The good news? You can limit some of that damage by strengthening the muscles that keep you upright.
(Photo: Chest press: Igor Suka/Getty; Design: Ayana Underwood/Canva)
Published August 5, 2025 03:00AM
You may have rolled your eyes as a teen when an adult told you to “stand up straight” or “stop hunching your shoulders,” but they had a good point: poor posture can lead to misalignment, muscle and joint pain, decreased range of motion, and limited movement function.
Everyday activities like driving, typing, and hunching over your phone can lead to a shortening and tightening of the muscles in the front of your upper body, like your pectorals, which become overused.
The good news? You can limit some of that damage and strengthen the muscles that keep you upright.
Building your chest muscles, the pectoralis major and minor, not only helps you perform everyday activities like pushing open a heavy door or lifting heavy packages from your front doorstep, but it also improves your shoulder stability and helps you maintain good posture when standing or sitting.
Perform the tri-set below as a circuit (doing one set of each exercise back-to-back with about 90 seconds rest in between) or by doing all three to four sets of each exercise before moving on to the next. Challenge yourself with a heavy weight: when you reach the end of your set, you should feel like you could do just one or two more with good form before reaching failure.
You can also make any of these movements more challenging by slowing down the tempo of the lowering phase or adding a pause at the bottom (for the shoulder taps, you can add a three to five-second pause while one hand is touching the opposite shoulder).
1. Dumbbell Squeeze Press
- Grab a heavy set of dumbbells and sit on the end of a bench holding the ends of the dumbbells vertically in your hip crease.
- Keeping your feet flat on the floor, lie back and bring the weights to rest horizontally on your chest.
- Squeeze the weights together and press them straight up.
- Pause at the top, then slowly lower the weights back to your chest.
- Keep squeezing the dumbbells together throughout the entire movement.
2. Plank with Shoulder Taps
- Begin in a high plank position with your arms straight and your wrists stacked directly below your shoulders. You can spread your feet about shoulder-width apart for better stability.
- Your body should make a straight line from your head to your heels. (Keep your head and neck neutral and avoid dropping your head down or craning your neck up.)
- Engage your core, squeeze your glutes, and lift your left hand off the floor. Bend your elbow and reach your hand across your torso to tap your right shoulder.
- Return your left hand to its starting position and do the same movement with your right hand.
- Continue alternating for the entire set.
3. Chest Fly
- Grab a heavy set of dumbbells and sit on the end of a bench holding the ends of the dumbbells vertically in your hip crease.
- Keeping your feet flat on the floor, lie back and keep the weights close to your chest.
- Press the weights straight up over your chest and keep them close together to get into your starting position.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells out to your sides, keeping a bend in your elbows.
- Once the dumbbells reach chest height, pause, then return to your starting position with your arms straight and the dumbbells above your chest.
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