Why posture during movement matters more than how you sit or stand

By Dana Santas, CNN

(CNN) — If you’ve ever caught yourself slouching at your desk and immediately jerked your shoulders back and straightened your spine, you know the struggle. Within minutes, you’re slumped over again.

Here’s why: Rigid corrections are impossible to maintain because they treat posture like a static position to hold rather than a dynamic skill to train.

Good posture isn’t something you freeze into place — it’s a fluid, balanced and aligned state that you build with proper breathing, strength and mobility.

Why posture-correcting cues backfire

Following the age-old directives to “sit up straight” and “pull your shoulders back” might give the appearance of good posture. However, that approach is not only exhausting and ineffective but can also cause a cascade of problems.

When you force yourself to sit stiffly upright, squeezing your shoulder blades together, you create tension in your mid-back and neck. And to maintain the unnatural illusion of a “straight” spine, people tend to thrust their chests and ribs forward, hyperextending their mid-back and compressing their lower back. The resulting misalignment of the rib cage and pelvis compromise the ability to breathe deeply, hindering diaphragm function and weakening core stability.

Bodies are designed to move, so repeatedly attempting to hold a fixed position that doesn’t support coordinated movement leads to fatigue, stiffness, weakness and even chronic pain.

Posture is a whole-body coordination system

Think about your day. Even if you’re somewhat sedentary, you’re not a mannequin standing or sitting motionless; you’re breathing, bending, reaching, turning, walking, carrying items and more. It’s the coordination of your breath, strength and mobility working together to maintain functional posture that moves you through all the demands of your life.

That’s why, in my work with athletes, I train movement patterns — not static positions. Yankees Major League Baseball All-Star Aaron Judge once told me that after incorporating breathing and mobility work into his training, he felt the impact on his posture immediately. “Not only did I feel freedom in my torso and hips,” he said, “I almost felt like I was maybe a little taller.”

That’s how “good” posture feels. It doesn’t lock you into rigidity — it creates a coordinated alignment that not only frees you to move better but to stand taller naturally.

3 key elements of dynamic posture and how to train them

The following three approaches work together to build dynamic posture:

1. Proper breathing mechanics to create internal support

Your diaphragm, which attaches to both your rib cage and your spine, has two distinct roles: It’s your primary breathing muscle and a crucial postural stabilizer. When you breathe properly, your diaphragm descends on the inhale, creating intra-abdominal pressure that supports your spine from the inside. On the exhale, your deep core muscles engage to control that pressure and maintain spinal position.

When your diaphragm function is compromised, you still have to breathe, so your body compensates by recruiting muscles in your neck, shoulders and chest to lift your rib cage and pull air in instead. Because you can take upward of 23,000 breaths daily, using the wrong muscles to breathe not only creates chronic compensatory tension that undermines your ability to maintain alignment but also limits the diaphragm’s function as a postural support.

Positional breathing exercises, such as the breathing bridge, restore breathing mechanics and rib cage-pelvis alignment. Even simple seated breathing exercises can work in this way. Sitting upright with your feet on the floor, rib cage stacked over your pelvis and your hands on your ribs to monitor their movement, practice five rounds of breathing in a 5-count inhale, 7-count exhale, 3-count pause pattern.

2. Strength that stabilizes without stiffening

Your core isn’t just your abs — it’s a three-dimensional system including your diaphragm, pelvic floor, deep abdominals and the muscles along your spine. Together, they make up a stabilizing system designed to maintain spinal position while your limbs move freely. The muscles surrounding your scapulae or shoulder blades also play a critical role in supporting healthy shoulder position to prevent slumping.

Effective core strength and scapular control provide the foundation for stable upper-body movement — keeping your torso steady while you reach overhead or pull open a door. Try dead bug variations and bird dog exercises, or any other core exercises in which you coordinate breath and movement. Practice planks to train a strong neutral spine position and wall angels to work on shoulder blade movement.

3. Mobility where you need it most

Muscular tension anywhere in your body can lead to compensation somewhere else, but two areas can be particularly problematic for maintaining pain-free, fluid posture: your thoracic spine (mid-back) and your hip flexors (muscles on the front of your hips).

Your thoracic spine needs rotational mobility for everyday movements such as turning to look behind you, reaching across your body or twisting to grab something. When this area is stiff, your neck and lower back compensate to create the movement you need, resulting in tension, pain, instability and increased risk of injury. Build mid-back mobility with exercises that safely train rotation, such as a supine bent-knee block twist or seated spinal twists.

Tight hip flexors pull your pelvis forward into an anterior tilt, forcing your back into an arch that compresses your lumbar spine and stresses low-back muscles. To alleviate this painful tension and restore proper pelvis and spine positioning, practice hip flexor releases such as my three-way hip flexor release or half-kneeling hip flexor stretches with proper pelvic positioning.

Remember, your posture should support all the movements of your life, not just one idealized position. Likewise, you can’t exclusively breathe, strengthen or stretch your way into better posture. The three elements are interdependent — improving one reinforces the others.

For best results, spend time each day practicing exercises from each of the categories above. You can do them on their own or integrate them into warm-ups before your workouts. The exercises take just a few minutes daily, but their impact compounds over time to build an adaptable postural framework that doesn’t need rigid correction.

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