumping water down the front of your pants. In posterior pelvic tilt, your pelvis tips backward, water going down the back.)
Having furniture is nice because it supports us, cradling the back, the spine, etc. It does such a good job of supporting that your brain, in its never-ending quest for efficiency, will think "*Why do I have to use all this energy stabilizing and supporting our spine and pelvis if we have furniture to do it for us?*" APT usually happens when your core doesn't counter the pull of gravity or tightened hip flexors on your pelvis. Hip flexors are chronically shortened when you sit a lot, because your hips have to bend to sit.
The [transversus abdominus]and [internal obliques]are the deepest muscles in your core. It's hard to feel these muscles working (also why you shouldn't use "muscle burn" to gauge how hard you're working), but you can watch what your hips are doing. There are TONS of deep core exercises; dead bug is just one of them. Here, you're isolating the movement of your legs from your pelvis. You're holding your pelvis and spine in place, while your legs move. This works your deep core because it's getting challenged with the weight and movement of your legs.
If you're struggling with dead bug, you might want to play around with engaging your deep core by itself. Since the TvA wraps all the way around your midsection, it'll look like your belly is drawn in when you engage it. Again:
1. [Deep core activation]
2. [Dead bug] also, careful how you get into the starting position! It's essentially doing the exercise already. Play around with doing this here, or somewhere between the next two.
3. Stretch hip flexors: [lunge](I personally like the one where both knees are at 90deg, and really try to tuck your butt under so the stretch is focused in the hip flexors. Or play around with both versions!)
4. The glutes are the muscle group that opposes your hip flexors: [glute bridge] make sure you keep your pelvis tucked.
You know what else is closely linked to your core? Breathing! This is because the diaphragm (and your pelvic floor!) are considered part of your core! If you have a habit of chest breathing, try out some belly breathing.
BONUS: GUIDE TO LAYING DOWN.
Always lay down in prone position as much as possible. I am in prone position rn in my bed as I type this. My neck is tilted upwards and I feel a pressure in the opp direction of we normally sit on a desk.
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