Things You'll Need:
- Resistance bands
- Comfortable clothes
-
Step 1
Warm up. You will get the most benefit from any resistance exercise if you have fully warmed up prior to starting. Get on the elliptical or treadmill or walk briskly around the block before starting.
-
Step 2
Extend your arms directly in front of your shoulders and hold the resistance band. You don't need to hold the ends but hold the band so that there is excess dangling on either side. If there are handles, you can ignore them for this exercise.
-
Step 3
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and focus on your posture. Keep your abs and glutes tight and imagine a string pulling the top of your head up off of your shoulders.
-
Step 4
Extend your arms laterally out, as if you're a bird beginning to flap your wings, but don't extend past your shoulders. Do this gently and slowly--this exercise sneaks up on you--and slowly and gently return your hands to the starting position. Modify where you're holding the band if it's too difficult to extend outward the first time. Repeat 10 or 15 times for two to three sets. You'll feel a slow burn at the base of your neck as the exercise increases in repetitions. These are your postural muscles strengthening to keep you tall and straight.
-
Step 5
Stretch by dropping the band and dropping your head and shoulders forward.
