It's hard to imagine a successful man with a hump instead of a back. Such people immediately lose the sympathy of others, and this happens on an intuitive level. People with beautiful, slender posture look healthier, more confident, stronger, and sexier. It is not for nothing that correct and even posture is taught in the armies of all countries; such a soldier evokes the feeling of a strong fighter. What contributes to the development of poor posture?
- Passive lifestyle. Working at a computer forces you to stick your chin out towards the monitor, hunching your back, eventually forming a hunched back. In addition, in a sitting position, the back muscles do not receive the proper load and become unable to maintain a straight back (read more about the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle here).
- Carrying a bag on one shoulder.
- Incorrect body position during sleep causes curvature of the spine. It matters what surface you sleep on: it should not be soft so that the body does not sag. Also, the position of the body during sleep affects the potency of a man.
- Weak back muscles are unable to support the back properly, so strengthening the back muscles is necessary for proper posture.
As you can see, there are enough factors that negatively affect posture, so you should always ensure that your back is in the correct position, both while walking and while sitting.
What will help you form correct posture?
The horizontal bar is an excellent tool for developing healthy posture and strengthening the back muscles. You need to do hangs on the bar in a relaxed state for a straight posture and pull-ups with a wide grip to train your back muscles.
Swimming has become a mandatory medical procedure for people with scoliosis. During swimming, tension is relieved from the spine, which has a beneficial effect on posture.
Strong abdominal muscles help relieve excess tension from the spine and facilitate the process of developing correct posture.
If you don’t have the opportunity to hang on the horizontal bar or swim, exercises that promote healthy posture will come to the rescue:
- Standing, feet shoulder-width apart, hands on your belt. We lean forward, touching the floor with our hands, trying to straighten our back as much as possible. When performing the exercise, the legs remain in a straight (not bent) position.
- Standing, feet shoulder-width apart, hands on your belt. Make the maximum possible body turn to the left. Return to starting position. Make the maximum possible body turn to the right.
- Standing, feet shoulder-width apart, hands at the back of the head (fingers intertwined). Keeping your back straight, bend as deeply as possible to the left without lifting your feet from the floor. We return to the starting position, tilt to the right.
- Standing, feet shoulder-width apart, hands on your belt. We begin to make circular movements with the pelvis, first in one direction, then in the other direction.
Posture is the first thing people pay attention to. Don’t let them form a negative opinion about yourself – keep your back straight!
I've been hunched over for a long time. This is not convenient. How can a man maintain his posture correctly?
Posture often deteriorates from childhood. Sitting at a desk for a long time and lack of physical activity lead to various disorders. People sit hunched over the table, cross their legs, lean to the side. Posture suffers even when walking. This is true if a person rests on only one side of the foot or simply wears uncomfortable shoes. Osteochondrosis of the spine gradually develops. Heart problems and headaches occur. But all this can be prevented. Initially, you need to stand up and place your feet exactly shoulder-width apart. In this case, the feet should rest on the floor with their entire surface. The legs should be straightened at the knees, as well as at the hip joint. The tailbone looks clearly down, the pelvis moves slightly forward. In this case, the stomach should be tucked, the shoulders should be pulled back. However, the shoulder blades do not need to be pulled together by muscle force. You need to straighten your back. The shoulder blades are on the same level, horizontally. If the position is correct, then the arms hang down freely, the elbows are located near the waist, the palms are slightly turned forward, in line with the hips. The head is straight and the chin is forward. The neck is extremely straight and should continue the straight line that runs from the back upward.
Correct posture while standing
First, you need to stand up correctly: your feet are shoulder-width apart, your feet rest on the floor with their entire surface. The legs are straightened at the knees and hip joints. The tailbone should point straight down, and the pelvis should lean forward a little. The abdomen is tucked in and does not protrude when viewed from the side.
The shoulders should be pulled back, but not by pulling the shoulder blades together with muscle force, but by straightening the back. They must be on the same horizontal level. With the correct position of the shoulders, the arms hang down freely, the elbows are at waist level. The palms are in line with the hips and slightly turned forward.
The head is positioned straight, the chin looks forward and is located above the junction of the collarbones. The neck is straight and continues a straight line drawn from the back upward.
Master class: the secret of perfect posture
In our fast-paced age, the path to success is provided not only by professional skills and career ambitions; it largely depends on how you look. External attractiveness does not mean model parameters at all, but consists of such components as: - an open smile and a willingness to dialogue; - positive mood; - confident gait and straight posture; - unfolded, but not tense shoulders. This is a lifestyle when you always have time everywhere, skillfully combine work and rest, don’t forget about good sleep, a balanced diet and active physical activity, and also use well-chosen professional cosmetics to prolong your youth and beauty. As practice shows, it is impossible to refuse a successful and attractive person. But to become successful, you have to work hard! “Gerontology, or the science of prolonging youth, claims that there are no age-related conditions and diseases “from age,” there are bad conditions and diseases from lifestyle,” says personal trainer Evgenia Mazur. — Physical exercise, thoughtful nutrition and professional cosmetic care give us health and strength, and therefore a great mood. And any clothing looks much better on a slender, trained body, which gives its owner even more confidence in their own strengths and capabilities. To become a successful person, you need to completely revamp your lifestyle and develop new habits. Let's start with the “outer shell” - our skin. Being part of the human excretory system, the skin cannot be beautiful if you eat “fast food garbage” as food and have an underdeveloped muscular system, without any tone. The skin only follows the contours of the muscles on the face and body, and its condition is directly related to the work of the endocrine system, of which the muscles are a part. An attractive appearance depends on the healthy state of the body, and this is a well-developed muscle corset combined with the right diet, when all the products on your table are “from the right garden of an environmentally friendly farm,” as well as in the correct proportions and quantities. As Hippocrates said: “We heal by adding movements and subtracting excess food”; “Nutrition should be treatment, and treatment itself should be nutrition.” I will add that sufficient rest in the form of sleep, weekends, vacations should also become treatment and recovery, and treatment (recovery) should become rest. The aesthetics of a beautiful face and perfect body, the condition of the skin and the speed of metabolic processes are directly related to our diet. Therefore, when you find yourself in a supermarket or market, give preference to seasonal fruits and vegetables. In summer and early autumn, we do not need a lot of food at all, because there is no severe cold yet and the body does not need additional energy resources to keep warm. In warm weather, heavy high-calorie foods are digested more slowly and can create the preconditions for putrefactive processes in the intestines, thereby slagging the entire body as a whole. Of course, the skin will also suffer from this - it will become dull, lifeless, and wrinkles will appear on it.”
Muscles are in charge
“So, we have established that the condition of the skin depends on a balanced diet,” Evgenia Mazur continues the story. “In addition, the skin is a beautiful “shell” of trained muscles, as it follows their contours. We, like every living organism, have muscles that work on a constant basis, regardless of our conscious control - these are the diaphragm and the heart muscle. The condition and performance of the muscles that are essential for life directly depend on the entire muscular system of the body. When muscles grow and the load on them increases, the heart grows and becomes stronger, it pumps more blood, thereby normalizing blood pressure, nourishing tissues, and removing waste products and toxins from the body. By the way, age-related high blood pressure is nothing more than compensation for the lack of muscle work to replenish the nutrition of the brain. Moderate physical activity normalizes blood pressure at any age, as long as you start exercising regularly. In other words, beauty directly depends on our health, and health depends on physical activity.”
The secret of beautiful shoulders
We often expose our shoulders and adjacent areas of our arms, back, and chest, but we rarely train them purposefully. Meanwhile, a woman’s age is always treacherously revealed by her neck, décolleté, the area of the arm from the elbow to the shoulder joint, as well as the back of the forearm. The shoulders and upper back, as a rule, lack tone and elasticity, over the years they become weak, sluggish, and overgrown with excess fat, especially in the area of the triceps (triceps muscles of the shoulder) and the armpit, which is a characteristic female feature. This deplorable state is explained not only by laziness, but also by the fact that we are afraid to overtrain our shoulders, since it is believed that then our silhouette will become less feminine. In fact, it is much more difficult for women than for men to achieve an athletic and muscular silhouette: this is due to a different muscle structure and the presence of female hormones that prevent excessive development of muscle tissue. But the elastic and beautifully defined muscles of the shoulders and back favorably emphasize the charm of any woman and make it possible to look great in open clothes with deep necklines. To form a proportional and beautiful shoulder girdle, you need to be careful in choosing exercises for the upper body. Such exercises should promote a regal posture and a proud position of the head. “As you know, a head tilted down creates additional wrinkles and folds on the neck, and shoulders hunched forward (kyphosis posture) form deep furrows in the décolleté,” notes Evgenia Mazur. — Correctly selected load on the shoulders, back and arms will help avoid age-related sagging of the breasts and strengthen the muscles, which will emphasize the natural hollow in the middle of the chest and make your image more sexy. I would also like to say something about the back muscles. The cells of these muscles contain a large amount of sex hormones: estrogens in women and androgens in men. Therefore, by actively influencing the back muscle group through physical exercise, we increase our attractiveness in the eyes of the opposite sex. In addition, exercise promotes the production of growth hormones, whose activity gradually decreases after puberty. Thus, we prolong our youth and life with the help of well-chosen physical activity. Isn’t this an additional incentive to buy a block from a master trainer?”
Advice from trainer-physiologist, specialist in the theory and methodology of health fitness Evgenia Mazur: • the most beneficial and fat-burning sleep is from 10 pm to 4 am; • the most useful fat-burning foods are fruits and vegetables with the maximum amount of antioxidants; • the most miraculous training - from a master trainer with extensive experience and higher coaching education; • the most miraculous cosmetic treatments with a rejuvenating effect for the face and body can be found in the “Fitness style from Evgenia Mazur” catalogue.
Safety precautions during training: - do not forget about warming up and warming up your muscles; - do not perform exercises too quickly; — when starting a new complex, ask the trainer to ensure that it is performed correctly.
Master class from Evgenia Mazur:
Photo: Natasha Popova.
1. Take your starting position. Sit on the step platform, your legs should be apart and your knees bent at an angle of 90 degrees relative to the floor (you can raise them a little higher). This is necessary for stable venous returns, which relieve the condition of “heavy” (swollen) legs, especially in the ankle area. We lift straight arms to the sides with dumbbells (350 g), which will relieve tension in the elbow joints and form a beautiful middle delta (shoulder). The exercise can be repeated up to 30 times.
Trainer's advice: every time you raise your arms, squeeze the dumbbells and hold, eliminating inertia.
Photo: Natasha Popova.
2 . Isometric hanging with emphasis on straight arms. Legs should be bent at the knees and raised at a right angle. You need to stay for 1.5 to 5 minutes. Repeat several times. The exercise forms posture, shoulder girdle, and relief of all muscle groups of the arms. Basic exercise for all stabilizer muscle groups.
Photo: Natasha Popova.
3. Isometric emphasis of straight arms on an unstable support (weighted ball) with alternate lifting of legs. A basic exercise for developing beautiful posture, all muscle groups of the arms, shoulders, chest, stabilizer muscles of the abdomen and back. (The technique is the same as in exercise 2. - Ed.)
Photo: Natasha Popova.
4. Isometric hanging with straight arms forward. The exercise forms all muscle groups of the arms, shoulders, décolleté, as well as the stabilizer muscles of the back and abdomen. (The technique is the same as in exercise 2. - Ed.)
Photo: Natasha Popova.
5. Isometric hang and push-ups with hands behind you. The exercise is basic, it forms posture, all muscle groups of the arms, back, and stabilizer muscles.
Photo: Natasha Popova.
6. An excellent exercise for developing posture and stabilizer muscles on an unstable simulator - bosu.
Photo: Natasha Popova.
7. We do vertical scissors on an unstable machine. The exercise is recommended for developing posture and removing tension in the lumbar spine.
How to sit at the table correctly
To make sitting at the table comfortable, and your back not arched like a question mark, you need to choose furniture based on the following settings:
- The height of the table should be such that the distance from its tabletop to the eyes is 25-30 cm. It is from this height that it is most convenient for a person with normal vision to view objects and read. You can check the height by placing your elbow on the tabletop - the middle finger of the hand should reach the corner of the eye;
- The width of the working surface must be at least 0.5 m: 0.4 m for work and the rest of the space for papers, books, stationery;
- The seat of the chair should be at such a height that the knee of the seated person is located slightly below the buttocks, and the feet calmly reach the floor with their entire surface. The angle between the thigh and shin should be about 100 degrees;
- The back of the chair should ideally follow the normal curves of the spine. The most important criterion for a comfortable backrest is additional support in the lumbar region. It will relieve stress from the back muscles and reduce pressure in the intervertebral joints. The back height can be any.
Correct posture when working at the computer
Usually a person works at a computer in a sitting position, so all recommendations on the selection of furniture and the correct position will be relevant in this case. A significant difference is the vertically standing monitor, which you have to look at for a long time.
It should be located at eye level or slightly lower, so that the gaze is directed horizontally or within 300 degrees of inclination downwards. It is in this range that it is convenient for a person to examine small details and read font. This reduces the strain on the eyes and cervical spine.
The distance to the monitor should be comfortable for a person. With normal vision, it is 25 cm or more; if vision is impaired, then it is permissible to move the monitor closer. Poor visibility forces a person to strain their visual apparatus and reflexively stretch their neck to bring their head closer to the text.
The laptop is convenient because you can work on it in any position. However, such freedom can quickly ruin your posture and lead to back pain. After working for a couple of hours in a lying position or sinking into a soft chair, a person feels aching pain in the lower back, shoulders, blurred vision and headache.
It is best to place the laptop on a table so that you can look at the monitor in the optimal plane, your hands lie horizontally on the keyboard, and your back can be straightened.
Back and correct gait
When a person stands, the maximum load falls on the muscles of the lower back. Therefore, standing for a long time often leads to pain in this part of the back. A straight back and correct position of the legs significantly reduce the load on the lower back, due to which pain either does not occur or is less pronounced.
To learn how to stand correctly, you should remember the correct position of your back. To do this, stand with your back to a flat wall so as to touch it with the back of your head, the entire surface of your shoulder blades, buttocks and heels. After this, move away from her, maintaining the given pose. You can stand against a wall for 5-15 minutes for several weeks, teaching your muscles to hold your back correctly.
A glance at a shop window or mirror will help you remember correct posture and straighten your back. At home, looking at your reflection, you can train the correct position, memorizing it visually and getting used to it.
To maintain your posture while walking, you should step softly, stepping first on your heel, then rolling onto your toes. Your toes should point upward, barely touching the ground. You should rest on the center of the foot, and not on one of its edges.
A simple exercise will help you practice correct posture while walking:
Draw a straight line on the ground or floor and walk along it, holding a heavy book on your head. In such conditions, the head will be raised, the back will be straightened, the shoulders will be straightened - this position should be remembered.
Exercises on simulators
7. Raising arms back in the simulator
The exercise is analogous to swinging dumbbells to the sides. The point is to tone the muscles of the upper central part of the back. The stronger the tone of these muscles, the straighter your posture. Not all gyms have such simulators. You can replace it with swings in a crossover.
8. Pull of a vertical block behind the head
This exercise imitates a head pull-up. Again, if you can't do this exercise straight and without hunching, then don't do it at all. You need to keep your head straight and not tilt, and bring your shoulder blades together. This requires a certain flexibility in the shoulder girdle. In the case of severe stoop, few people manage to do this deadlift correctly.
9. Horizontal pull
Analogue of dumbbell rows and pull-ups in a Smith machine. For posture, it is better to hold your back not statically, but to bend slightly following the handle and move your back back when you pull it towards you. in general, as shown in the video, it can be even a little stronger.
10. Linkage
The essence is the same as the previous exercise. The only difference is that it can be done with one hand. But for the sake of posture it is better not to do this. For posture, it is better to do all exercises with both hands at the same time. This works the central back muscles better. As with the previous exercise, you do not need to keep your back static.
