How to Have Perfect Posture (3 Key Exercises)
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Ali Abdaal, a doctor turned entrepreneur, discusses the myth of perfect posture and the importance of comfort in sitting and standing positions. Health expert Dan Go debunks the idea of a single correct posture, emphasizing the need for varied positions to prevent muscle strain. The video highlights three exercises to improve posture: bar hangs to strengthen grip and decompress the spine, glute bridges and hip thrusts to activate and strengthen glutes, and face pulls to engage the upper back and thoracic spine. These exercises aim to enhance overall strength, which naturally improves posture.
Takeaways
- π§ There is no single 'perfect posture'; comfort and frequent position changes are more beneficial.
- ποΈββοΈ Sitting or standing in one position for long periods can lead to muscle stiffness and discomfort.
- π A study published in the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy suggests that posture should be comfortable and varied.
- π€ΈββοΈ Regularly changing posture every 15-20 minutes can help maintain spinal health and prevent lower back pain.
- π« The aesthetic of 'good posture' does not necessarily correlate with athletic performance or overall health.
- πͺ Improving grip strength can have positive impacts on overall health, including longevity and reduced risk of diseases.
- π€² Bar hangs are an effective exercise for stretching the lats, decompressing the spine, and improving grip strength.
- π Strong glutes are crucial for maintaining good posture; exercises like glute bridges and hip thrusts can strengthen them.
- ποΈββοΈ Face pulls are an exercise that targets the upper back muscles, helping to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing posture.
- π Strengthening grip, glutes, and core indirectly improves posture as a byproduct of overall increased strength.
Q & A
What is the biggest myth about posture according to the transcript?
-The biggest myth about posture is that there is a perfect posture. People often believe in a singular ideal posture, but the transcript explains that the best posture is the one that you are most comfortable in and that varies from person to person.
How often should one change their sitting position to maintain good posture?
-The transcript suggests changing your sitting position every 15 to 20 minutes to maintain good posture and avoid the discomfort and potential issues associated with sitting in one position for too long.
What does the quote 'your best posture is your next posture' imply?
-This quote implies that constantly changing and moving is better for posture than staying in one fixed position. It suggests that variety in posture is healthy and static posture is not ideal.
What is the role of grip strength in relation to posture and overall health?
-Grip strength is an excellent indicator of overall health, including risk factors for diseases like diabetes and dementia. It's also a biomarker of aging, with weaker grip strength correlating with faster aging rates.
What are the three key exercises recommended to improve posture in the transcript?
-The three key exercises recommended are bar hangs, glute bridges, and face pulls. These exercises target grip strength, glute strength, and upper back muscles, respectively, which all contribute to better posture.
How can bar hangs help with posture improvement?
-Bar hangs help with posture by stretching out the lats, decompressing the spine, and activating the upper back muscles. This can lead to a more natural and aesthetically pleasing posture over time.
Why are glute bridges important for posture?
-Glute bridges are important for posture because strong glutes help you stand tall and maintain an upright position. Weak glutes can lead to compensatory movements and poor posture.
What is the significance of the face pull exercise in improving posture?
-The face pull exercise is significant for posture because it works on retracting the shoulder blades and activating the thoracic spine and upper back muscles, which are crucial for maintaining an upright and strong posture.
How does the transcript suggest starting with bar hangs for beginners?
-For beginners, the transcript suggests starting with bar hangs by having the feet lightly touching the surface, which allows for a challenging yet manageable grip on the bar.
What is the recommended frequency for doing bar hangs according to the transcript?
-The transcript recommends doing bar hangs every single day if possible, or at least three times a week, with the aim of gradually increasing the duration over time.
How does the transcript connect grip strength to the risk of lower back pain?
-The transcript connects grip strength to the risk of lower back pain by stating that weak grip strength can increase the risk of lower back pain, as it may indicate overall weaker muscle strength, which is crucial for supporting the back.
Outlines
π§ββοΈ Posture Myths and Perfect Posture
The speaker, Ali, introduces the topic of posture by discussing personal experiences with bad posture due to long desk hours and lack of exercise. Ali then interviews health expert and fitness coach, Dan, to understand the concept of perfect posture. They debunk the myth of a single perfect posture, emphasizing that the most comfortable posture is often the best. The discussion highlights the importance of changing posture every 15 to 20 minutes, as staying in one position for too long can worsen lower back pain. Ali also mentions a paper from the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, which supports the idea that there's no single correct posture and that comfort and movement are key. The myth that good posture correlates with athletic performance is also addressed, with the conclusion that posture is more about aesthetics and individual comfort.
πͺ Improving Posture Through Strength Exercises
Ali and Dan focus on exercises to improve posture. They emphasize that grip strength is a significant indicator of overall health and can even be a biomarker of aging. The first exercise recommended is the bar hang, which helps stretch the lats and decompress the spine, potentially improving posture. The video explains two types of bar hangs: passive and active. Passive hangs involve simply hanging to allow the spine to decompress, while active hangs engage the upper back for better posture. Ali shares his personal goal of improving his bar hang duration and the use of an app to track progress. The paragraph also discusses the correlation between grip strength and health outcomes like diabetes, dementia, and longevity, suggesting that stronger grip strength can lead to a slower aging rate and decreased risk of diseases.
π Strengthening Glutes for Better Posture
The paragraph delves into the importance of glute strength for posture. Ali explains that weak glutes, often a result of prolonged sitting, can lead to poor posture. To counter this, Ali recommends glute bridge exercises, which help activate the glutes and improve posture. The video demonstrates how to perform glute bridge holds and suggests daily practice for best results. It also touches on the glute bridge test to assess the strength of the glutes and the need to balance the workload between the glutes and other supporting muscles like the quadriceps. For those with access to a gym, hip thrusts are suggested as an advanced exercise to strengthen the glutes using progressive overload. The paragraph concludes with the idea that strong glutes contribute to better standing and walking posture.
ποΈββοΈ Face Pulls for Postural Improvement
The final paragraph introduces the face pull exercise, which targets the rhomboids and upper back to improve posture. Ali explains that weak rhomboids can lead to a hunched posture, and face pulls can help correct this by pulling the shoulders back. The exercise is demonstrated using a resistance band and a cable machine with a rope attachment. Ali shares personal anecdotes about the benefits of face pulls on his posture and the aesthetic improvement it brings. The video concludes with a summary that there's no perfect posture, but by focusing on overall strength, particularly in the grip, glutes, and core, one can indirectly improve their posture. Ali also promotes a related video on health habits backed by scientific research.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Posture
π‘Myth
π‘Grip Strength
π‘Bar Hangs
π‘Glutes
π‘Hip Thrusts
π‘Face Pull
π‘Progressive Overload
π‘Aesthetic Posture
π‘Chronological Age
π‘Biological Age
Highlights
The myth of posture is that there is a perfect posture, but comfort and changing positions are more important.
The best posture is the one you're most comfortable in, often changing every 15 to 20 minutes.
The study from the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy suggests there's no single correct posture.
Adopting more comfortable postures and trusting the spine's robustness is recommended.
Good posture doesn't necessarily correlate with athletic performance.
Grip strength is an excellent indicator of overall health and can be improved with exercises like bar hangs.
Bar hangs help stretch the lats and decompress the spine, which can improve posture.
Grip strength is considered a biomarker of aging, with weaker grip strength correlating with faster aging rates.
Strong glutes are crucial for good posture, and exercises like glute bridges can help strengthen them.
Glute bridge holds increase glute endurance and help activate the glutes.
Hip thrusts with progressive overload can strengthen and build the glutes over time.
Face pulls are an exercise that targets the upper back and helps with posture by retraction of shoulder blades.
Strengthening the grip, glutes, and core indirectly improves posture as a byproduct.
The video emphasizes that there's no perfect posture, but improving strength can lead to better aesthetic posture.
The video also discusses the importance of experiencing progress for feel-good productivity.
Transcripts
all right so for most of my life I've
had pretty bad posture I often work long
days at my desk and I don't exercise
enough and so I struggle to sit upright
but recently I spoke to health expert
and fitness coach Dan go about how
anyone can have perfect posture and what
perfect posture actually means so
there's a big myth around posture so we
first talk about the biggest myth around
posture and then we go through the three
key exercises you can do to improve your
posture oh and by the way if you're new
here hi my name is Ali I'm a doctor
turned entrepreneur and writer and the
author of Feelgood productivity which is
about how to be more productive in a way
that feels good but let's dive into this
posture stuff so the myth of posture is
the fact that there is a perfect posture
in the first place there's two types of
posture that people usually talk about
which is number one is going to be
sitting and the other one is going to be
standing so when it comes to sitting
everyone thinks that oh my gosh like you
have to stand with your shoulder blades
back and you have to be like perfectly
tight you have to have something stuck
up your butt so you kind of like remain
in that position and your the the string
has to be pulling your neck this way but
what we're seeing with a lot of studies
is the fact that the next posture that
you're in is the best one the one that
you're most comfortable in is the best
one and usually what that means is it
means like switching up the way in which
you're sitting every like 15 to 20
minutes all right so there's this quote
that says your best posture is your next
posture and this goes against a lot of
what we see online in the health space
and even what we're told by some doctors
so we're told to sit up straight or
stand up straight and not to slouch in
our CC and have like our shoulders back
and our chest out and we're told this
not because the science says that this
is the right thing to do but because it
looks good or because some people say it
helps prevent things like lower back
pain now when it comes to standing the
myth is is that you have to stand
straight all the time and your shoulder
blades have to be back and your chest
has to be high and your your back has to
be like activated when it comes to
standing what we're looking for is the
aesthetic of what good posture looks
like the truth is that everyone is going
to have a different look to how they
stand so it really seems like we need to
change the way that we think about
posture so this is a paper published in
the Journal of orthopedic and sports
physical therapy and it's titled sit up
straight time to reevaluate and here are
some of the key takeaways from that
paper so firstly there is no single
correct posture and this makes sense
because we're all different shapes and
sizes and our spines curve differently
so one size fits all approach just isn't
logical secondly you should adopt more
comfortable postures and this may well
involve sitting with a slight slouch on
your sofa or at your desk if that feels
more comfortable thirdly we need to
remember that the spine is robust and
can be trusted and fourthly moving and
changing position can be helpful so like
Dan said small adjustments every 15
minutes or so is pretty good and we
often do this without even thinking
about it because it feels totally normal
and if you think about it staying in one
rigid upright position is actually kind
of painful and can actually worsen lower
back pain because you're not able to
relax your muscles I was also quite
surprised to hear from Dan that good
posture doesn't actually correlate with
athletic performance does good posture
actually relate to having some sort of
like performance benefit and I'm going
to say no it doesn't it's largely this
aesthetic thing at least from what we're
seeing in the evidence so what people
want is this look of aesthetically
looking like you have good posture which
allows you to be taller it gives you an
extra inch of height but in reality it's
like everyone has different posture and
it doesn't mean that because they may
look a little bit more like Hunchback
than others that they perform worse you
might actually find that you know
performance is going to differ between
people who have different types of
posture and everyone's body is different
that's the thing that we have to realize
so the key takea away from Dan and also
from these papers is that there is no
such thing as the perfect posture it is
more about how you feel but this does
not mean that there aren't things that
we can do to improve our posture from an
aesthetic perspective and so in the next
part of this video we're going to look
at what Dan feels are the three best
exercises that we can all do to improve
our posture oh by the way if you're
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all right so exercise number one is all
about grip strength and this little
device is called a hand dynamometer and
basically you just squeeze it as hard as
you possibly can and it measures your
grip strength and this graph for example
shows how your grip strength changes
over time as we get older for both males
and females our grip strength is at its
best when we're in our 30s and 40s which
is pretty cool for me as I've just
turned 30 and so I was very curious to
hear from Dan about how I can improve my
grip strength there are actually three
great exercises that you can do in order
to improve your posture number one is
going to be bar hangs and I'm not
talking about hanging at the bar with
your with your friends or what we did
yesterday but it's literally just
getting like a pull-up bar and just
hanging from it and there are two ways
to do bar hangs there's the passive way
where you're just hanging from a bar and
allowing kind of like your lats to
stretch you're allowing your spine to
decompress and then there's What's
called the active hang which is where
you're hanging on from a bar but then
you're also getting yourself into what
we call like you know proper posture
which is like pulling your shoulder
blades back and activating your upper
back and then that is the more advanced
way of doing a bar hang that's going to
help activate your upper back it's going
to pull your shoulder blades play back
and it's going to help you achieve that
look of good posture when you're
standing now the really cool thing here
is that grip strength is an excellent
indicator of overall health including
our risk of things like diabetes and
dementia and even in some studies
longevity which is kind of weird right
like why would the the the the strength
with which you can grip a thing
correlate with all these different
Health outcomes but according to some of
the research grip strength is now
considered a biomarker of aging and this
study from 2022 was the first to show
that people with weaker grip strength
age at a faster rate compared to people
with a stronger grip and they did this
by comparing your chronological age so
that's just the number that you can see
along the x-axis and we compared that
with biological age which was estimated
using a technique called DNA methylation
there'll be a link to the source down
below if you want to check it out we're
not going to go into it now this is what
the line Looks like for stronger grip
strength and this is what the line Looks
like for weaker grip strength and the
difference between these two lines is
essentially the difference in your rate
of Aging so if you have a weaker grip
strength over time as your chronological
age increases I.E as you become older
your biological age actually increases
more compared to if you have a stronger
grip strength now something else that's
really interesting is that grip strength
is an easy way to get an insight into
your overall muscle strength so that's
the strength basically in the rest of
your body for example this study looked
to see if there was a correlation
between grip strength relative to your
body size and lower back pain and when
they controlled for things like age and
sex and smoking and physical activity
and things like that they found that
weak grip strength increases your risk
of lower back pain compared to people
with a strong grip so if you have good
grip strength then it has a bunch of
different benefits firstly you increase
your chances of living longer and
decrease your risk of various diseases
or at least it's correlated in that way
secondly you're more likely to have a
stronger upper body stronger back and
stronger body overall thirdly you are
less likely to develop back pain because
you're strengthening all the muscles
around to support your back in theory
and fourthly you improve your posture as
a result of all of the above so with the
bar hang one of the main things that
it's doing is it is stretching out your
lats the other thing that's doing is
also decompressing your spine so a lot
of times when people have poor posture
it is due to the fact that their lower
back feels very sore or the fact that
feeling pain in the lower back so
they're kind of like hunched over so
through hanging from a bar you're just
employing gravity uh to your advantage
and gravity is just allowing your spine
to decompress as you're hanging from
that bar now this is how Dan suggests we
can start getting better at bar hangs
when it comes to the bar hangs for
beginners especially for people who
can't necessarily hold themselves up the
thing I like to do with them is I like
them to hang from a bar but also to have
their feet lightly touching a surface
just to make sure that they are giving
themselves enough uh grip onto the bar
where it's challenging enough but not to
the point where they can't grip the bar
at all so beginers should be aiming for
any anywhere between 30 I would say 15
to 30 seconds of the bar hang uh for
people who are a little bit more
advanced you should be aiming for 1
minute and if you really want to be
elite at a bar hang you want to be
aiming for at least like 2 minutes now
for me personally I can just about bar
hang for about 1 minute but I'm aiming
for 90 seconds and slow slowly inching
that up over time and I'm finding I'm
getting calluses in my hand hands but
like brown is good for me you should be
doing bar hangs I would say it's like
probably one of the best things to do is
like every single day yeah doing a bar
hang every every day if you can't do a
bar hang every day do it like three
times a week if you can't do it three
times a week then do it once a week and
if you're anything like me and you like
seeing numbers go up over time it's a
nice thing it gives us a feeling of
progress progress feels good it's one of
the whole philosophies of feel good
productivity find a way to experience
progress so I like tracking my bar hang
numbers over time and the app I use for
that is strong no affiliation no paid
partnership I just think it's a cool app
all right so exercise number two is all
to do with our glutes so one of the
things that people don't realize about
posture is all is is a lot about how
strong your glutes are so when your
glutes are strong what happens is is
that you're able to stand tall your
glutes are able to actually do a lot of
the movements for you whether it becomes
standing or walking the glutes are
supposed to be the second most powerful
muscle in your body the first one is
going to be your jaw but in a lot of
people especially when they sit down for
long periods of time their glutes they
don't necessarily turn off but they just
get more week they atrophy over the
course of sitting over the course of
Modern Life where it requires us to sit
for anywhere between 6 to 8 hours a day
so one of the things that we want to do
is we want to activate those glutes now
one of the first things you can do to
start working on your glutes is an
exercise that doesn't need any fancy
equipment at the gym and it's something
you can just do at home on the floor if
you're a complete beginner and you don't
have access to a barbell then glute
bridges are going to be fantastic I love
to do this thing called glute Bridge
holds and it's where you are doing glute
bridge but you're also holding it for
about anywhere between 5 to 10 seconds
what that does is it helps increase the
amount of glute endurance or muscular
endurance that you have and that's one
of the ways in which to start activating
the glutes all right so Dan got me to do
this glute Bridge test which tests how
strong your glutes are in the first
place so you do 15 glute Bridges and you
assess where you feel the strain is it
in your glutes or is it in your cords or
your hamstrings so if you're feeling
this uh this exercise in anywhere but
the glutes you can say you can actually
say that your supporting muscles are
doing some of the work outside of the
glutes being the main muscle that you
want to activate now what I find is with
a lot of clients when they're doing
something like this they are actually
finding that the quadriceps are getting
strained before the glutes do and to me
that is a sign that their glutes are
significantly weaker than their
quadriceps which is not what you want to
have happen so I asked then how often
should I be doing these glute Bridges I
like to do those glute Bridges every
single morning upon wake
and the reason I like to do that is
because number one it's just going to
remind my glutes to actually activate in
the first place and also uh for me I
come from a history of chronic lower
back pain so this is just to me one of
the mandatory exercises that I have to
do to make sure that my glutes are
activated to make sure I'm using them
throughout the day and also just to make
sure that I'm also relieving any kind of
like tightness that I would have in my
lower back as a result of doing them now
I don't do these as often as I would
like to but when I do do them I find
that there's it feels like there's a
release in my lower back which kind of
feels feels kind of nice but then if you
do have access to a gym or a barbell or
weights or a machine or whatever then
hip thrusts are a really good thing to
do and hip thrusts are fantastic because
you can use Progressive overload what we
call Progressive overload which is just
adding weight to the bar and then ever
so often what you're going to do is
you're going to do this it's basically
like a glute Bridge you're doing it on a
bench but you're using a barbell to lift
the weight up the other thing is is
every single week that you go to the gym
and you're doing these hip thrusts
you're going to add just like a little
bit of weight to what you're doing this
is going to increase the strength and
also the muscularity of your glutes and
then that is going to go a long way in
making sure that you're walking and also
standing with nice and Tall posture oh
by the way if you're enjoying this video
so far then you might like to subscribe
to Sunday Snippets this is a completely
free email that I send out every Sunday
where I talk through what I'm reading
and what I'm learning as I'm reading and
learning it now for example when it
comes to health stuff I have a personal
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a lot of people about health but it
takes like months for us to make one of
these YouTube videos so if you'd like to
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there'll be a link down below if you
want to check it out and finally we come
to exercise number three exercise number
three is what is called a face pull so a
face pull what it's doing is it's
allowing you to just retract your
shoulder blades back and also activate
your thoracic spine and upper back and
it's basically like a face pull you're
basically pulling a cable in into your
face as if you're pulling this cable
into your face it's called face pull
it's going to be working your romboid
it's going to be working your thoracic
spine and also from a posture
perspective is going to be working the
areas of your body that allow you to
stand tall in the first place now
basically every personal trainer I've
ever had has taken a look at my kind of
Hunchback laptop kind of guy posture and
has recognized that my RM boids are weak
which is why they've all recommended
doing this sort of face pull stuff and
I've been doing that with my own
personal trainer a lot and like people
like friends and family have been
commenting that I look a bit more jacked
and my posture seems to be better and I
think that's because my RM boids are
sort of pulling my shoulders back now
that's not to say that there is a
perfect posture or anything like that it
just looks a bit more aesthetic when
you're sort of like you've got you know
should shoulders back rather than
shoulders forward you know that kind of
thing how to do this at home is uh get a
resistance band and just put a
resistance band uh onto a you want to
attach it to something which is not
going to you know you don't want to
attach it to something where it's going
to slap in your face you but we put this
uh resistance band in the loop and then
all we're do is using the face pull
using the resistance band if it is at a
gem then you're going to be using a
cable machine uh usually with a rope
attachment to pull the face ball back
anyway the Big takeway from this video
is that there is no perfect posture and
the most important thing you can do to
improve your posture indirectly and for
aesthetic reasons is to work on your
strength and really this is what all
three of these exercises do if you work
on your strength by strengthening your
grip your glutes and your core then your
posture will just sort itself out as a
byproduct of you getting stronger
overall now if you enjoyed this video
then you also hopefully enjoy this one
that I made recently about three
powerful habits that you can use each
day to improve your health that's also a
bit of a dive into the research around
what actually works from a science back
perspective so I hope you enjoyed that
video thank you so much for watching and
I'll see you in the next one bye-bye
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