Every day we repeatedly put our bodies into positions that contribute to tightness in the front of our shoulders and chest, we forget to use our abdominal muscles and we put ourselves at risk of “the old lady slump”.

None of us want this as we age and it’s certainly avoidable. It does require a certain level of body awareness (paying attention to what we are doing with our bodies) and a bit of strength training to maintain good postural habits.

The video below demonstrates 5 different upper back and core strengthening exercises that will help you to improve your overall posture. You should not experience any pain while doing these exercises.

All of the exercises require that your abdominal muscles stay engaged while you try to keep your shoulders relaxed. This is challenging for most people.

Think about keeping your shoulder blades down as you complete the movements. Do not add weights until you can do 20 repetitions of a movement and it feels easy.

If an exercise feel very difficult for you, work your way up to 10 repetitions, taking as many breaks as you need to get there. Child’s pose is a nice stretch to release the tightness in your upper back as well.

Note: In the first exercise, I lift my head and chest off the ground while my arms come out to the sides. When adding weights, I have my clients keep their head and chest down and lift only their arms in this exercise.