Poor Posture Stretches

I know I  have terrible posture.  I can feel it when I sit and walk, and I can see it if there's a mirror in sight (or if there are pictures taken!).  I hate it.  I always forget to hold myself up properly, which sucks.  I'm barely 5', so every inch counts!  When I hold my myself taller, I also miraculously seem to lose 5 pounds!  Ever notice that?  You belly appears to lose inches, your arms looks thinner and your neck looks longer.  Well I happened to fall across a yoga stretch that is said to help your posture and guess what?!  The other day my mom said my posture looked better!  It takes all of 2 minutes to complete.  Something I can definitely afford to fit into my day! :))

It's a simple combination of a forward bend and and backward bend.  I do this once a day, and I repeat it 4 times.

1. Take a hand towel with hands positioned at each end, and stand with your feet hip with apart, your toes pointing forward
2. While inhaling, bring arms straight up above your head, shoulders down.   Arch your back backwards while exhaling (like a halfmoon backbend), keeping your chin up.
3. Inhale while coming back up and bring your hands behind your butt.  Exhale while bending forward (knees slightly bent), and bringing arms up and perpendicular to your back, keeping your arms straight.  
4. Come back up with an inhale.  Breath, and repeat!

Happy posture correcting! :)