3 Easy Ways to Look Younger and Feel Better by Improving Your Posture

Posture. It's something we all have to do. It comes with the territory when you have a body with a skeleton and muscles.

These days, there have never been more reasons to have poor posture. We're constantly looking at a screen. It rounds your shoulders and causes you to hunch over.

This posture is perfectly terrible for you. Besides the obvious problems of putting strain in all the wrong places on your back, you also have the psychological side to deal with. Your body is making a shape that looks a lot like shrinking in your space. It's the opposite of a Superman pose

Proper posture makes you look better and feel better. When you slouch, you're giving your body feedback that says you're unhappy. Standing with good posture sends the right kind of signals to your brain that you're relaxed, confident, and present.

Here are 3 easy ways to look younger and feel better by improving your posture.

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1. Exercises

Now, admittedly, this takes the most effort but it will also achieve the same results. As somebody more famous than me once said, you can't get the new results you want by doing the same old thing. Changing up your routine to include exercises to improve your posture is a guaranteed way to improve things.

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2. A Back Brace

This sounds extreme, and for some it will be. But look at it. It's no big deal. And if you have a sense of humor, you can pretend that you're really wearing a gun holster.

What the back brace does is hold your body in the correct position. If you go this route, work up to being able to wear it for long periods of time. Start with 10 minutes and increase 5 minutes or so per day until your muscles don't fatigue easily when held in the right place.

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3. Kinesiology tape

You may already be familiar with Kinesiology tape. If you're not, think back to the Olympics when you saw various athletes walking around with colorful tape on their arms and legs. Oftentimes the tape was applied in a really unique way that followed the natural curve of the muscle it was supporting.

The easiest thing you can do to improve your posture is to pick up a roll of Kinesiology tape (I believe Dick's Sporting Goods sells a roll for under $4) and have somebody apply a big X of it across your back. Apply it from one shoulder to the bottom of the opposite rib cage area, in a crossed fashion. This will act as a proprioceptive, input for the body which allows you to consciously pay attention to what posture your body is in.

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This way, you get some mental reinforcement to be aware of your posture without forcing your muscles into position. It's a great, easy, low-cost way to become more aware of your posture so you can work on it throughout the day.