This article written by Contributing Writer Chris Lopez.

My mom used to tell me all the time…

My dad used to affectionately slap me on the back of the head each time I wasn’t aware…

It’s seen as a lack of self-confidence…

And yet most of us still do it…

We stand in line at the ATM, or while talking to the other dads at our kid’s soccer game or when we’re sitting at our desk in the office. No matter where we are, our posture is terrible!

Posture is one of those things that, if not paid any attention to, can really start to affect our health later on in life. Poor posture can be attributed mainly to what we do everyday and living what I like to call an “anterior dominant” life.

Anterior Dominance just means that we do most of our daily activities in front of us (driving, writing, eating, conversing, working/typing). This results in the muscles in front of our body becoming tight and overworked causing our shoulders and neck to creep forward and up and our chests to “cave in.”

It also doesn’t help that when we go to the gym the first thing we concentrate on are our “mirror” muscles. We lay down on the bench press to work our chest, pump our biceps until they scream for mercy and then crunch our way forward to feel a burn in our abs. Doing all of that doesn’t get us in better shape or make us look better. It just makes our lives harder because we’re over taxing our already tight anterior muscles taking us further away from Brad Pitt and bringing us closer to Quasimodo (the Hunchback of Notre Dame).

So what to do then?

First, we eliminate the barbell bench press altogether. Bench pressing was great when we were in high school and college when we played football and wanted to impress girls. But now, unless you’re a busy dad who’s an offensive lineman by profession, it just isn’t necessary. In fact, the majority of the population doesn’t even know how to bench properly for it to be a safe exercise. Instead, limit your “pushing” exercises to just push-ups and variations of push-ups. And believe me, if you do push-ups correctly, you’ll stop feeling like they’re just for high school PE class and guys in the military. Most of the programs that I write for busy dads don’t include any type of pressing with external weight because we’re already tight in our chest and shoulders.

Next comes the conscious part of daily life. It’s important for us to be aware that we have bad posture and do all we can to consciously correct it. Walking with our shoulders back, standing “tall,” sitting with our backs straight – these are all things that we can do everyday to correct our posture. It may feel weird at first and you may feel like you’re trying to overexpose your chest like you’re Superman, but it only feels weird because you’ve probably been hunched over for so long.

Finally, we need to concentrate our exercise efforts on the areas that are the most neglected. First, we need to work our abs and spinal erectors (the muscles in your back that help keep your spine upright) the way they’re meant to be worked – not by moving them but by trying our darnest to keep them still while we move limbs around them. Most of you have seen this video before about a basic ab workout…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJSbSHutTLE

Then, we need to concentrate on those smaller muscles in our upper back that oppose all the tight ones in front of us. I like to use this circuit 3-4 times per week to help keep my posture right…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCMNMHBY1Dk

I think the take home message is that paying attention to your posture should be as much a part of everyday as eating breakfast (you DO eat breakfast, right?).

By “self-correcting” our posture, we’re allowing ourselves to breathe better. We give off the appearance of being muscular and confident. And we give the illusion of adding an inch or 2 to our height. And these, as we know, are all the great attributes that we need to be intimidating when we answer the door knowing that our daughter’s first date is waiting on the other side.

Chris Lopez is a Contributing Writer for Discovering Dad.  His personal site is Fit and Busy Dad Blog. You can also follow him on Twitter @fitandbusydad.

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