Check your posture right now. Are you craning your neck forward? Hunching your shoulders? Chest caved in a little?
This is how most people sit when looking at devices. Physios have told me that’s because slouching is your body’s way of conserving energy.
There’s nothing wrong with the occasional slouch—but when you’re holding this position for long periods, day after day, it causes imbalances.
Muscles in your back can become overstretched, while opposing muscles in your chest become shortened, which can affect the quality of your breathing.
When using a chair for support, your back muscles and core become weaker too, as they’re not called upon to hold your torso upright.
Moving more and sitting less will help combat this, but trainer Samantha Cubbins also recommends targeting weakened muscles with some specific exercises.
She’s the manager at Gymshark’s UK Lifting Club and oversees members-only strength sessions that are specifically for posture improvement—here are her favorite posture-boosting moves.
Single-arm bent-over row
Sets: 3 Reps: 10 each side
- Stand side on to a weight bench on your left, holding a dumbbell in your right hand.
- Place your left hand and left knee on the weight bench, so your torso is almost horizontal, letting your right arm hang down.
- Lift the dumbbell to your ribs, bending your elbow and drawing it straight up past your torso.
- Lower slowly with control.
- Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.
“I love a single-arm dumbbell row,” says Cubbins. “You can build muscle through your rear deltoids around the back, your rhomboids in the middle. You can activate your lats.”
The rhomboids and lats in particular can be weakened by long periods of sitting, so reinforcing them with strength training will restore some of their function.
The benefit of performing this exercise on one side at a time is that it will allow you to have a greater range of motion at your shoulder joint and focus on engaging the right muscles.
Bent-over reverse fly
Sets: 3 Reps: 10-12
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a small bend in your knees, holding dumbbells by your sides.
- Keeping your back straight throughout, hinge forward from your hips until your torso is close to parallel to the floor, letting your arms hang down.
- Maintaining a slight bend in your elbows, raise the dumbbells out to the sides until they’re in line with your torso.
- Lower with control.
This move will hit various muscles in your back and around your shoulders, primarily the rhomboids, trapezius and deltoids.
Strengthening these muscles will help restore strength and mobility to your shoulders, which might be negatively affected if you’re hunched over all day.
Lat pulldown
Sets: 3 Reps: 8-10
- Pick an appropriate weight on the lat pulldown machine, so the last few reps of each set are challenging, but don’t impact your form.
- Hold the pulldown bar in an overhand grip and sit on the chair, keeping your arms straight and feet flat on the floor.
- Pull the bar to your chest, leading the movement with your elbows.
- Slowly let the bar rise to the starting position, controlling the movement.
This move will primarily target your large latissimus dorsi muscle, which can weaken if you sit down all day.
You could opt for pull-ups instead or the lat pulldown, as they work similar muscles.
Cubbins is an advocate for trying to work up the strength to do an unassisted pull-up.
“When you can lift your own body weight, it gives you more confidence coming into the gym—because you know you can lift you.”
Seated row
Sets: 3 Reps: 8-10
- Pick an appropriate weight on a seated row or cable machine—so the last few reps of each set are challenging, but don’t impact your form—and connect the triangle row attachment.
- Sit in the chair and hold the handles, with your arms straight and a slight bend in your knees.
- Pull the handles to your ribs, bending your elbows and drawing them past your torso, and squeezing your shoulder blades.
- Slowly reverse the movement to the start, controlling the movement of the weight stack.
Cubbins says that rowing motions are great if you care about posture, because they encourage your body to move out of that hunched-forward position, unlike some other exercises.
“With running, with cycling, with all these exercises, they pull your shoulders forwards, whereas when you’re rowing, you’re opening out your chest, which helps you with posture and confidence—you can even breathe easier,” says Cubbins.
Overhead squat
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 6-8
- Stand with your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart and a barbell resting on your shoulders, hands holding the bar.
- Bend your knees slightly to drive the bar up overhead, arms locked out straight.
- Holding the bar above your head, perform a squat by bending your knees and hips.
- When your thighs are parallel to the floor or lower, push through your feet to stand, keeping the barbell overhead.
- When you’ve finished your repetitions, lower the bar to your shoulders and lower it back on a squat rack or the floor.
This is an advanced, full-body exercise, targeting muscles in your legs, core and upper back. You can add weight to the barbell to make it more challenging. Always practice with a resistance band or pipe before adding weight.
Cubbins cautions that if you’re new to this move you should ask a trainer to coach you on how to do it.
A beginner-friendly alternative is practice wall-facing squats, positioning your hands up high against the wall and allowing them to slide up and down the surface as your squat.
This ensures you’re keeping your chest upright and engaging your core, rather than collapsing forward during the squat.
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