How Long Does It Take To Fix Your Posture & Tips for Faster Results
Dec 6, 2024
For many, improving posture can feel like a daunting task. The uncertainty of how long the process will take will dampen the desire to stand taller, ease discomfort, and reduce the risk of injury. So, if you’re asking yourself, “How Long Does It Take to Fix Your Posture?” you’re not alone. Luckily, this article will offer valuable insights about what influences posture correction timelines and how to achieve noticeable posture improvements quickly and confidently with posture exercises. The faster you can fix your posture, the sooner you’ll be able to reduce discomfort and enhance your overall well-being.
One of the best ways to achieve your posture correction goals is with posture correction app. The app uses artificial intelligence to analyze your posture and provides personalized exercise programs to help improve your posture.
Table of Contents
Is It Too Late to Save Your Posture?
If you’re worried that it’s too late to correct your posture, put those fears to rest. Regardless of age, it’s never too late to improve your posture. You can retrain your postural muscles with consistent effort and the right approach to bring your spine back into better alignment.
Posture can be influenced by several factors, including:
Muscle imbalances
Lifestyle habits
Age-related changes
As we age, it’s common to develop conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis that can lead to poor posture. While severe conditions might require medical intervention, most people can see improvements with:
Dedicated exercises
Ergonomic adjustment
Mindful habits
What Causes Poor Posture?
Poor posture often stems from modern-day habits like working in front of a computer, reclining on a couch while watching TV, or looking down at a smartphone. Poor posture could also be due to many hours spent carrying heavy objects (like equipment at work, grocery bags, or a heavy purse).
All of these activities can make you stoop or bring your shoulders forward. This overstretches and weakens the muscles in the back of your shoulders and shortens the muscles in the front of your shoulders and chest. Gravity pulls the muscles forward because they are too weak to pull them back up.
Understanding the Causes of Poor Posture: Weak Muscles and Bone Health
If the core muscles in your back and abdomen have grown weak from inactivity, you may also lean forward. Those muscles are crucial to lifting your frame and keeping you upright.
Another cause of poor posture comes from broken bones in your back. People with brittle bones (osteoporosis) may experience compression fractures when the bones in the back (vertebrae) aren't strong enough to support the load placed on them. The bone collapses on the front side, the part closest to the chest. As collapsed vertebrae stack up, the spine becomes rounded and bends forward, a condition called dowager's hump.
Why Should I Care About Poor Posture?
Sometimes, people ask, “Why should I change my posture? I don’t mind it.” However, one of the big things that happens with forward posture is that your center of gravity goes forward. This increases the risk of falling.
Poor posture can also cause:
Back or neck pain
Headaches
Trouble breathing
Difficulty walking
Back and neck pain is the most common.
How Do I Improve Poor Posture?
If you have a spinal cord injury or you’ve had surgery to fuse or remove bones in your back, there may be some limitations to your posture improvement.
Otherwise, it’s usually not too late to correct posture, even if you’ve had broken vertebrae (once they’ve healed and your doctor says it’s okay). In that case, we’d try to prevent fractures in other segments of your back. We can’t change bones, but we can change muscle mass.
Exercises to Strengthen and Stretch Key Muscles for Better Posture
Strengthening and stretching the upper back, chest, and core muscles is key to correcting poor posture.
Shoulder strengtheners include scapula squeezes (squeezing your shoulder blades together for 30 seconds at a time) and rows (using a resistance band to pull back your elbows like you’re rowing). Core strengtheners include modified planks (in which you hold a push-up position while propped up on your elbows) or simply tightening your abdominal muscles, pulling your navel in toward your spine.
Simple Stretches and Daily Habits to Improve Posture
An easy way to stretch your chest muscles is to put your arms behind your back, grasp both elbows (or forearms if that’s as far as you can reach), and hold the position.
You’ll also have to work on your posture in everyday activities. A simple trick when you’re sitting (even watching TV): “Put a rolled towel behind your shoulders. It makes you sit up straight so the towel won’t fall,” Doshi suggests.
Cut down on activities that have led to poor posture, too. Take breaks from computer and TV time, and exercise more.
Related Reading
• Is Good Posture Attractive
• What Good Posture Looks Like
• Does Good Posture Make You Taller
• Symptoms of Bad Posture
• Does Running Improve Posture
• Posture Exercises for Seniors
How Long Does It Take to Fix Your Posture?
The time required to fix posture varies depending on the issue’s severity and the consistency of corrective measures. Expect a general timeline of a few weeks to several months for noticeable changes with regular practice. Minor improvements, like reduced tension or better alignment during activities, can be seen relatively quickly. Incorporating daily exercises, stretching routines, and ergonomic adjustments into a long-term lifestyle change will help ensure lasting results.
What to Expect in the First Few Weeks of Posture Correction
As with any habit, it takes time to become accustomed to good posture and make it natural. In the beginning, you should check in on your posture constantly. As time goes on, your body will adapt, and maintaining the correct posture will start to feel familiar, as our bodies are incredibly resilient.
While there isn’t a set timeline for correcting bad posture, many experience improvements within weeks. If correcting your posture takes a few months, don’t get discouraged; everybody is different.
How To Get Your Perfect Spine Back
Getting that perfect spine back isn’t going to be a quick fix. You’ll need consistency, awareness, and dedication — virtues you can develop with this “Every Woman’s Guide to Better Posture in 30 Days.” Over the next 30 days, these movements and exercises will help you:
Loosen up muscles, Increase body awareness, Strengthen your core, and Realign your body’s joints. Save or print out the calendar below to remind yourself what to do. It will cover which exercises to do (these will take up to 8 to 20 minutes of your day) and routine reminders that’ll activate your muscle memory to keep your posture in check long after you master the guide.
Building the Foundation to Great Posture
This week is about learning new poses and exercises and using them to develop an “Awareness Routine.” Learn poses that will help you lengthen your spine and release any tension you have built up over the last few years.
Day 1: Do a Posture Check
Stand against a wall to check your posture. There should be less than 2 inches between the wall and your neck and back. Remember this position throughout the rest of your day, checking in every hour.
According to Dr. Austin Davis of Life Chiropractic SF, awareness is most important regarding posture.
How to Do a Posture Check:
Stand with the back of your head against the wall and place your heels 6 inches from the wall.
Your shoulder blades and butt should be touching the wall.
Measure the space between your neck and the wall and the space between your lower back and the wall.
There should be less than 2 inches between both spaces. A more significant gap indicates impaired posture.
Day 2: Do Child’s Pose
Do 5 minutes of Child’s Pose, morning and night. A child’s Pose helps lengthen and stretch the spine, which is used for reclining after years of bad posture.
How to do Child’s Pose:
Start on your hands and knees, with your knees as far as shoulders, width apart, and big toes touching each other.
Crawl forward on your hands and extend your arms straight out toward the front of the mat. You can also drape your arms on the floor alongside your body.
Slowly start to drop your hips back to rest on your heels.
Rest your forehead on the floor.
Breathe here for 5–10 deep breaths.
Day 3: Add Standing Forward Fold
Start with 2 minutes of Child’s Pose and then practice 30-second intervals of Standing Forward Fold for 4 minutes. This pose deeply stretches the hamstrings and hips and can help release tension in the neck and shoulders.
How to Do Standing Forward Fold:
Start with your feet a hips-distance apart, and bend at the knees to support your body.
Exhale as you bend forward at the hips, lengthening the front of your torso.
Bend your elbows and hold on to each elbow with the opposite hand.
Let the crown of your head hang down.
Press your heels into the floor as you lift your sit bones toward the ceiling.
Pull your shoulders away from your ears and drop your head and neck.
Lengthen your legs until you feel a stretch in the hamstring muscles. Work on engaging your quadriceps to help your hamstring muscles release.
Release deeper into the pose with each exhalation.
Let your head hang as you feel the tension roll out your shoulders and neck.
Day 4: Add Cat-Cow
Follow this stretch sequence in the morning and at night: Hold the active Child’s Pose for 1 minute and the Standing Forward Fold for 2 minutes. Then, do Cat-Cow for 5 minutes. This movement sequence will help increase spinal awareness, a large part of less-than-perfect posture.
How to Do Cat-Cow:
Start on all fours.
Your wrists should be stacked under the elbows, which are stacked under the shoulders.
Keep your fingers spread against the ground for increased stability, and keep your neck neutral.
Begin the cat phase: As you exhale, tuck your tailbone under, using your abdominal muscles to push your spine toward the ceiling, making the shape of a Halloween cat.
Lengthen your neck and allow your head to reach my chest so my ears come down by the biceps.
On the out-breath, “swoop and scoop” the pelvis into the Cow position so your belly is dropped toward the floor.
Lift your chin and chest and gaze up toward the ceiling.
Draw your shoulders away from your ears.
Day 5: Add Chest Stretch
Hold active Child’s Pose for 1 minute, Standing Forward Fold for 2 minutes, and Cat-Cow for 2 minutes. Add 2 minutes of a chest stretch. This is the inverse of how we usually sit at work, so it can help reverse poor alignment and ward off back pain. Do this morning and night.
How to do it:
Start by standing.
If you have joint pain, sit on your butt with your legs stretched out in front of you.
Reach your arms behind you and interlace your fingers below your lower back.
Use a small towel or PVC pipe if your arms don’t reach.
Keep your head neutral and your eyes set straight ahead.
Then, when you’re ready, lift your chest so that your entire trunk elongates toward the ceiling and reach your hands back toward the floor.
Hold this pose for five breaths, then relax and repeat.
Day 6: Add Standing Cat-Cow:
Do 1 minute of active Child’s Pose, 2 minutes of Cat-Cow, and 2 minutes of the chest-opening stretch. Then stand up and do 2 minutes of the Forward Fold before doing 2 minutes of Standing Cat-Cow. The point of Standing Cat-Cow is to activate the back and core muscles differently and to help increase awareness of your back and the rest of your body.
How to Do Standing Cat-Cow:
With your legs hip-width apart, and knees bent, place your hands in front of you or on your thighs for added balance.
Keeping your legs static, begin the cat (upward) phase.
Lengthen your neck and allow your head to reach toward your chest, maintaining alignment with the spine.
On the out-breath, “swoop and scoop” the pelvis into the Cow position.
Hold each pose for five breaths and repeat.
Day 7: Add Chest Stretches Throughout the Day
Repeat yesterday’s routine in the morning and night, but also conduct 2–3 minutes of the chest-opening stretch 3 times throughout the day.
Developing the Routine
Here’s the Awareness Routine you’ll do every morning for week 2:
Awareness Routine 1:
Child’s Pose, Cat-Cow, Standing Forward Fold (swap the Fold for the chest opener on day 11).
The goal for week 2 is to strengthen your core muscles while maintaining posture and spinal awareness.
Day 8: Build Your Core
Before you start your Awareness Routine, do 3 to 5 rounds of high plank (one round equals ten breaths). The high plank requires awareness of the spinal position and engagement of the abdominal muscles, both vital for encouraging posture corrections.
How to Do High Plank:
Start in a pushup position with your arms straight.
Press back through your heels so that the backs of your legs are active, too.
With your elbows underneath your shoulders, create space between your shoulders and ears for a slight stretch.
Ensure your chest isn’t sinking, and keep your shoulder blades back.
Do 3–5 rounds of 10 breaths, counting my breaths.
Day 9: Strengthen Your Back
End the Awareness Routine today with five sets of downward-facing dog (holding for three deep breaths). A downward-facing dog can open the anterior chest wall and shoulders, often rounded with excessive desk work.
How to do it:
Begin on all fours.
Tuck your toes and lift your hips high toward the ceiling.
Reach your heels back toward the mat without allowing them to plank on the ground. Drop your head so that your neck is long.
As you stay here, ensure that your wrist creases stay parallel to the front edge of the mat.
Press into the knuckles of my forefinger and thumbs to alleviate the pressure on my wrists.
Breathe here.
Day 10: Loosen Tight Hips
Finish the Awareness Routine with 5 minutes of Pigeon Pose. This pose helps loosen tight hips and releases tension in the back of the spine and glutes.
How to do pigeon pose:
Begin in Downward-Facing Dog.
Step both feet together and bring your right knee between my hands so that my outer right leg rests on the mat.
Always make sure your left hip points down toward the mat. If it begins opening up toward the ceiling, you should draw my right foot closer to my body.
I can stay here with my hands resting on my right leg or walk my hands out in front of me, allowing my torso to sleep over my right knee.
Hold here. Breathe into any areas of tightness and tension for 3–5 breaths or about 30 seconds.
Then, place my hands on the mat in front of you, tuck my left toes, and step my right foot back.
You’ll now be back in Downward-Facing Dog again. Step my left foot forward and repeat Pigeon on the left side.
Day 11: Maintain Back Awareness
Swap the Standing Forward Fold out of your Awareness Routine for today’s chest opener. Then, when you get to work, set a “movement” reminder alarm to go off on my phone every 20 minutes. Each time the alarm goes off on my phone, I stand up and do 30 seconds to 1 minute of Standing Cat-Cow.
Day 12: Double Up on Core Strength
Plan for a 20-minute workout today—including an extra minute of the Pigeon Pose if your hips are tight. After you’re done, do 10–12 reps of the side plank, hip up, and twists thrice. Strong abs will help support your back so that your back muscles aren’t compensating for your body’s efforts to maintain proper posture.
Day 13: Counteract Work Posture
Make time for the Awareness Routine in the morning and at night. Then, do 2 minutes of chest- and hip-opening stretches during the day. Ideally, I’ll do chest and hip stretches every 2 hours to counteract work posture and keep my upper body alert and aligned.
How to do it:
Start on one knee with my opposite foot planted in front of me.
Ensure your legs are far enough apart that your back leg can be lengthened while your front knee remains stacked directly over your ankle.
Place your hands on your front knee and tuck my tailbone slightly toward the floor to activate my glutes.
When you’re ready to begin, release the hip of your back leg forward and down toward the floor.
Clasp your hands behind your back and reach down toward your back knee, keeping your arms straight.
Lift your heart to open my chest.
Hold for 3 to 5 breaths.
Repeat on the opposite side.
Day 14: Start Standing at Work
Move your laptop or computer to a standing desk or counter. You can also eat lunch and take conference calls or meetings standing up. Another option is to spend 15 minutes of every hour standing. If you don’t have a standing desk or high counter in my office, stack books or a crate on top of my desk to add height.
Making Small Adjustments
Here’s the Awareness Routine I’ll do every morning of week 3:
Awareness Routine 2:
Two minutes Child’s Pose, 1-minute Cat-Cow, 1-minute pigeon pose, 1-minute thoracic spine rotation.
Do this routine every morning and complete other body goals throughout the day.
Day 15: Reduce Stiffness in Your Lower Back
At night, spend 5 minutes doing the thoracic spine rotation exercise. This pose helps improve my torso’s mobility and reduces mid-to-lower back stiffness.
How to do it:
Start by lying on your right side with your fingers spread slightly.
Place your left hand behind your head, but keep your right hand outstretched on the ground before me with my fingers spread.
Rotate your left elbow to the sky while exhaling, stretching the front of your torso. Hold for one deep breath, in and out.
Return to the starting position and repeat for 5–10 breaths.
Switch arms and repeat.
Day 16: Move Every 20 Minutes
You set a “movement” reminder alarm on your phone at work to go off every 20 minutes. Each time the alarm goes off, you stretch for 30 seconds.
Day 17: Try a Beginner Yoga Class
Beginner yoga classes tend to include many poses that can help improve posture, such as:
Camel
Child’s Pose
Cat-Cow
Downward-Facing Dog
Pigeon and other movements
If you haven’t yet done as part of this guide, such as:
Mountain Pose
Bow Pose
Plow Pose
Day 18: Fire Up Your Glutes
Today is about counteracting inactive glutes. When my glutes shut down, it can impact my hips and lead to poor posture. So, set a phone alarm for every hour, and every time the alarm goes off, do 30 seconds of isometric glute squeezes. (You can do these while sitting in my seat, too.) Hold this contraction for 10 seconds and then release. Repeat for 1 minute. These isometric squeezes will help ensure that my glute muscles are firing correctly.
Day 19: Tune Into Your Sitting Posture
For the whole day, set a phone alarm for every 20 minutes. Every time the alarm goes off, check in on your sitting posture. Keep an eye on your feet, which should be placed on the ground—your shoulders, which should be upright. Your neck should be neutral. Your sitting position should be upright, tall, and comfortable. Checking in with yourself and adjusting your posture can help reform neurological patterns. Try to avoid the following:
How to avoid poor posture
Don’t cross your legs.
Don’t slouch or jut your neck forward.
Don’t bend over at the waist.
Day 20: Hold Your Cell Phone at Eye Level When You Use It
Research has shown that looking down at our phones can exacerbate “text neck,” or a neck jutted forward over time. They found that even the slightest tilt, like 15 degrees, can make your 10-pound head feel like 27 pounds. Truly poor posture can turn your head into 60-pound weights, increasing the risk of early wear and tear to your spine.
Day 21: Repeat Day 10
Add 5 minutes of Pigeon Pose at the end of my Awareness Routine for week 1.
Bonus points: Because stress can increase body aches and pains, do one thing that helps me feel less stressed.
Day 22: Maintain Your Core Strength
Begin the morning and night with 6 minutes of Child’s Pose, Cat-Cow, and Pigeon Pose. Repeat the plank workout regimen of day 12; complete four sets instead of three this time.
This week is about maintaining the strength and muscle memory you’ve built over the past few weeks. You’ll be practicing workout routines from the previous weeks but increasing the number of sets.
Day 23: Strengthen Your Glutes
Set a phone alarm for every hour. Whenever the alarm goes off, do 30 seconds of isometric glute squeezes. Hold this contraction for 10 seconds and then release. Repeat for 1 minute.
Day 24: Strengthen Your Shoulders and Back
Set a phone alarm every hour. Whenever the alarm goes off, do 10 seconds of isometric rows in your seat. These isometric rows work my entire shoulder girdle, rhomboids, and crucial postural muscles, which help improve posture.
How to do an isometric row:
Sit straight and then drive your elbow into the seat behind you by squeezing your shoulder blades together.
Hold this contraction for 10 seconds and then release.
Repeat for 1 minute.
Day 25: Go to Another Yoga Class
If you didn’t like the class you went to on day 17, try a beginner yoga class at a new studio. Most studios will offer you a discount if you’re a first-timer; better yet, they let you take your first class for free!
Day 26: Work on Core Strength and Flexibility
Complete five sets of plank workouts from day 12 (instead of 3). After the workout regimen, do 3–5 minutes of thoracic spine rotation and chest- and hip-opener stretches.
Day 27: Strengthen Your Glutes
Do the Awareness Routine for 5–6 minutes. If your abdominal muscles are sore from yesterday’s abdominal workout, spend extra time doing Cat-Cow to help stretch the muscles. When you get to work, repeat the isometric glute contractions throughout the day, every hour for 30 seconds.
Day 28: Spend 35 Percent of My Workday Standing
Aim to stand for 35 percent of your workday.
Bonus points: When in the kitchen, try cutting vegetables and cooking while looking straight ahead rather than hunched over the oven or cutting board.
Day 29: Become More Aware of Your Posture
Relax, stand against the wall, and take a picture. Look to see if your natural position has improved since day 19. Keep your progress in mind as you move throughout the day.
Day 30: Spend 50 Percent of My Workday Standing
You will stand for 50 percent of your workday and evaluate how it feels at the end of the day. You will look into your company’s standing desk policy or consider investing in one for your at-home office.
If you feel 30 days wasn’t enough time to readjust your posture, return to day 16 and repeat the last 2 weeks.
Take Before and After Photos for Proof
“Thirty days can make a real difference in improving posture, because research shows that it takes 3 to 8 weeks to establish a routine. This guide will help me establish a morning, night, and sitting routine that benefits my posture and body as a whole,” says Marina Mangano, founder of Chiro Yoga Flow.
To check in on your progress, remember to take photos on the first and last day for evidence. At the end of these 30 days, your postural muscles should have started to build muscle memory. I should feel more confident and aware of how my back is positioned during work hours, at home, and throughout the day.
Related Reading
• How Can Poor Posture Result in Back Pain?
• How Long Does It Take to Fix Forward Head Posture
• How to Improve Shoulder Posture
• Best Posture for Reading
• Best Sitting Posture on Floor
• Best Posture for Gaming
• Physical Therapy for Posture
8 Tips for Maintaining Good Posture
1. Posture Correction Tip: Keep Up a Regular Exercise Routine
Fixing bad posture requires several minor tweaks to your daily routine. It may seem overwhelming initially, but these changes will soon come naturally. Trust us.
2. Posture Correction Tip: Keep Up a Regular Exercise Routine
Unsurprisingly, a regular exercise routine can help you correct bad posture, as moving your body naturally strengthens and stretches your muscles. It’s essential to focus on exercises targeting the muscles with good posture. These include the muscles of your neck, shoulders, upper back, core, and hips.
Strengthening these muscles can help reduce pain and tension associated with poor posture and improve overall alignment. Stretching is also essential, as it can help release muscle tension and improve your range of motion. Many people with poor posture have tight, overactive muscles that need to be stretched to restore balance to the body. Use resistance bands to help.
3. Posture Correction Tip: Take Breaks to Reduce Your Risk of Poor Posture
Taking breaks during prolonged sitting or standing sessions is a good idea if you’re trying to fix your posture. This is especially important if your job or daily routine involves long hours at a desk or on your feet. Over time, these positions can lead to postural imbalances contributing to poor posture. Regular breaks can help reduce your risk of developing these imbalances.
4. Posture Correction Tip: Be Mindful of Good Posture Habits
You must be mindful of your habits as you work to improve your posture. Poor posture can become second nature over time, so you’ll need to retrain your body to get used to good posture again. To do this, practice good posture when:
Sitting
Standing
Walking
For instance, when sitting, keep your feet flat on the floor, your hips back in the chair, and your knees at or below the level of your hips. The chair should support your back to maintain the natural curve of your spine, and you should avoid slumping or leaning to one side.
Try to distribute your weight evenly between both legs, and avoid locking your knees when standing. When walking, keep your chin parallel to the ground, your ears in line with your shoulders, and your shoulders relaxed.
5. Posture Correction Tip: Set Up an Ergonomic Workstation
Setting up an ergonomic workstation is a brilliant place to start if you want to fix your posture. An ergonomic desk and chair can make maintaining good posture easier while working.
To set up your workstation:
Adjust your chair so your feet rest flat on the floor or a footrest, with your knees at or below the level of your hips.
Your chair should provide support for your lower back.
Use a lumbar roll or cushion if needed to help maintain the natural curve of your spine.
Adjust your desk height so your elbows are at a 90-degree angle, and your wrists aren’t bent when typing.
Your computer monitor should be directly in front of you, with the top of the screen at or below eye level to help you avoid looking up or down at the screen.
6. Posture Correction Tip: Walk in Comfortable Shoes with Insoles
Your choice of shoes can impact your posture and spinal alignment, so it’s wise to select your footwear carefully. High heels are notorious for throwing off the body’s alignment; wearing them frequently can lead to poor posture. Instead, opt for low, wide, or no-heel shoes.
Your shoes should provide adequate support for your arch and cushion the impact of walking. If you have flat feet or high arches, consider using orthotic insoles to help correct any biomechanical issues affecting your posture.
7. Posture Correction Tip: Check Your Mattress and Your Sleeping Posture
Your mattress impacts your posture, especially if you spend a third of your life on it. If your mattress is too firm or soft, it can throw your spine out of alignment and contribute to poor posture. A medium-firm mattress is often the best choice to support the body’s natural contours and promote good spinal alignment. In addition to checking your mattress, evaluate your sleeping position.
The best sleeping position for spinal health is on your back. If you sleep on your side, place a pillow between your knees to reduce pressure on your hips and lower back. Avoid sleeping on your stomach, as this position can twist your neck and throw your spine out of alignment.
8. Posture Correction Tip: Wear a Posture Corrector
If you need an extra boost while working to fix your posture, consider wearing a posture corrector. These devices, which come in various shapes and sizes, can help retrain your body to maintain good posture by gently pulling your shoulders back and aligning your spine.
You can wear a posture corrector while performing daily activities, exercising, or sitting at your desk. Don’t rely on them too heavily. Instead, use them as a tool while you work to strengthen and stretch the muscles that support proper posture.
Related Reading
• How to Fix Forward Head Posture
• How to Fix Posture
• How to Fix Neck Posture
• Exercises for Better Posture
Improve Your Posture with Our Posture Correction App
Fixed postures can interfere with your daily life and well-being, leading to:
Chronic pain
Reduced mobility
Low confidence
Poor posture can negatively impact athletic performance and even reduce productivity at work or school. Naturally, the longer you maintain fixed postures, the more likely you are to develop long-term issues that may require medical intervention.
Correcting your posture can help prevent, reduce, or even eliminate these problems. Improving your alignment will also make you look and feel better, boosting your confidence in social and professional settings.