A good run can “fix” a lot of what ails you. Put a few miles between yourself and a bad mood, low energy, or an annoying work issue, and you’re bound to finish feeling better than you started.
But if you’re looking to improve your “computer posture,” just hitting the road won’t undo the eight-plus hours you spend every day slumped over a keyboard and looking down at your phone. In fact, it’s more likely that your postural issues—a flexed back, rounded shoulders, concave chest, and forward head tilt, a.k.a. “tech neck”—will carry over into your runs and negatively affect your form and gait. That means slower, more laborious runs and increased risk of injury.
But here’s the good news: Even if your day job keeps you glued to a screen and you have a history of less-than-perfect posture, you can straighten things out. A combination of increased awareness, habit change, mobility work, and strength training will get you sitting, standing, and running taller.
With the help of running and biomechanic experts, we break down how poor posture can affect your running performance, plus how to correct it, including specific exercises and stretches.
The Downsides of Poor Posture When It Comes to Running
First of all, bad “computer posture” isn’t an all-or-nothing issue. Most of us don’t sit up perfectly straight all the time, and that’s okay.
“I don’t think sitting in a poor posture sometimes is going to have any effect on running,” says Colleen Brough, P.T., D.P.T., Ph.D., an assistant professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and director of Columbia RunLab. “But for those folks who are really glued to their computer in a solid nine or 10-hour day, and they’re in a poor posture, you can bet there’s going to be soft-tissue changes.” Essentially, as your body adapts to prolonged slouching, you may find yourself with issues like Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips, Advertisement - Continue Reading Below glute muscles.
But even if you don’t experience any physiological changes that keep you in a suboptimal posture, you may develop habits that linger long after you’ve powered down for the day. Spend most of your waking hours bent forward at the waist with rounded shoulders and a forward-leaning head, and that posture will become your default.
Eventually, it’s not just how you sit in front of the computer. It’s also how you stand waiting in line, sit while eating meals, and carry yourself on a run (especially when fatigue While almost any).
And besides just looking kinda dumpy (and disappointing grandmas everywhere), poor posture can mess with your running in some pretty significant ways. Here’s how.
Restricts Breathing
Anchor one end of a resistance band to a stable structure overhead diaphragm flattens out and the rib cage expands, allowing the lungs to fill with air and transfer oxygen to the blood and to your working muscles. When you’re standing up tall with the ribs stacked over the hips, shoulders back, chest up, your trunk can expand and contract accordingly.
“If you’re slouching, you’re not able to expand your rib cage as much, and therefore your lungs won’t expand because you are being limited by the restriction from the ribs,” says Todd Buckingham, Ph.D. exercise physiologist at PTSportsPRO in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “You’re going to be taking a lot more shallow breaths,” he explains, which is far less efficient than diaphragmatic breathing.
Limits Arm Swing
Your arm swing counterbalances your lower-body movement and can help you generate speed and power. “Runners who are running at a faster pace need that arm swing. It’s not just the lower body,” Brough says. “You’re getting your entire body into the run to achieve [a fast] pace,” she says.
Rounding the back and collapsing the shoulders inward can restrict your arms’ range of motion and render your arm swing less effective. “Limited arm swing is going to limit your performance,” Brough says. And you could end up compensating for a weak arm swing with too much trunk rotation, which can not only steal your energy but ultimately increase risk of injury.
Promotes Overstriding
Overstriding, or reaching the foot too far in front of the body during the stance phase of the running gait, is often a sign of Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips. A runner with Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips can’t effectively extend their hip to get their foot behind them as they push off the ground, so they compensate by throwing their foot out in front of them. This increases ground reaction force, which puts you at a greater risk for injury. It also slows you down, as your outstretched foot acts as a brake.
Even with relatively good posture, your hip flexors can get tight from too much sitting. Poor posture just makes things worse, as slouchers tend to sit with a posterior pelvic tilt (butt tucked under you) so that they’re resting back on their sacrum. “That’s going to drive hip flexor tightness a little bit more than if they were sitting in good posture [with a more neutral pelvic position],” Brough says.
Causes Excessive Motion in Lower Back
Runners with Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips may also experience back pain Straighten right leg to contract left quadriceps and press the top of the right foot into the floor.
“I see this over and over again on biomechanical analysis in runners with hip flexor tightness,” Brough says. “Their hip, pelvis, and low back move like a solid unit because the leg can’t go back behind them. So they overcompensate by extending (or arching) their low back.”
You should be able to swing your leg back behind you while keeping your hips and lower back stable. So if you think of a standing leg swing, if you don’t have mobility of the hip flexors, you’ll do a sort of standing cat/cow to get that leg to swing.
5 Effective Strategies for Fixing Bad Posture
With a little effort and consistency, it’s possible to improve poor posture and run faster and more efficiently. Here are a few things you can start doing today.
1. Sit Differently (and Less)
a stiff trunk, and weak core and, Advertisement - Continue Reading Below., founder of Movement Vault, recommends sitting less and also switching up the way you sit. Get up and move around every 30 to 60 minutes (set a timer if you tend to lose track of time), and when you do sit, change your position.
“Modify your work set-up from a standing position to a seated-in-a-chair position to even going down to the floor and sitting in a cross-legged position,” he says, noting you can also sit with one leg crossed and the other straight, and then switch your legs. The idea is not to settle into one posture for too long.
Also, try not to use the backrest of your chair. “People rely on the back rest way too much, which essentially does the job that your core does,” Wickham says. Over time, your core muscles become weak and lose their ability to support and control the spine.
2. Lean Forward at the Ankles
Bending forward at the waist is one component of poor posture. When running, you want a forward lean, but it should come from the ankles. Brough suggests thinking about leaning forward at the ankles while someone pulls on the back of your shirt, so that your chest lifts.
Runners with Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips may also experience drill that involves running in place while pushing against a wall with straight arms. “It forces you to stand up straight but also have that forward lean,” he says.
3. Pick Up Your Cadence
tight hip flexors or step rate may help you clean up your running posture, Brough notes. “A slower cadence is going to allow you to have that sort of crouched, lousy posture, and a quicker cadence tends to create that turnover and translate into more hip extension and overstriding. Less overstriding means less crouched running,” she explains.
You can increase your cadence by counting your steps per minute and increasing that number by 5 to 10 percent.
4. Strengthen the Core and Upper Back
Make sure your strength-training routine hits the intrascapular muscles (the muscles that you use to pinch the shoulder blades together) and the core.
Brough explains that strengthening—even with relatively light weights—the rhomboids and trapezius muscles “primes” and brings increased awareness to these areas, so that you’re more likely to engage them throughout the day and on your run. Activating these muscles automatically lifts the chest and draws the shoulders back and down.
While almost any core-strengthening exercise is worthwhile, abdominal-strengthening movements that engage the pelvic floor can help correct a forward head lean, Brough says. To see for yourself, she recommends gently drawing your navel up and toward your spine and observing how that changes your head and neck positioning.
Expert-Backed Tips to Help Beginners Run Longer:
Banded Face Pull
- Anchor one end of a resistance band to a stable structure slightly above eye level.
- Facing the anchor point, stand with feet hip-width apart and hold the other end of the band with both hands about shoulder-width apart, palms facing down.
- Step back so that there’s no slack on the band. Using the upper back and shoulders, draw the hands toward the face.
- Pause, then slowly return to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Banded Lat Pull-Down
- Upper-Body Strength Workout for Runners.
- Facing the anchor point, stand with feet hip-width apart and hold the other end of the band with both hands about shoulder-width apart, palms facing in.
- Step back so that there’s no slack on the band. (You can also sit or kneel if you don’t have access to a high anchor point.)
- Keeping the chest up, use the upper back and shoulders to pull the elbows down toward the hips.
- Pause, then slowly return to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Alternating Reverse Leg Lift
- Lie faceup with straight legs lifted perpendicular to the floor. Keep the lower back pressed into the floor and allow the arms to rest at sides.
- Lower the right leg until it’s a couple of inches off the ground, then slowly lift it back up to the starting position.
- Anchor one end of a resistance band to a stable structure overhead.
- Continue alternating.
Dead Bug
- Buckingham recommends warming up with a.
- Lift the arms so the wrists are over shoulders and the fingertips are pointing toward the ceiling. This is the starting position.
- Straighten the left leg and lower the heel toward the ground while extending the right arm overhead and toward the ground. Keep core engaged and lower back pressed into the ground.
- Return the right arm and left leg to the starting position, then repeat with the right arm and left leg.
- CA Notice at Collection.
5. Stretch and Mobilize the Chest and Hip Flexors
Full-body stretching with a focus on the chest and hip flexors can help mitigate tightness that perpetuates poor posture.
“What happens when people sit with a poor posture is that their shoulders become rounded and their chest muscles become tight. So, it’s not necessarily about having an underdeveloped back, it’s from having a tight chest,” Buckingham says. The same thing happens to the hip flexors, as sitting keeps them in a flexed or shortened position for most of the day.
To loosen up, Wickham recommends doing active stretching at least three days a week. “Active stretching is, essentially, stretching out the muscles first and then contracting those muscles while they’re stretched,” he explains. “You really have to think about a muscle to contract it while it’s stretched out. So it”s going to improve muscle activation. It’s the most effective way to improve active joint mobility. It can improve your joint proprioception and your body awareness,” he says.
Why Running Cadence Is So Important:
Kneeling Rotational Hold
- Start on all fours with hands directly under shoulders, then sit back on heels.
- Rest the left forearm on the ground and place the right hand on the back of the head.
- Keeping the left forearm on the ground, rotate the torso open to the right so the right elbow is pointing toward the ceiling.
- Once you’ve rotated as far as possible, hold the stretch for 20 seconds, but continue to try to rotate even further. Focus on engaging the obliques, back, and shoulder muscles of the lifted arm, along with the chest muscles of the arm pushing down on the ground.
- Repeat on the opposite side.
Active Hip Flexor Stretch
- Start in a low lunge position with left knee in front and right leg extended straight behind you. Allow the right knee and the top of the right foot to rest on the ground. Clasp hands in front of chest or hold onto a wall or the back of a chair for balance. Keep an upright posture and avoid folding over front leg.
- Lean forward slightly at the waist and lift right knee off the ground.
- Straighten right leg to contract left quadriceps and press the top of the right foot into the floor.
- Maintain the muscle contraction for 10 seconds, then release it for 30 seconds.
- Repeat 3-5 times, then switch legs.
