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The Fit and Fab Blog: Look Instantly Taller

Posted by Simon Anderson for Fitness - Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:37

 I want to be honest now - how's your hump? Have a good look at your posture and tell me if you're more hunched over than Quasimodo. If you're sitting down reading this, have think about how you're sitting - can you see the back of your arms you're slouching so far? If you answered yes, then know you're not alone. What, with all the typing, driving and general sitting us humans do ,it's very easy for the shoulders to slump and your posture to round. Time to fix that with 5 sure fire tips! Sit tall and read on!


1. Stretch your Pecs

Tight pectoral (chest) muscles pull your shoulders forward, so to combat that tightness get busy stretching. By opening up the chest, it can increase the range of motion through your shoulders and allow you to pull them back further. How do you that?

Stand in doorway and raise your left arm up to shoulder height, placing your hand on to the door. Slowly turn your body away from your hand until you feel a stretch through your chest and hold for 20 seconds. Repeat on the right side. This is a great stretch and should be done as many times as you can throughout the day.

2. Strengthen your Back

So you've loosened up through the chest, now we gotta pull your shoulders back by firing up those muscles at the rear. If you go to a gym, then a seated row and lat pulldown machine are the ones for you. If not, try the Cobra, you can do this at home.

Lie on the floor, stomach down with your arms along the side of your body. Now pull your shoulders back slowly and think about squeezing through the middle part of your back to do it. Hold for 5 seconds each repetition and do 10 in a set. Once you can do these well, start to lift your chest up and off the floor as well, that's the cobra.

3. Over the Ball extension

This one's a doozy! It'll help stretch out through your abdominal muscles, and decompress up your vertebrae that have been all bunched up together due to the power of gravity.

Grab a Swiss Ball and take a seat on with your feet apart for balance. Slowly walk forward til you're lying over the ball and it's supporting your lower and upper back. Now, stretch over the ball. If you're real clever, try to get your hands on the floor. You'll look like the Arc De Triomphe if you're doing it well.

4. Every 30 mins, take a moment to stretch and unwind

This one will help get you into a routine that fights the tight. If you work at a desk and on a computer, then set up some system that reminds you every thirty minutes to stop, pull back from the desk and open up the chest, it could be a little shoulder roll or a stand up stretch. Heck, go nuts and if you have a Swiss ball nearby, then do the over the ball extension thing. Whatever it takes to get you going the other way from where you going before. Which was hunched

5. When you can stand

All this sitting ain't making us pretty, so the last tip is to get up whenever you can and stand on your feet. Gotta make a phone call, then stand up and stretch your hamstrings and chest. Seriously, get up! You gotta do it. Not only will it help pull everything back into place, but standing burns a lot more energy than sitting, so get up Australia to get skinny! Stand tall, don't slouch and enjoy the view from up high.

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