Good posture can reduce low back pain and headaches and increase energy levels, circulation, and digestion. It also helps to improve our core strength and diminish the tension in our shoulders and neck.

There are many points where we can benefit from having a good posture, and skydiving is no different. In this article, I will share a few exercises and tools that we can use to improve our posture and give extra help to our body while jumping.

The connection between skydiving and good posture

Since I started skydiving, the athletes with a more significant learning curve have a strong core. They usually are people that work a lot with their balance. I’ve seen excellent climbers and dancers doing very well in skydiving. However, this list can go on to the people who practice slackline, yoga, pole dance, parkour, etc.

The question I asked myself many times was, what they all have in common? The answer is the strong core. All those guys use their core a lot to keep balance.

Good posture can improve your core and also reduce the tension on the shoulders and neck. These two things are my biggest issue when I’m skydiving. Now we will find out how to help ourselves have a better and healthier day at the drop zone.

What is Good Posture?

Good posture occurs when the body’s muscles support the skeleton in a stable and energy-efficient alignment. Because posture is all about muscular strength on the skeleton, the best fix is training those muscles to support our body back into its natural alignment.

Posture Exercises

Every time I start working on exercises to improve my posture, it feels awkward. It happens at first because our body has become used to sitting and standing in a particular way. However, with a little practice, a great posture will become natural. 

Mostly every day, I try to warm up. If I’m going to skydive, I’ll do it at the drop zone. If I can’t skydiving that day, I do it in my living room. This good habit helps me be ready for anything that can occur during my day and have a better mindset.

Reduce low back pain

Bridges can strengthen your lower back and engage your gluteal and abdominal muscles (great for that angle jump, right?). When we are used to it, our body will rely on them instead of stressing our lower back.

Fewer headaches

When we have a bad posture, we are contributing to tension headaches. Thus, if we correct our posture, we can reduce muscle tension and headaches.

The exercise that helps us with our neck muscles is a head retraction exercise. This exercise strengthens the neck muscles that are often weak and stretched out.

I’m always warming up my neck before jumping. I believe it saved me from an injure when I had a terrible canopy opening.

Increase energy levels

Dr. Griffith explains that “when we have our bones and joints in correct alignment, it allows the muscles to be used as they’re intended so that we will have less fatigue and more energy.”

Twisting our torso to activate our side abs is a great way to increase our core strength and give us more support when sitting, standing, or flying.

Improved core and scapular strength

Before going into the wind tunnel to fly my session, I try to warm up. A good exercise that I learned from a chiropractor in Utah was to engage my back muscles with an overhead arm raise.

Jeff Cavaliere M.S.P.T., C.S.C.S. explain how to fix shoulder pain and Impingement. Jeff show in this video some exercises that I’ve been doing since I started flying more often in the wind tunnel. I recommend everyone those exercises. They help me a lot!

Posture Corrector

Thanks to our daily activities, maintaining good posture is more challenging than ever. But we can use posture correctors that will help us out.

Evoke Pro A300 Posture Corrector is an excellent option if you are looking for a traditional tool to correct your posture. It fits under clothes without being noticeable.

If you need physical therapy, please find a doctor to help you. Also, we want to note that a posture corrector alone often isn’t enough to correct chronic issues.

Keep coming back

I have a great surprise writing this article. I didn’t know that so many of the exercises that I do to relieve tension and warm up my neck, shoulders, and back are the same physiotherapists use to correct posture. I hope you find this article relevant and helpful. If you have more exercises, please leave a message below and share it with others.

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