From Slouched to Upright, Morning to Night

Welp, your mom was right. It really is important to sit up and stand up straight. That’s right, posture truly makes a world of difference when it comes to not only our balance, but also in preventing aches and pains. This is because if we are chronically in a slouched, forward, or bent-over position, our center of gravity begins to shift forward as well. This throws off our balance, putting us at higher fall risk. This also places increased stress on our joints and muscles, which can cause and exacerbate aches and pains. In this post, we will walk through an entire day and illuminate little pockets of opportunities to improve your posture, with quick and easy adjustments!

Yawn! Good morning! You’re just waking up and rolling out of bed. Now what? Many people sleep in a curled up position, so your body may feel a little more slouched and stiff when you first wake up. A perfect morning mantra to get into the habit of thinking is “lift, open, and up.” I’ve talked about this saying before, but it’s especially helpful first thing in the morning because it can really help to align our bodies into a more upright and neutral position. Let’s go into more detail on this: 

Lift: While you’re still sitting at the edge of your bed, picture yourself as a puppet on a string, as if someone is pulling you up from the crown of your head. Visualize your head being lifted towards the ceiling, and your ears being pulled back until they are directly over your shoulders. 

Open: Still sitting at the edge of your bed, you’re next going to pull your shoulders down and back, so your chest and shoulders can stretch and open up. 

Up: Now stand up from your bed. Stand as tall and as straight up as you can, with your shoulders stacked directly over your hips. You can revisit the “lift” and “open” cues as well now that you’re standing up, to ensure your ears are stacked over your shoulders, and that your shoulders and chest are open. 

Now as you begin walking, try your best to maintain this lifted, open, and upright position. This may take some practice! But the more consistent you are, the easier it will get, and the less you’ll have to think about it. Soon, sitting and standing more upright will be your go-to habit, instead of always being slouched or bent forward.

You are now walking to your kitchen to get some breakfast. Are you using a walker? If so, make sure you are standing inside the frame of the walker. So many of my patients make this mistake: they walk behind the walker, and as such, they end up leaning forward to hold the walker’s handles. If you take a step or two forward so that you are standing within the walker’s frame, this will automatically help keep you more upright as you walk. If this doesn’t feel right, you may need to adjust the height of your walker. You can watch a video that shows how to do this correctly: click here to watch on Instagram or click here to watch on Facebook.

Then, you sit down for breakfast. Ideally, you want to be sitting in a chair that allows your feet to be flat on the floor and your back well supported. To achieve this, especially if you are short or if your chair is on the taller side, you may need to add a prop or two. First, you can try placing a pillow or two behind your back. If your feet still don’t reach to be flat on the ground this way, you can also put a foot stool under your feet. You also want to scoot your chair far enough in towards your table so that you can sit fairly upright. This way you aren’t having to constantly lean or curl your upper body forward to get to your food. 

Next, you climb into your car to run errands or to get to work. Similar to sitting in your chair for breakfast, you’ll want the seat of your car to be forward enough so that you can sit upright without having to lean forward to reach the steering wheel. Most people’s seats are set way too far back, so when they get in, they automatically have to hunch forward to reach their steering wheel. Try sitting all the way back into your seat, with your head actually resting against the headrest. (Did you even realize that’s what it’s there for?!) Now place your hands on the steering wheel. Did your head and upper back just pop forward, no longer resting against your seat and headrest? That’s your sign to move your seat further forward. You can watch a video example of this: click here to watch on Instagram or click here to watch on Facebook. You may also try placing a small pillow or rolled-up towel behind your low back when sitting in your car. This can help support your natural lumbar lordosis- or the normal curve in your lower back- especially during longer car rides. 

As you drive, you likely aren’t continually thinking about your posture, and rightfully so! You’re focused on the traffic, where you’re going, and what tasks you need to do once you arrive. For this reason, it can be easy to fall out of good alignment while driving. My favorite strategy for combating this problem is the stoplight reset. Whenever you stop at a stoplight, take a moment to check in with your body position. Is your head still back against the headrest, or has it inched forward towards the front windshield? Are you sitting upright, or have you fallen into that hunched position? Are your shoulders relaxed, or are they scrunched up towards your ears? You can quickly and easily assess whether you’ve maintained a fairly good position or whether you’ve fallen into that slumped posture, and correct as needed. The stoplight reset is great because it’s an automatic reminder to occasionally check in with your posture whenever you’re in the car. Plus, over time you’ll find that you won’t have to adjust your position as much or as often, because you’ll be forming a new habit of sitting more upright when you’re in the car. Win-win! 

Now you’re sitting at your desk at work, or maybe you’re at home sitting down to read a book or use your computer. The longer you’ll be sitting in that one place, the more important these tips become to ensure your body is properly aligned and supported to minimize aches and pains. Regardless of the particular sitting scenario, certainly the tips we talked about with regards to sitting at breakfast will still apply: sitting with your feet flat on the ground and on a surface with good back support. When it comes to reading a book, or using a computer or a laptop, you want to ensure it’s at your eye level. This way, you aren’t craning your neck looking down at your book or up at your screen: you are looking straight ahead at it. If you’re at a desk or table, this usually isn’t too difficult, as you can raise or lower your chair height (and sometimes even the desk height, too), or you can place some books under your computer or laptop to raise its height, if needed. If you are sitting in a recliner or sofa where you are just holding your book or laptop, the same rules apply, but you’ll have to get a bit more creative. Stacking a few pillows on your lap can be very helpful, so this way your book or screen is brought up to eye level. 

While you’re working or reading, similar to driving, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the task at hand and before you know it, you’re sitting in a wonky position for… who knows how long! An easy strategy to help with this is to set a timer: this could be on your phone (great because you can easily reset it as soon as it goes off), or on your microwave or oven (also great, because it forces you to get up and walk over to turn it off!). Just like the stoplight reset in your car, when the alarm goes off, you’ll simply take a moment to check in with your body’s position and make any adjustments. I suggest starting with a five-minute timer, and once you find that you’re consistently able to maintain a good posture/setup when that five-minute timer goes off, then increase it to 8 or 10 minutes. You can keep increasing the length of time that you set on your timer, as your body is able to maintain that good position for longer periods at a time. 

Phew, it’s been a long day! It’s the end of the day, and you’re climbing into bed. Maybe you’re in the habit of doing some reading in bed before going to sleep, or maybe you watch some TV before dozing off. Either way, it’s a good idea to prop some pillows behind you so you can sit more upright and with your back supported as you’re reading or watching TV. Many people lie down and just prop their head up to do these activities, which places a lot of strain on the neck. You can also position a couple of pillows on your lap if you’re reading, so that you can hold your book at eye level more easily. Again, this reduces stress on your neck because you’re not having to look down to read.

You’ve made it: it’s finally time to go to sleep. Here are my last few quick tips that can improve your posture, even while you sleep! First, let’s look at how many pillows are under your head when you sleep. Ideally it’s only one pillow, unless the pillows are truly so very thin, then maybe two. The type of pillow with regard to firmness, thickness, etc will vary person to person- whatever is most comfortable for you. However, one trick I love teaching and that will work regardless of pillow type, is the towel roll trick. Here it is: Grab a hand towel and roll it lengthwise, so it’s a long roll. Now slide this towel roll inside of your pillowcase, and scoot it down so it’s at the bottom of the pillow. Now whether you lie on your back or on your side, you should feel the towel roll support the curve of your neck in both of these sleep positions. The nice thing about this trick is that it’s fully customizable: if it feels too bulky, pull out the towel and unroll it slightly so it’s not so big. If you need more support, add another hand towel to the roll so it’s larger. Since it’s inside of your pillowcase, it won’t move around during the night, even if you’re tossing and turning. It seems too simple to be true, but I have truly had hundreds of patients over the years who swear by this towel roll trick. You can watch a video example of the towel roll trick: click here to watch on Instagram or click here to watch on Facebook.

From morning to night, there are so many opportunities to improve and support your posture throughout your day. Choose one or two of these ideas to try out for a week, and see if you notice a difference. These little adjustments really do add up to help realign and recenter us, which is critical in ensuring adequate balance as we age. Not only that, but good posture also reduces aches and pains, and even prevents a lot of them from starting in the first place as well. 

Do you have topics that you'd like to see me cover in a future blog post? Email me at [email protected]