For the first time in my adult life, I’m actually standing up straight.
Gone are the hunched over shoulders, the pokey turtle neck, and the residual pain & stiffness.
In the last year I went from looking like this:
to looking like this:
almost entirely by doing some basic mobility exercises each day.
Yes, YOU Can Have Good Posture
Good posture has been a goal of mine for an embarrassingly long time. I tried so many things along the way that didn’t work. As with everything else on this site, I’d like to spare you the wasted time & frustration of trying to figure it all out for yourself.
If you want to get the low-down on corrective exercises in general, you should check out the work of Dr. Kelly Starrett on his site MobilityWOD.com.
That’s where I started, and it definitely helped me. That said, the sheer volume of information can be pretty overwhelming.
What turned out to be even more helpful for me was being given a small repertoire of twice-daily exercises by my coaches over at Precision Nutrition.
Here are the top exercises for undoing the damage that guitar playing does to your body. Keep in mind that you need to do them everyday for a while before the benefits start to accrue. It’s just like practicing, but for your posture & range of motion.
The Exercises
1. Hip flexor stretch/couch stretch
30 seconds each side, twice daily.
2. Glute bridge
10 reps, twice daily.
3. Doorway stretch
30 seconds, twice daily.
4. Wall slides
10 reps, twice daily.
5. Chair stretch
30 seconds, twice daily.
If I could only pick two of these, it’d be wall slides & doorway stretches––they’re the most directly related to bad guitar posture.
Bonus: Jump-Starting the Healing
All of these exercises are designed to address imbalances in muscle pairs, restore range of motion, and/or unstick tissue that’s worked itself into trigger points.
You can do this to/by yourself gradually over time, or you can have a professional work on your tissue for you.
I did a full “Rolfing Ten Series” with Beth McNeil here in Chicago, and it gave me a clean slate to work from. If you have any serious issues, or your posture has sucked for years, this is definitely worth spending the money on.
I also got a great Rolfing tune up from Alexandra Hamer in Durham.
Extra Bonus: Stop Injuring Yourself
Your efforts to fix yourself will go further if you’re not subtly re-injuring yourself each day. Here are three easy fixes.
Minimalist Shoes. Your feet are miracles of engineering and evolution. They don’t need “arch support” or “cushioning.” They need you to get the hell out of the way so they can do their job properly. Luckily, shoe manufacturers are now (finally) on board, and a quick googling of “zero drop shoes” or “minimalist shoes” will get you a wealth of choices.
Standing Desk. Sitting is the new smoking. Unfortunately, standing desks are still rare & expensive. Make your own. Mine is a bar-height table, a box to bring my MacBook to navel height, and an eye-level monitor on a board between two speakers.
Sleep Mask. Quit looking at your hands when you practice! It’s wrecking your posture and it’s not doing your playing any favors either. Blocking the visual stimulus helps concentration too.
Protect your health.
Fix your posture.
Your life (and your music) depend on it.
Gigantic Thank You To:
I owe much thanks to Kelly Starrett, to the awesome folks over at Precision Nutrition, and to Abel James for turning me on to both of them. Thank you!
