Better posture has always been something that many people want to achieve. Teenagers are prone to slouching, which leads to bad posture and can even affect their ability to grow to their full height. Good posture is important in building self-confidence and has a great impact on how others perceive you.
Bad posture on the other hand is plain unhealthy. It increases the stress on your joints, ligaments, bones, and muscles. While young kids can still improve and develop their stance as they grow, adults have to make more of an effort to correct bad posture.
Are you one of these slouchy adults? Check out these great yoga poses to improve posture.
Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious.~ David Williams
If you practice yoga on a regular basis, you can improve more than just your posture.
Yoga helps you to relax and exercise at the same time. You will learn to find inner peace and simultaneously find yourself strengthening and conditioning your muscles. You will learn to breathe properly and alleviate chronic pain, eye problems, and even headaches.
How Yoga Can Improve Posture
Certain yoga poses encourage the correct alignment of various parts of your body. They help you to build strength needed for your spine and the muscles surrounding your back. Abdominal muscles will also strengthen during yoga, which can help prevent back pain that can hinder you from good posture.
By practicing yoga regularly, you can help stretch your muscles and release the tension in your body through physical and breathing exercises, which again leads you to the ability to strengthen your back and have your spine aligned correctly.
1. Boat Pose (Navasana)
Boat Pose is done by balancing your entire body on your buttocks so that you resemble a boat on water. This helps improve the flow of blood into the abdominals and the spine, which helps in the proper alignment and balance of the spine.
This pose burns up fat in the waist, strengthening the mid-part of your body and improving digestion and other health problems concerning the thyroid, kidney, prostate, and intestines.
2. Camel Pose (Ustrasana)
Camel Pose is a helpful position especially for corporate workers who spend the whole day sitting on a chair. By stretching the back, it helps to increase the spine’s flexibility and elasticity.
Begin the pose in a sitting position on your knees. Reach to your back and grab your ankles with your hands. Breathe in as you raise your hips, then arch your back as you push your abdomen forward. Push your head back, completely freeing your chest.
Stay in the pose for as long as 20 seconds. To end Camel Pose, place your hands on your lower back and then enter Child’s Pose.
3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
Improve your posture with Uttanasana where you bend forward with your hands interlaced behind the back, and your shoulders are scrunched to the ears. As you let the shoulders slide when you pull your arms back, breathe out. This pose helps stretch your hamstrings and opens the shoulders.
Now, do these postures regularly and watch as you begin walking, sitting, and standing taller!
