3 Training Principles for Posture Correction
There’s a common misunderstanding around posture that it’s a perfectly repeatable, static position.
It isn’t.
Trying to hold yourself in rigid, “ideal” shapes usually does more harm than good. Posture is dynamic. It’s your ability to maintain strength and stability while moving, carrying load, and dealing with asymmetry.
If you’re a musician, that matters. Playing an instrument is not a symmetrical activity, and your training needs to reflect that.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the basics of planning your training with posture in mind.
Posture 101
The body is complex, but it runs on simple principles.
Every muscle that holds you up on one side is balanced by another pulling from the opposite side. These opposing pairs act like levers. Without that balance, movement falls apart.
If you have postural issues (most people do), it’s because this balance has drifted.
Typically:
Some muscles become short, tight, and stuck “on”
Others become lengthened, weaker, and poorly recruited
The nervous system plays a big role here. Muscles don’t just need length and strength. They need the right level of neural drive.
Think of posture like a set of scales. You’re trying to balance tension and activation, not force everything into place.
Finding Your Starting Point
Posture work can get complicated quickly.
The simplest place to start is with a postural assessment.
This usually involves comparing how you stand and move against what’s known as the anatomical position. It’s not a perfect model, but it gives you a reference point for structuring training.
You can learn to do this yourself, or you can work with someone who knows what to look for.
Either way, guessing is rarely effective.
3 Training Principles for Posture Correction
Most people stop at “strengthen the weak stuff and stretch the tight stuff”.
That helps, but on its own, it doesn’t last.
Posture isn’t about holding still. It’s about maintaining alignment through movement. That means training in a way that reflects how your body actually works.
Here are three principles that matter.
1. Move Away from Bilateral Training
Traditional gym training is dominated by bilateral lifts.
Back squats. Two-arm presses. Machines that lock you into symmetrical patterns.
These have their place, especially for strength and hypertrophy. But they don’t do much for posture on their own.
If posture is the goal, spend more time training unilaterally.
Split squats instead of back squats.
Single-leg hinges instead of bilateral RDLs.
Half-kneeling, single-arm presses instead of machines.
Unilateral training forces the body to recruit stabilisers that often switch off during symmetrical lifts.
This is one reason kettlebells work so well. Early kettlebell training is mostly single-bell work, which naturally biases unilateral loading without overthinking it.
Build a base here, then layer heavier bilateral work back in later.
2. Rethink Your Training Split
Body-part splits don’t work well for posture.
Chest day, back day, leg day might build muscle, but they don’t help rebalance the system.
A more useful approach is an anterior/posterior split.
Most modern posture issues share a pattern:
Tight, overactive muscles on the front of the body
Weaker, lengthened muscles on the back
Rounded shoulders. Forward head. Limited hip extension. Knees drifting in. Feet turned out.
Training around this reality makes sense.
That means:
Mobilising and lengthening the anterior chain
Strengthening the posterior chain
Think wall angels, deep isometrics, and hip flexor work paired with rows, hinges, bridges, swings, and external shoulder rotation.
Structure it simply:
Training twice a week: one anterior-focused, one posterior-focused
Three times a week: one of each plus a rotational session
Four times a week: two of each with rotation layered in
3. Train Multiple Planes of Motion
Most people only move forward and backwards.
Life doesn’t.
Posture improves when you train across all three planes:
Sagittal (forward–back)
Frontal (side–side)
Transverse (rotation)
Frontal-plane work improves lateral stability and control.
Rotational work links hips and shoulders and often frees up a stiff back.
Include anti-rotation work too. Pallof presses, overhead variations, and single-leg versions are all useful.
When you combine unilateral training with multi-plane movement, posture starts to look after itself.
That’s it.
