Peterson Training

Posture Program Week 3: Engage the Core!

Do you have a stiff or painful low back? Chances are, you are not engaging through your core enough to support it!

Our core should ALWAYS be engaged while our spine is upright. This doesn't have to be flexing for the cameras, engaged. Just a gentle, ~10% engagement in the abdominals does the trick.

Keeping our core engaged properly puts our pelvis in a neutral position, which then keeps our low back neutral. When our low back Is not neutral, it is likely over-extended, which creates low back pain as well as compensations up the spine resulting in rounded shoulders.

Check out the video below on how to properly do Dead Bugs - my favorite core exercise to train a neutral spine!

Posture Program Week 2: Hip Extension with Glute Bridges!

I cannot overstate enough how important strong glutes are in general, but especially when it comes to our posture. Do you ever notice you or others stooped over or with their hips behind them? That's due to a lack of glute strength to bring them into full hip extension.

The glutes are the largest(!) muscle in our body, yet are so underutilized. They are massively important to pelvic stabilization, low back support, support for the hips and knees, and so much more. My favorite exercise to practice and strengthen hip extension is with a glute bridge (shown in the video). It's simple, easy to do, and has so many variations to suit anyone's abilities.

Let's get those hips FULLY extended underneath us so we can keep that back upright! Give the glute bridges a try and let me know what you think.