10 Easy Exercises to Improve Your Posture (And What to Do When They're Not Enough)

Your shoulders are rounding forward before you even realize it's happening. By mid-afternoon, there's a familiar ache settling into your upper back and a heaviness in your neck that follows you home. The good news: a few intentional movements, done consistently, can genuinely change how your body feels and carries itself through the day.

Poor posture doesn't arrive all at once. It creeps in through long hours at a desk, the neck angled down toward a phone screen, the particular way stress settles into your shoulders during a difficult week. And if you live in Montreal, there's another layer — that instinctive hunch against the November wind that quietly becomes a habit long after the snow melts. Over time, certain muscles grow tight and overworked while others weaken from disuse. The result is a body working against itself: persistent neck tension, low-grade headaches, fatigue that sleep doesn't seem to touch, and a background hum of discomfort that eventually starts to feel normal — even though it isn't.

Picture sitting through a long meeting without needing to shift every few minutes. Walking back from Parc La Fontaine without your lower back making its complaints known. Waking up in the morning feeling like your body actually rested. Better posture isn't just about how you look — it shapes how you breathe, how you digest, how much energy you carry through the day, and how at ease you feel in your own skin. These ten exercises are a genuine, practical path toward that.

The Exercises

1. Chin Tucks

Sit or stand tall with your shoulders relaxed. Gently draw your chin straight back — as though you're trying to make a subtle double chin. Hold for five seconds, release, and repeat 10 to 15 times. This simple movement reactivates the deep cervical flexors, the small muscles at the front of your neck that go quiet after hours of screen time and are essential for keeping your head properly aligned over your spine.

2. Shoulder Blade Squeeze

With your arms relaxed at your sides, squeeze your shoulder blades together as if you're trying to hold a pencil between them. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds and release. Repeat 10 to 15 times. This strengthens the rhomboids and mid-trapezius — the muscles responsible for drawing your shoulders back into healthy, open alignment.

3. Cat-Cow

Start on your hands and knees, wrists under shoulders, knees under hips. Inhale as you let your belly drop toward the floor, lifting your head and tailbone gently (cow). Exhale as you round your spine toward the ceiling, tucking chin and pelvis (cat). Move through 10 to 15 slow cycles. This restores spinal mobility and gently wakes up the muscles along your entire back — a wonderful antidote to a long sedentary day.

4. Chest Opener

Stand with feet hip-width apart and clasp your hands behind your back. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, lift your chest, and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat 3 to 5 times. This counteracts the chronic shortening of the pectoral muscles that affects anyone who types, drives, or carries tension in their chest — which, honestly, describes most of us.

5. Wall Angels

Stand with your back flat against a wall, arms raised to shoulder height with elbows bent at 90 degrees. Slowly slide your arms overhead, keeping your elbows, wrists, and the backs of your hands against the wall the entire time. Lower back down. Repeat 10 to 15 times. This exercise has a way of revealing exactly where your shoulder mobility is restricted — and of building it back, steadily.

6. Thoracic Extension

Sit in a firm chair and place your hands behind your head. Gently arch your upper back over the top edge of the chair, opening your chest toward the ceiling. Return to neutral and repeat 10 to 15 times. The thoracic spine — the middle section of your back — tends to stiffen into a rounded position from prolonged sitting, and this movement directly addresses that pattern.

7. Plank

Get into a push-up position with hands under shoulders, body forming a straight line from head to heels. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute with your core engaged and hips level. The plank builds deep core stability — the kind that quietly supports your spine in every position throughout the day, whether you're sitting, standing, or moving.

8. Bird Dog

From hands and knees, extend your right arm forward and left leg back simultaneously, keeping your spine neutral and hips square. Hold for five seconds, then switch sides. Repeat 10 to 15 times per side. This challenges coordination and activates the deep spinal stabilizers that more isolated exercises often can't reach.

9. Hip Flexor Stretch

Kneel on one knee with the other foot planted in front. Shift your weight gently forward until you feel a stretch along the front of the kneeling hip. Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides. Tight hip flexors tilt the