Like many of us, I work at a desk staring at a computer. Also like many of us, I spend a bunch of my free time staring at a screen I hold in my hand. If you're anything like me & the aforementioned "many of us", years of these habits have not been great for your posture.

As someone for whom both a screen-centric career and physicall wellness are very important, I decided to finally take this seriously and do something about it this year. In doing this, I learned a couple things which I've put into this short post for anyone who might also benefit.

1. Focused exercise

Posture for adults with years of bad posture habits is not just about remembering to "sit up straight". There is real muscle strengthening and retraining that needs to be happening. Posture correction is an intensive process - there are many focused exercises that do different things to help, from shoulder flexibility to neck mobility to upper back strength. Just like getting being able to do 15 pull-ups or bench press 200 pounds, getting good posture should be framed properly as a fitness goal that will take a significant amount of sustained work to achieve.

I won't detail what a posture correction workout plan entails - there are plenty of resources out there for that. Here I'm just calling out that focused exercise exists, and those resources are out there - go look at them.

Another note I'll throw out here is that good posture becomes easier if you have a generally active lifestyle. Yoga, climbing, or other activities where you're moving your head and neck a lot and your arms spend time at or above shoulder level will make the whole process easier. If you don't do thes already, consider fitting them in somewhere.

2. Let ergonomics help

Exercise alone is not enough. You can work out your shoulders & spine all you you want, but if you spend hours hunched over a desk every day, your posture will remain bad.

You'll need to settle into the habit of having good posture. If you've got your desk set up so that you have to look down at your screen, you're making this harder than it needs to be. You don't need to go out and get into standing desks - just take some time to make sure that your chair position and monitor height are such that your head can comfortably look at the monitor while maintaining good posture. Position your chair close enought to the desk so that your elbows can be by your side while you type, rather than out in front of you.

Similarly, when looking at your phone, most of the time we're looking downward. Can you enjoy your phone time in a position that's comfortable while holding the device at eye level, maintaining good posture? This thinking extends to the position of the TV & couch when you're lounging in that setting - maybe comfortably being in good posture involves sitting on cushions on the floor or raising the elevation of the TV.

The answers to all of these will vary depending on your own situation. The important thing is to know that in order to have good posture, you'll need to be in positions of good posture for sustained periods of time. And in order for this to be possible, you'll want it to be comfortable. So do yourself a favor, take some measurements, and make sure that's possible.

3. Practice

Points #1 & #2 are there to help, but really getting good posture comes down to practicing good posture. It'll be uncomfortable & need frequent reminding early on. You'll find youself slipping into bad posture & needing to correct it. You may need to tweak parts of your setup in relation to step #2 over time. Have patience. Acknowledge small victories along the way (30 or even 10 minutes of sustained good posture, holding good posture throughout an entire bus ride - things like that). Remind yourself with sticky notes. Don't give up.

There's a lot of content in each of these points, so if you're going to get started on the path to posture correction, the next steps will be to follow up on each. The exercises will take some time to become habitual and turn into actual changes. The ergonomics piece can be started with a bit of time set aside. The larger journey of going from bad to good posture will take time and consistent practice. Good luck.