Have you ever wondered how to fix slumped posture? In this video, I am going to show you why you suffer from slumped posture and how to fix it so that you can stop slouching once and for all.
It starts first by identifying what is causing your bad posture in the first place. You are most likely slouching with rounded shoulders due to a weakness and lack of mobility in your upper back, specifically the thoracic spine. Not only is it causing your shoulders to round forward, but it is also affecting the posterior pelvic tilt that you are likely suffering from as well.
While some may argue that your posture doesn’t matter, as a physical therapist, I disagree. I find that posture can affect everyone both inside and out of the gym. If you don’t believe me, try this out; slump forward, slump forward and allow your shoulders to round. Then, try raising your arm up overhead. You won’t be able to get it all the way up. Your humerus will actually get blocked within the shoulder joint, preventing you from being able to raise it all the way overhead.
If you are someone who works out, that means that with this bad posture you will run into difficulty to effectively press weight overhead, such as with dumbbells or a barbell. In everyday life, you might find it difficult to put something away above you because of the difficulty in getting your arms up.
Now, to feel what it would be like to stand with good posture, stand in front of a straight line and turn your toes out. Contract your quads and squeeze your glutes together. From here, make fist and place it against your chest with your thumb resting on your sternum. You should notice a slight downward tilt of your knuckles. Now, retract your shoulder blades and raise your chest upwards, bringing those knuckles to parallel to the ceiling.
Since you know what it feels like to stop slouching and to stand in good posture, it’s time to implement the fix, which is a daily 5 minute routine consisting of just 5 simple exercises. Two exercises to strengthen and mobilize the thoracic spine and two exercises to work on the strength-endurance of the glutes. It’s not just about having a glutes that are strong, but having the ability to hold them in the right position for an extended period of time. There is also a combination exercise that will target both the thoracic spine and the glutes all in one move.
Perform the posture fix routine as follows:
A. Supermans x 30 sec
B. Glute Bridge Marches x 30 sec
A. Supermans x 30 sec
B. Glute Bridge Marches x 30 sec
E. Bridge and Reach Overs x 30 sec
C. Kneeling Thoracic Drops x 30 sec
D. Wall DL’s x 30 sec (right leg)
C. Kneeling Thoracic Drops x 30 sec
D. Wall DL’s x 30 sec (left leg)
E. Bridge and Reach Overs x 30 sec
The Supermans exercise is a thoracic strengthening exercise that will help target the muscles of the upper back and in-between the shoulder blades. Weakness in these muscles allows for the upper back to round forward, taking with it the shoulders, causing them to round as well. To have good posture, you need to make sure these muscles are strong enough to keep you upright.
The Glute Bridge Marches will work on the strength endurance of the glutes. It is important to note here that you want to avoid any dropping of the hips / pelvis at any point, whether than be sagging down or tilting to one side in order to raise the other leg off the ground.
Kneeling Thoracic Drops will work on mobilizing the thoracic spine and as an added bonus, will help stretch the lats, which we know are an internal rotator of the shoulders. If these muscles are too tight, they will actually assist in pulling your shoulders forward.
By performing the Wall DL’s you will be getting good activation of the glutes through their function of hip extension. When your knee comes forward and reaches the wall, you want to make sure that the standing leg allows for the hips to reach all the way through and forward.
One of my favorite exercises to help correct bad posture and to feel amazing every single day is the Bridge and Reach Over. This posture exercise not only targets mobility of the thoracic spine with the reach over to each side, but doubles as a glute strengthening exercise by having you perform a bridge with each repetition.
If you’re looking for a complete workout program that will fix your posture but also help you to build a ripped athletic body, be sure to head to athleanx.com and check out the plans that are best suited to your current goals.
For more videos on how to fix your posture and a daily posture routine that you can follow, be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel via the link below and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.
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37 replies to "How to Fix Slumped Posture (NO MORE SLOUCHING!)"
Hey Jeff! Just wanted to say thanks for all you do. Thank you so much for the helpful info. I’m 7 months in with your PPL split alongside the ab workout and the knowledge I was able to equip from you and I feel like a Roman soilder. Thanks man, keep it up!!!
Can you comment the link to that video.
“FAST ACTION” Q&A* – Leave your most burning question about this video or any other training, PT or nutrition question within the first 2 hours of this video’s release (AS A SEPARATE COMMENT!!) and I will pick 8 to get a detailed reply from me right here in the comments. Answers will be posted within the first 24-48 hours of you leaving the question. Good luck!
How would someone arrange for personal training at the x box?
I’ve used your videos to massively fix my posture in the past and still do a lot of corrective exercises (facepulls etc!) however I have been getting groin strains recently. I fix one groin issue and the other groin starts hurting! Any suggestions of cause / fix? I play a lot of football / soccer but haven’t had issues in the past.
I drive a haultruck hauling 400 tonnes of ore around daily on a 14 days on x 14 days off routine. It takes about four or five days to not feel pain in my shoulder blade when my two weeks at work are done. After two days back to work the pain comes back like it never left. Any exercises to help fix this? I sit in this truck for 12 hours a day and I’m always having to fix my posture as I slowly lean forward and stick my neck out. Similar to what your explaining. My shoulder blade pain seems to run down the entire outside edge of my should blade almost like it’s tracing the blade, it’s gotten to the point where it almost feels like it’s pulling in my shoulders forward.ive been going to the gym while I’m in camp I’m able to get an hour at the gym but at the cost of sleep, so I usually get about five hours of sleep. My schedule is maxed out but it’s just the way it is. I super set my exercises to maximize my gym time. Am I doing to much with not enough rest, can I add or swap out exercises? I try to stick to dumbbell and cables and a bit of calisthenics. I even got into taking some collagen protein to help with joint pain (not sure if it helps or not). We operate the biggest mobile equipment on the planet and the body takes a beating due to it. I just want to get stronger to alleviate some of that. I’m 28 and don’t think I should be having these issues
Can you modify the standing portions to a seated exercise? Standing is not an option.
Your videos are helpful in this format. Please consider making a crosswalk video explaining which videos here are covered in greater detail in the paid content side of the house.
If this content is like a “pre-Algebra” course and not covered in the paid content, that would be good to know.
Thanks.
Real gamers don’t have nerd backs. Work your thoracic muscles and glutes gamers 😎
This was JUST what I needed right when I needed it.
Hi Jeff! Thanks for all your great content. I was wondering if you have any tips for breathing and bracing your core while performing lifts or doing any of your workouts? Whenever I try to do it, I never feel like I’m doing it right, and end up with low back pain during a lot of my workouts. Thanks so much!
Really inspirational bro. Working out with you for about a year and now decided to make this workout channel to help more people! Hope to be as great as u one day
Gotta say Jeff, I do quite a few of the “5 minutes a day” stuff for posture and overall balance, but they add up quite a bit, ever thought about making a complete routine for an overall balanced posture / balancing just for general pourposes ? I know thats a pain, and everybody is different, but a standard routing would be a start for a lot of people.
Just an idea for possible future content !
Appreciate all your work, thank you sir !
watch this video
“Fix Bad Posture in 22 Days (WORKS EVERY TIME!) – athleanx”
choose your problem and fix it, don’t do them all
The superman thing is actually hard but nevertheless, it feels really good!
On a side note, I love stretching my lats by doing dead hangs on a bar (one arm at a time).
Bravo,, Jeff! This is excellent for all generations. My 92 year old father has created the spectrum of postural issues that you presented from bad postural habits and will benefit tremendously when we add in your recommendations to his weekly PT regimen. I don’t have postural issues and incorporating what you shared will keep it that way. Thank you for hitting the target once again.
Hey Jeff, thanks for the great videos! Please do a video for us 60 year olds on sets, reps, days of rest. Exercises that will bulletproof us for our later years in life. This posture exercise video was terrific, what we need. Please focus on things like shoulder impingement, hip problems knee problems, what exercises can we do to prevent us from falling into these injuries later in life.
And maybe add balance exercises, please, thanks.
@Sal Panettieri
search on youtube:
_athleanx shoulder impingement
_athleanx knee pain
_athleanx tight hip
Check out dead hangs
These are the best videos! Posture, flexibility and movility are the most important.
Could you do the perfect glute workout please?
You’ve made a great video on healing herniated disc a few years ago, which helped me alleviate the pain in my lower back, thank you! Could you please tell us more on the preferable exercises during recovery from herniated disc, what exercises to do and which ones to avoid. For example, are there any limitations on abs exercises, squats, deadlifts etc
watch this video
“7 Core Exercises for Low Back Pain (IMPORTANT!) – athleanx”
These are absolutely easy and doable exercises! My teenage son is battling scoliosis, along with extremely poor posture. As a fitpro myself, he is reluctant to assume any regime I give him, but am so thrilled to be able to have him watch (and hopefully implement) this video on his own! Thank you!!!
As someone with scoliosis and got surgery for my spine, pretty much restricting it´s movement, I went out of surgery thinking “this is it, this is how I will look” and ignored it. To maybe nobodys surprise, it got worse. Altough I have other issues like my first surgery pretty much having them shove the curvature up my neck, it wasnt until years of neglect it started to hit me. Thats when I couldn´t even work on targeting the neck at all but had to hope overall posture training would do it and it did. I´m still working towards my goal, and it will never be perfect but those first changes come quick if done right. The main takeaway is, despite having all movement in my spine restricted, a bad neck, extra bone mass in elbows and knee, i could improve my posture.
Was just thinking of this for my daughter diagnosed with scoliosis. She’s about to get her brace.
Jeff, my 15 year old daughter was just diagnosed with something called “military neck”. Her cervical spine is in a straight line versus having the lordosis. This video made me think of her condition. Do you have any exercises you would recommend for her, or someone with her diagnosis? Thanks for everything you do! Erik
Jeff, since I follow you, besides learning continuously about training techniques, helpful tips for nutrition, anatomy and much more, I have realized how important a balanced posture is for the daily activities and for sports performance in particular. After all this learning process, right now I believe that good posture is a prerequisite for a pain free life, and also a quality sports performance. Thank you.
0:23 Identify the problems
2:18 How to Stand
4:03 Supermans (Thoracic)
4:51 Glute Bridge Marches (Glutes)
5:54 Bridge and Reach Overs (Thoracic, Glutes)
6:19 Kneeling Thoracic Drops (Thoracic)
7:08 Wall DL’s (Glutes)
8:13 Screenshot
Your 5 mins routine:
Supermans x 30 sec
Glute Bridge Marches x 30 sec
Supermans x 30 sec
Glute Bridge Marches x 30 sec
Bridge and Reach Overs x 30 sec
(Optional)
Kneeling Thoracic Drops x 30 sec
Wall DL’s x 30 sec (right leg)
Kneeling Thoracic Drops x 30 sec
Wall DL’s x 30 sec (left leg)
Bridge and Reach Overs x 30 sec
@mko
1. The timestamp isn’t copied.
2. Jeff made this routine, of course I’m copying it, you think I invent it?
@mko
Nope, that ain’t your whole comment.
You said “king” inside the quotation marks, implying that because I’m copying from the description, I’m not worthy of being called that way.
At the same time, you belittled the other person’s standard to make you feel better. Cheers for that.
This “mko” dude wrote some comments and erased them so I’m gonna recycle from the bin for him (click “@mko” to access his channel)
1st comment: “@Emir dude copy pastes the description, “king”. Damn the bar has lowered. :D”
2nd comment: “@Num Num What makes you think I though you invented it? I literally said you copied it from description. 🙂
Sure you made the timestamps which is helpful, cheers for that.”
3rd comment: “@Num Num You just added your own imagination to my text, don’t put your own ideas into other peoples head or text by using “implying” if you don’t know what they meant.
all I said was the bar for getting called ‘king’ is lowered, if copy pasteing stuff the content creator have said is ‘king’, sure the time stamps are helpful. I’m not calling YOU anything, I was referring to the action you did, which was copy stuff from description and paste it to comments to get some upvotes. If we use the same logic, wouldn’t you be belittling other people for expecting them to not open description and read the same stuff there?”
How much time you need on average to compile this information?.
@AG.
Spent 10 mins on this, compiling while watching at the same time.
Thanks, Jeff. It’s this kind of attention to detail and science that makes your stuff so great. My wife and I were at the gym today (76 and 70 yrs respectively), and while she has been doing great over the past couple of years with her strength and conditioning, she was explaining how her posture (shoulders slumped forward) has been bothering her. She knows it matters as much as the reps and sets for real health. I get home and voila. “How to Fix Slumped Posture.” I’ve been a gym rat my whole life, but your approach to training feels so solid. Thrilled to have found you a couple of years ago. Best, J.
I have been having stomach and breathing problems because of my posture and anxiety together for 4 years. I am going to try this 5-min exercise for 90 days along with your Perfect Beginner Workout Program. I will update the results! 👍
My pelvic floor ability has been ruined from my 5 brain surgeries. These were definitely challenging as it’s a big weakness of mine but I can definitely feel the benefit for sure.
My posture now is a big insecurity of mine especially when comparing to what it was.
Thanks to you Jeff, this video is so much appreciated from me! ❤